Dance Collection Danse distributes several publications and DVDs that are useful in an educational setting. Browse the list below to see how our resources may be useful to educators.
Express Dance: Educators’ Resource for Teaching Dance
By Allen Kaeja, Karen Kaeja and Carol Oriold
The curriculum often asks teachers with no dance experience to guide students through creating their own movement phrases and dances – but where to start? Express Dance helps educators guide students through the process of developing their own movements and movement phrases, and then combining phrases to create a dance.
Recommended for teachers of grades 4-12 or post-secondary students taking dance for non-majors
Form Without Formula
By Patricia Beatty
Created by Toronto Dance Theatre co-founder Patricia Beatty, Form Without Formula guides students and artists through the choreographic process.
Recommended for grades 9-12, post-secondary and conservatory dance students
Ryman’s Cecchetti Dictionary
By Rhonda Ryman
Rhonda Ryman is a respected notator and educator and an expert in the Vagonova, Cecchetti and Royal Academy of Dancing methods of teaching ballet. Her Cecchetti dictionary provides useful definitions for ballet terminology.
Recommended for grades 9-12, post-secondary and conservatory dance students
Betty Oliphant: The Artistry of Teaching
By Nadia Potts, DanceForms illustrations by Rhonda Ryman
Nadia Potts worked with National Ballet School founding principal Betty Oliphant to record exercises from a series of her classes. The book includes complete lesson guides for 5 classes, including specific exercises for boys, and is uniquely illustrated using figures from the DanceForms computer technology.
Recommended for grades 10-12, post-secondary, conservatory dance students and teacher-training programs
BOOKS ON DANCE HISTORY
Encyclopedia of Theatre Dance in Canada
Edited by Susan Macpherson
The first bilingual encyclopedia of dance in Canada, this is a valuable reference tool for all dance students covering a range of artists from across the 20th century and across the country.
Recommended for grades 6-12, post-secondary, graduate and conservatory dance students
Canadian Dance: Visions and Stories
Edited by Selma Landen Odom and Mary Jane Warner
This useful anthology is valuable for any course on Canadian dance history as it covers a variety of dance artists and events from different eras and parts of the country.
Recommended for grades 9-12, post-secondary, graduate and conservatory dance students
Renegade Bodies: Canadian Dance in the 1970s
Edited by Allana Lindgren and Kaija Pepper
This anthology provides a series of articles that look in-depth at causes, effects and events of the 1970s dance boom in Canada, including a series of articles about the founding of university dance programs in Canada.
Recommended for post-secondary and graduate students
DVDs
This series captures seminal Canadian dance works from the 1980s and includes photo galleries, a teachers’ guide and interviews with director Moze Mossanen recorded in 2011 when the series was re-released on DVD.
Recommended for grades 9-12, post-secondary and conservatory dance students
Footnotes: The Classics of Ballet with Frank Augustyn
Hosted by former National Ballet of Canada principal dancer Frank Augustyn, this series uses interviews and film clips to look at a range of classical ballets and major movements in the history of classical ballet.
Recommended for grades 9-12, post-secondary and conservatory dance students
Freedom with Robert Desrosiers
The Freedom series provides a candid behind-the-scenes look at the creative process as renowned choreographer Robert Desrosiers enters the studios of cutting-edge choreographers across Canada.
Recommended for grades 9-12, post-secondary, graduate and conservatory dance students
Celia Franca: Tour de Force and A Dancer’s Story
Directed by filmmaker and former National Ballet of Canada principal dancer Veronica Tennant, these complementary documentaries are a must for any course on Canadian dance history as they capture the story of the National Ballet of Canada.
Recommended for grades 7-12, post-secondary and conservatory dance students
In 1983, under the banner ENCORE! ENCORE!, research was begun into choreographies created by Canadian dance artists working in the 1940s and 1950s for the purposes of preserving their works through reconstruction, notation, videotape and photography. (READ MORE)
Home to the best in Canadian dance books (biographies, reference, cultural history, educational resources) and DVDs, ShopDCD is also where you can search and download free issues of the longest-running dance magazine dedicated solely to Canadian dance history. (READ MORE)
DCD simply could not do what it does without the support of its team of volunteers. If you love dance, and have the time and energy, we could use your help. Whether its hands-on with the collection or front and centre at a live event, there are many ways to make a difference. Fill out the form HERE and start today!
Dance Collection Danse would like to acknowledge that the land on which we work is the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, the Anishnaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Métis, and the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. It has been a site of human activity, including dance, for at least 15,000 years and we are grateful to all the caretakers, both recorded and unrecorded, of this land and of Turtle Island. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and dance in the community, on this territory.