ROCKING THE BOAT
Celebrating Queer Content in Canadian Concert Dance

Performance art, cabaret and burlesque are accepted arenas for expression of queer themes through movement; but what about the more conventional world of dance performance? Illustrating examples from the past 30 years, Rocking the Boat, curated by Pamela Grundy, celebrates overtly themed dances along with their trailblazing creators. Culled from public and private archives, this exhibition of video, photos, programs, publicity postcards and choreographic notes serves to illuminate an under-documented segment of Canadian dance.

This virtual exhibit is inspired by the exhibit Rocking the Boat: Celebrating Queer Content in Canadian Concert Dance produced by Dance Collection Danse and held at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives from Nov. 22, 2013 to Apr. 1, 2014.

Mouse-over the links on the left to view more content.

Photo: William Douglas in Anima (1990) - Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

ROCKING THE BOAT
Celebrating Queer Content in Canadian Concert Dance

Performance art, cabaret and burlesque are accepted arenas for expression of queer themes through movement; but what about the more conventional world of dance performance? Illustrating examples from the past 30 years, Rocking the Boat, curated by Pamela Grundy, celebrates overtly themed dances along with their trailblazing creators. Culled from public and private archives, this exhibition of video, photos, programs, publicity postcards and choreographic notes serves to illuminate an under-documented segment of Canadian dance.

This virtual exhibit is inspired by the exhibit Rocking the Boat: Celebrating Queer Content in Canadian Concert Dance produced by Dance Collection Danse and held at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives from Nov. 22, 2013 to Apr. 1, 2014.

Mouse-over the links on the left to view more content.

Photo: William Douglas in Anima (1990) - Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

MEET THE NAVY

Dance Collection Danse celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Navy with an exhibit about the World War ll naval review Meet the Navy featuring images and audio from dancer Blanche Lund who, with her husband Alan Lund, was a featured dancer in the cast. The Lunds became household names in the 1950s with their work on CBC variety television. Alan went on to be the longest-serving artistic director of the Charlottetown Festival.

This exhibit displays photographs from the DCD Blanche Lund Electronic Archives as well as a “Meet the Navy” souvenir program from the DCD Flea Market Collection. A couple of photos also come from the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo. Audio clips are from an interview with Blanche Lund conducted by Amanda Hancox and Sheila McCarthy, performers who, early in their careers, had worked with the Lunds at the Charlottetown Festival.

Alan Lund and Blanche Harris, known professionally as Lee and Sandra, 1939
Photo: Blanche Lund Electronic Archives

DIAGHILEV'S BALLETS RUSSES

May 19, 2009 marked the 100th anniversary of the debut performance of Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Dance Collection Danse is celebrated this occasion with a gallery of images from our archives that relate to Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and the subsequent Ballets Russes companies that followed with their own debuts in the 1930s.

Various portfolios in the DCD archives contain Ballets Russes programs, photographs, newspaper and magazine clippings, and flyers. The Rosemary Deveson and Nesta Toumine portfolios include letters to home written while touring with various Ballets Russes companies in the 1930s. They provide great insight into the intrigues, politics and exhausting work of being a Ballets Russes dancer. DCD also houses over 100 drawings of Ballets Russes dancers by Canadian artist Grant Macdonald.

Photo: Cover of The Dance magazine featuring Anna Pavlowa, January 1929

DANCING THROUGH TIME
Toronto’s Dance History 1900-1980

Dancing Through Time: Toronto's Dance History 1900-1980 explored the development of the city's dance scene from influential touring artists to vaudevillians to the ballet and modern dance booms to the diversity of dance forms present in the city. It featured costumes, photographs, playbills, souvenir programs, posters, designs, and more.

Running in the summer of 2011, this live exhibit was presented by the Market Gallery and curated by Amy Bowring of Dance Collection Danse.

The online exhibition gives you a glimpse of the live installation and includes footage of the speeches and performances at the gala opening, as well as a special video created to commemorate DCD's 25th anniversary.

Note: Quicktime is required to view the videos

VINCENT WARREN: A PERSONAL COLLECTION
Celebrated Through the Photography of Michael Slobodian

Vincent Warren is a man who has devoted his entire life to dance. It's easy to throw around a phrase like that but there are few who have so thoroughly filled their lives with every aspect of dance: performance, study, teaching and mentorship, writing and collecting.

Vincent Warren's Montreal apartment, which hosted so many dancers and dance professionals over the decades, was a little museum in itself - its shelves lined with books, photographs, statuettes and memorabilia; its walls adorned by paintings, posters and 8x10s given to Vincent by friends and colleagues over a lifetime in dance. In 2013, Vincent had to move from his apartment. Dance Collection Danse sent renowned photographer Michael Slobodian to record a moment in history, a life in dance … a personal collection.

Photo: Vincent Warren, Montreal, 2013 / Photo by Michael Slobodian

IN MEMORIAM

It is DCD's custom to bring context to the Canadian dance story and when important members from the community pass away, we do our best to celebrate their place in our history.

There are currently two entries in this section of the site. Click on the links below to view the pages.

GRANT STRATE

BRIAN MACDONALD

Photo: Grant Strate, 2002 / Photo by Chris Randle

ROYAL WINNIPEG BALLET ALUMNI

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet Alumni Association was formed in 1989 with Margaret (Hample) Piasecki as its Founding Director. The RWB's 50th anniversary brought together generations of dancers and seeing each other after many years apart prompted a group to keep the lines of communication open for all those who had danced with the company. The Association's headquarters are housed in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet building in Winnipeg. The Association's goals are to continue communication among the alumni, support the activities of the company and school, and maintain the company's history.

This gallery is an extension of the Encyclopedia of Theatre Dance in Canada/Encyclopédie de la Danse Théâtrale au Canada project. The entries here were submitted by the individual members. In future years we hope to include other groups on the DCD web site.

Photo: Royal Winnipeg Ballet on tour c. 1954

MAUD ALLAN
AN EDWARDIAN SENSATIOn

Maud Allan’s story reads like a modern-day tabloid … filled with libel suits, murder and tempestuous love affairs. At the height of her career, Maud was a dance sensation in Edwardian London where she was the face of collectors’ items ranging from cigarette silks to coffee tins. She was a contemporary of the forerunners of modern dance: Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis, but is the least known of this group of revolutionary dance artists. She attained international stardom through her tasteful “dance interpretations”, which she cleverly contrasted with the daring costume she wore in her chef d’œuvre The Vision of Salomé. Women adorned their clothing with beads to imitate the spectacular garment, and newspapers praised the famed “Salomé dancer” for her grace and elegance. As with any public infatuation, however, her success was short-lived. Within two years of her sensational 1908 London debut, Maud’s career began to crumble and she experienced the humiliating fall from international acclaim into obscurity.

Photo: Maud Allan posing in her costume for The Vision of Salomé / Foulsham & Banfield postcard, c. 1908 / Maud Allan Collection, Dance Collection Danse

VINCENT WARREN: UNE COLLECTION PERSONNELLE
UNE CELEBRATION EN PHOTOGRAPHIE PAR Michael Slobodian

Vincent Warren consacre toute sa vie à la danse. Si l’on parle communément de « vie consacrée », peu ont un parcours aussi exhaustif que Warren, touchant à tous les aspects de la forme d’art : spectacle, étude, enseignement, mentorat, rédaction et collection. Sa quête insatiable pour le savoir sur la danse a produit un héritage hors du commun.

L’appartement de Warren à Montréal, qui a accueilli nombre de danseurs et de professionnels depuis les années, était un petit musée en soi – les étagères remplies de livres, de photographies, de statuettes et de souvenirs, et les murs couverts de peintures, d’affiches et de clichés 8x10 donnés à l’artiste par ses amis et collègues au cours de sa vie en danse. En 2013, Warren a dû quitter son appartement. Dance Collection Danse y a envoyé le photographe Michael Slobodian pour documenter un moment historique, une vie en danse… une collection personnelle.

Photo: Vincent Warren, Montreal, 2013 / Photo by Michael Slobodian