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continued on page 2
Small 'C' Contemporary
Dance CentralA Dance Centre Publication
Jai Govinda has for many years danced, choreographed and presented
bharata natyam Indian classical dance, in the context of his company, Man-
dala Arts and through his annual Gait to the Spirit Festival. Trained originally
at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in his native Quebec City and in Montreal,
he went on to train as a bharata natyam dancer in India and has been per-
forming, choreographing and teaching in Vancouver for the past thirty years.
AK: I am interested in exploring how notions of contemporaneity are reflect-
ed in different artistic communities. Whose definition takes precedence, how
does the language valorize some practices and exclude others, especially
when the concept becomes a defining trope of eligibility for certain kinds of
institutional funding?
JG: This idea of the 'contemporary' is quite muddy now, because Western
dance in Canada developed at the beginning mainly through the classical
form — Celia Franca who founded the National Ballet of Canada, Ludmilla
Chiriaeff, and a few other people, side by side with the movement of Expres-
sion Corporelle, a form of physical expression outside of classical ballet.
There were pioneers like Jeanne Renauld, and then Martha Graham appeared,
which gave rise to a new term: Modern Dance. 'Modern' is not use anymore,
except to designate a type of technique such as Graham or Limón, but you
don't see it on grant applications. You do see the term 'contemporary'.
Now, is contemporary a noun or an adjective? If it is a noun, strictly speaking
the work that has been called contemporary doesn't belong, because it was
done twenty five years ago, and if you present one of those 'contemporary'
pieces today it will have lost its stature, its appeal, its momentum. If you see
a Martha Graham piece now, it is like watching an old tableau. It lacks what
it did at the time, when it revolutionized the way we were moving. Today,
these are just part of the established vocabulary, so the work now looks old
rather than contemporary. But if the intent is to refer to work that is fresh,
and of today, how can we change this fixed idea of the 'contemporary'? I find
myself getting caught, because there is no other terminology. In Montreal, for
example, they have started to call it Danse Actuelle, but that, too, is a trap:
After all, my form of dance is just as 'actuelle'. For me, 'contemporary' means
what is of today, a work whose ideology, mind, and action are relevant to the
world we are in.
A conversation with Jai Govinda
Content
Small 'C' Contemporary:A conversation with Jai Govinda.Page 1
Thinking Bodies: A conversation with Amber Funk Barton. Page 6
CO : LAB: A research process for composers choreographers and performers.Page 11
Dance Calendar March/April 2013Page 18
March/April 2013
2 D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3
Welcome to the March/April 2013 issue of Dance Central.
Welcome to the March/April issue of Dance Central. The
issue appears a little later than usual, in part because it
has grown to eighteen pages, and in part because we
had hoped to run a piece about The Gathering before
the Vancouver International Dance Festival, but could
not overcome the scheduling issues. We are aiming to
include a conversation with Jay Hirabayashi about The
Gathering in the May/June issue.
This issue focuses on transitions, in the context of three
experiences: There is a conversation with Jai Govinda
about the term 'contemporary', how it applies to a prac-
tice such Indian classical dance, and the challenges of
defining one's work in the framework of language that
locates contemporaneity exclusively in one context.
The 'Thinking Bodies' series features a portrait of Amber
Funk Barton, who describes her experience of living and
working in a transitional phase—between performance
and choreography, between generational divides, and
between curiosities.
The third feature of this issue presents reflections on a
project titled CO:LAB that took place at Scotiabank
Dance Centre in December 2012, as a joint project
between The Dance Centre and the Canadian Music
Centre, and brought together a group of choreographers,
dancers, composers and musicians for a week-long
exploration of the collaborative process.
As always, Dance Central welcomes new writing and
project ideas at any time, in order to continue to make it
a more vital link to the community. Please send material
by mail to [email protected]. or call us at
604.606.6416. We look forward to the conversation!
Andreas Kahre, Editor
continued from cover
AK: That word has come to be defined by what it excludes rather
than includes: Non-ballet, non 'ethnic', It even excludes forms that
are much more 'of the now', such as hip hop; there is a similiar
distinction in composition, for example, where 'contemporary' links
back to Bartok and the Vienna School but knows nothing of Rap.
Where do you fit in?
JG: The fact that I am a French Canadian living in English Canada,
teaching an Indian classical dance form is in itself a contemporary
situation, which you would not have seen twenty years ago. It is
totally new, but is it large 'C' 'contemporary'? What is contemporary
ballet? As far as I am concerned, all ballet companies are contem-
porary if they present new work by contemporary choreographers,
even if their main vocabulary is classical ballet. They are contempo-
rary even if they re-mount classical works, because the staging and
flair of the dancers will be of today, and so an old work can become
very much alive
The funders use the terminology to create categories that don't re-
flect contemporary dance practice. When you apply for grants, you
are asked to define your work: Is it classical ballet? Is it contempo-
rary? Or is it 'ethnic'? More recently, they have begun to break the
'ethnic' category into subgroups like 'Classical Indian Dance' and
'Flamenco' etc. but I think the term contemporary has to go. In my
work, for example, I am using an old language, but the way I now
choreograph it, stage it, and set it to music is totally different from
the way I was doing it even five years ago.
We all evolve, we see new creation; there is a beat, and it keeps
progressing, even if the language we use has a history. It is the
same in 'non-ethnic' dance: If you look at most of the dance com-
panies of today that are not ballet, — I won't call them contempo-
rary, because I know they don't call themselves that—if you look at
artists like Crystal Pite, Wen Wei, Marie Chouinard, Édouard Lock—
are not only using elements of the ballet vocabulary, but the main
training expected of their dancers is ballet. Are these companies
still contemporary? Are they making contemporary ballet? What
defines this?
Music is another example; the lines between Rock, Country, and
Pop are very permeable. People cross over all the time, and when
they achieve success in the charts, they become a Pop artist.
A conversation with Jai Govinda
Small 'C'Contemporary
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 3
continued on page 5
AK: How have these divisions affected your own work?
JG: I am constantly creating choreography and new dance
work, but in the context of Indian classical dance, which means
that it is not eligible for support by Canada Council as 'contem-
porary' work. This is a shame, because I have so many ideas,
and I would want to do it properly, but the resources required
to mount a big production for a three-night run are difficult
to find. So the way I can be creatively involved now is mainly
through my festival, Gait to the Spirit, which is now in its fourth
year, and where I get to curate and present new work.
There are schools of Indian classical dance in the city, who
mainly teach old choreography, that was learned from their
teacher thirty years ago, but all of my choreography is created
today, with the musicians present. I choose text and melody,
we set it up together, we change and adapt it, and we create
contemporary choreography. Our young dancers are bright,
with an intelligence beyond the dancers of years ago.
When I was doing Indian classical dance, some people called
me 'Santa Claus' because I had bells on my feet. They could
not understand why a French Canadian guy was doing this,
except perhaps because it was my 'Eastern Philosophy Phase'.
They did not realize that I had gone into it so deeply that even
in India I was recognized as one of the top dancers in the field.
When they heard this, they asked: "Did Indian people mind that
you are Caucasian?" In fact, none of the reviews of my per-
formances in India referred to me as a Caucasian. What was
extraordinary to them was that I was a male dancer. There were
no male dancers when I started in Indian classical dance. Now
they are everywhere, but at the time, dancing as a guy, not in
womens' garb, not effeminately, I was a pioneer. I removed half
the jewelry, used the stage, set decor and music differently, and
what shook them was that I knew the form. They knew I wasn't
a Westerner doing it superficially, but that I had a real ground-
ing and wanted to move forward from that. That was con-
temporary and new for them. India also had an anti-classical
movement, one whose pioneers was Chandralekha Prabhudas
Patel (1928 – 2006). Chandralekha worked with Pina Bausch,
yet all the dancers she used were trained by the purest, even
archaic school of bharata natyam and she did something totally
different with them. People threw stones at her, and at the
same time, many were attracted to her work, because she was
successful. If you work in theatre or dance, you have start with
what you have.
Next:
Dance Central May/June 2013
The Gathering and Beyond: a conversation with Jay Hirabayashi
Thinking Bodies: Byron Chief Moon
Designing Dance: Lighting
and more...
4 D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3
Dance CentralThe Dance CentreScotiabank Dance CentreLevel 6, 677 Davie StreetVancouver BC V6B 2G6T 604.606.6400 F [email protected]
Dance Central is published every two months by The Dance Centre for its members and for the dance community. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent Dance Central or The Dance Centre. The editor reserves the right to edit for clarity or length, or to meet house requirements.
Editor Andreas KahreCopy Editor Hilary Maxwell
Contributors to this issue:Jai Govinda, Amber Funk Barton, Mirna Zagar
Dance Centre Board MembersChair Andrea WinkVice Chair Gavin RyanSecretary Ingrid M. TsuiTreasurer Roman Goldmann
Directors Barbara Bourget Susan ElliottMargaret Grenier Stephanie HungerfordAnndraya T. Luui Josh MartinSimone Orlando Jordan Thomson
Dance Foundation Board MembersChair Michael WeltersSecretary Anndraya T. LuuiTreasurer Jennifer ChungDirectors Santa Aloi, Linda Blankstein, Grant Strate
Dance Centre Staff:Executive Director Mirna ZagarProgramming Coordinator Raquel AlvaroMarketing Manager Heather BrayServices Administrator Anne DaroussinDevelopment Director Sheri UrquhartTechnical Director Cass Turner Accountant Lil ForcadeMember Services Coordinator Hilary Maxwell
The Dance Centre is BC's primary resource centre for the dance profession and the public. The activities of The Dance Centre are made possible by numerous individuals. Many thanks to our members, volunteers, communi-ty peers, board of directors and the public for your ongoing commitment to dance in BC. Your suggestions and feedback are always welcome. The operations of The Dance Centre are supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council, and the City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural Affairs.
I have just returned from another one of my (frequent, I
admit) travels to Europe where, despite the ongoing financial
crisis, an amazing level of artistic activity continues to take
place. At the same time, many European governments (not
unlike our own) continue to treat the arts as if to wage war
against their own cultural identity: The Dutch government
describes art as a hobby for the lefties, in France the recent
reshuffle in the cultural scene threatens to make insignifi-
cant what has until recently enjoyed international acclaim,
and Belgian separatists would like to expunge Flemish art
from the national discourse, and on and on.
There are some small signs of hope, such as the Austrian
government's commitment to support touring of Austrian
artists within the EU, and even here, in BC, where we re-
cently learned of an announcement of significant new (or is
that newly restored?) funding to the arts. We are pleased to
hear this, but our gratitude is tempered by the fact that, even
with this increase, we will not reach anything near what had
been in place before the savage cuts to the cultural sector
three years ago, and what we irretrievably have lost since
then, in talent and in infrastructure. Elections, however, have
a marvellous effect on the attention span of politicians, and
as we get closer to the day, perhaps we should all remember
the value of our support and ask more pointedly what each
candidate and party is really prepared to do about sustain-
able funding for the arts.
Closer to home, March and April are full of dance offerings
as we welcome the Vancouver International Dance Festival,
and especially The Gathering, a coming together of artists
From the Executive Director
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 5
From the Executive Director
working in Non-Western dance forms which offers a
platform for in-depth dialogue to find solutions to better
position the works of these and all artists. It serves as
an example that the themes discussed in the context of
an event like The Gathering, focused on issues related
to culturally diverse dance practitioners, affect all of the
dance community: Audience development, marketing,
funding, touring, presentation opportunities, and hope-
fully the dialogue will grow to hold the entire community
in awareness of each others differences, similarities and
shared goals.
In that spirit, International Dance Day which takes place
at the end of April, provides the dance community with
an opportunity to come together in a united way to show
its strength and diversity, and to present the value and
contributions of dance to the well-being of society –
whether it allows the community to engage in dance
for fun, to experience something new, to be active, or to
offer a deeper experience through the engagement of
dance as an ancient and contemporary artform. If you
wish to be an Ambassador for the art of dance, or if you
would like to get involved in the BC celebration of dance
during National Dance Week and International Dance
Day, please contact us, or simply come an join us for
the many dance events on offer during this time.
Mirna Zagar, Executive Director
Small 'C' Contemporary
At his point, there are many movements in dance in India that
are moving away from the classical root, because they have
been exposed to modern dance teachers, to audiovisual media
and so on. Thirty years ago they started with classical dance
because that was all they had. Now they have exposure to ballet,
to modern dance, some have travelled, taken workshops and
have brought new information back, so they are different. This is
contemporaneity, and it will happen in any field, unless you are
deliberately remounting previous work to show your history.
I would really like to see the 'contemporary' category disappear,
especially from grant applications, because it creates an implica-
tion that those of us who work in a 'non-contemporary' form are
not creating contemporary work.
AK: If 'contemporary' is used to describe a conceptual trope
rather than to characterize an approach to one's work, does it
become especially problematic for dance defined in the funding
grid as 'ethnic'?
JG: Yes, especially if it means that I must do bharata natyam
in black leather pants with a video behind me to appear con-
temporary. But the same is true for ballet. For example, Emily
Molnar is really trying to set her company apart from other ballet
companies in the country by pushing those boundaries, but still
it is very much a ballet company. It is not a contemporary dance
company—or is it?
AK: There is an analogous situation in music, especially as it
concerns 'contemporary opera' which is suspended between the
tradition of operatic vocal styles and a contemporary composi-
tional idiom. Capital 'C' contemporary music, similiar to con-
temporary dance, inhabits a historical space, which is anything
but contemporary at this point, but it continues to dominate the
language. As with dance, people in Quebec have been using the
term Musique Actuelle, but it refers to a specific form that com-
bines improvisation with through-composed music, and doesn't
define what actuelle actually means—except to those who are
immersed in the ongoing development of the form.
JG: The frame of reference is critical: I would not want to call
what I do 'Contemporary bharata natyam'. I think putting the
two words together would give people the wrong idea. They
continued from page 3
continued on page 16
looking for the subtle dance.
6 D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 Photo Credit: Steve Wylie
every single day. But when we travel, we walk a lot every day,
eight, nine hours sometimes, and we are active in a differ-
ent way. Travel forces you to live a different life. When you
create, you are so 'in it' that you sometimes can't see what is
not working—especially when you are performing your own
work. You don't always have the time to question or step
outside. I have learned to know what works for me, and how
to be creative, but I love these periods when I have to wait
before taking the next step. I do what I call 'stewing': I think, I
visualize, I rehearse it in my head. I listen to the music before
I go to sleep and that results in dreaming about it. Sometimes
I have woken up with phrases of choreography in my mind. It
becomes an internal process
AK: I first became aware of you about ten years ago, when
you appeared in series like 12 Minutes Max. Since then, you
have appeared all over Vancouver as a performer, started
your own company, and the last time we met you were a col-
laborator in a theatre project with Horseshoes and Handgre-
nades, so your artistic range has clearly grown. What is the
mix between performance, choreography and other work
now?
AFB: I feel that I am in a transition period. Around 2010, when
I turned 30, I realized I had been performing continually for
ten years, and I realized how exhausted I was. Until then, I
had always wanted to choreograph side by side with being a
performer. Now I feel like I would like choreography to take
over. I love creating dance, and I feel that is what I am sup-
posed to do. When I am in the studio with dancers, I just love
it. My company is entering its fifth year; it is going slowly, but
that is how I want it now. When I worked mainly a performer,
I pushed myself, for a number of years. Now, in this transi-
tion, I am happy to take my time to really develop my skills as
a choreographer, which is a title I really respect and want to
earn. I want to be as versatile as I can, and eventually I would
like my company to be a more full time occupation. Right now
I feel I lead a 50/50 life, where half the time is spent on my
company, creating, and the other half is as a performer.
looking for the subtle dance.
AK: You have been out of town?
AFB: My husband and I went to Nepal, India, Bangkok, Myanmar,
Laos, the Philippines, and finally to Japan. We travel every year,
and every year the trips get a little longer and more exotic. This
is something we have long wanted to do, and I have become
addicted to travel. It doesn't have be exotic, but to get a different
perspective is great, personally and artistically, and the physical
separation from the city really helps.
AK: Do you think about your choreographic work at all when you
are on the road?
AFB: Surprisingly often, yes. I am in the middle of a creation
project, and after a month I started receiving images, or con-
nection between sections that began to make sense to me. We
have to do a work–in–progress showing this summer, and while
I travel I begin to visualize with the music what I might do. I start
working mentally, and I make notes.
AK: Do you seek out dance when you are travelling?
AFB: Usually I don't. When I am in those areas of the world,
I look for art in other ways. I am inspired by architecture,
museums, visual art, and by daily life. It is interesting to me
what behaviours and gestures are universally human. My
husband loves photography, and we both try to capture images
of people. I try to take advantage of the subtle art that I wouldn't
necessarily seek out here.
AK: When you say "subtle" art, what are you thinking of?
AFB: For me, subtle art is what I find in observing people; I am
fascinated by their gestures and how they act. When you are
travelling you see how we all do the same things— but differ-
ently. We all get up and have breakfast, but wherever you are,
it is different. I find that refreshing, and I rejoice in it. I also find
that when I travel now, I enjoy and need the physical rest for my
body. When I was younger I would freak out if I didn't go to class
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 7
THINKING BODIES | Portraits
A conversation with Amber Funk Barton
Photo Credit: Steve Wylie
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 8
AK: Where are you performing nowadays?
AFB: For the past two years, I have been working with Dana
Gingras and her company Animals of Distinction. She is cur-
rently based out of Montreal, so I have been going back and
forth a lot to work with her. I like the distinction it has given me:
When I am in Montreal, it is clear that I am a performer, and
when I come home, it is clear that I am running my company.
AK: Does working as a performer for another choreographer
influence the decisions you make about your own work?
AFB: Sometimes you don't plan it that way, but you can't help
being informed by other people. Especially the people who
excite and inspire you; it's only natural. All the people I have
been working with have been very supportive, and there are
always discussions between us. I have learned so much from
Dana, and I know it has affected my dance making. I love to be
exposed to different ideas and ways of working and to what I
call 'formulas of creation'. When I am in Montreal, the city and
the festivals I have gone to there give me a different sensation
of dance and what is possible.
AK: When you choreograph, do you improvise to generate
material or do you use more formal strategies?
AFB: Eventually I would like choreography to take over. Right
now, it is a little bit of both. For the last two pieces, I gave the
dancers tasks to improvise from, but recently I have been re-
turning to making steps and saying: "This is the music and these
are the steps." I want to try to find out what each dancer, each
person has to offer, and I am curious to understand what makes
them who they are, in order to marry my movement with their
sensibility. During the last workshop, I filmed myself improvis-
ing and asked the dancers to pick material from that source. I
have also used the technique of creating eight or nine simple
steps, and asking them to use all, some or none as a source,
which means that there is a collaborative process, but I am
generating the source movement. It is a mixture and trial and
error, but right now I am going back to setting movement.
AK: Do you work from music, from a conceptual frame, from
the space, or from something completely different?
AFB: Each piece has been different until now. My first full-
length piece, and a couple of others started with the music as
the main driving force. For the last two projects I have gone
back to motion and character ideas. At one point I was
afraid that the music was in control and dictated everything,
which might mean that the movement, if it depended so
much on the music, might not be valid without it. So the last
two pieces have come from movement—movement that
is functional and not necessarily recognizable as 'steps', i.e.
Chassé, Pas de bourrée and Pirouette, but is movement that
becomes just energy in space. I don't always want to have
recognizable dance steps, but I want a fusion between the
throughline that ballet technique gives, and the grounded-
ness of urban sensibility, and I want something functional:
Go from here to there in a leap.
AK: You use ballet language to describe movement. You
trained at Goh ballet?
AFB: Yes, I was all about ballet. I did Goh ballet very seriously
in the half-day program in Grade 11 and 12, from there I went
to Arts Umbrella and did their graduate program, I did the
mentor program at Ballet BC and thought I was going to be
in contemporary Ballet, but then I started working immedi-
ately, with Joe Laughlin and with Judith Marcuse. I saw Joe's
work at the Banff centre when I was fifteen, and it was as if a
light bulb went off in my head, and I said: "That's what I want
to do, I want to be a choreographer. I want to make move-
ment that is imaginative and big an bold and musical, and
functional, and connects viscerally." That has always stuck
with me.
AK: When you look for performers for the response., do you
look for people with a ballet background?
AFB: Being trained in several forms is definitely an asset. In
the beginning stages of creating my first full-length piece, I
found incredibly talented dancers that could do everything.
I was working with Josh Beamish and Shay Kuebler and Josh
Martin who were ready to give anything. It was a great gift.
As the work progressed, I also got to work with David Ray-
mond, as well as Heather Laura Gray, who also has an eclec-
tic background of acting and dance. For my last piece, I went
more into contemporary modern. The women I worked with
were willing to try anything and extremely supportive.
I really like to work with people who look like people on
stage, because I want the audience to be able to see them-
selves on stage. I also came from a very diverse background.
Even though I was a super-bunhead, I took Jazz and hiphop
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 9
"This is the music, and these are the steps..."
classes, and at while I tried to connect to the classical move-
ment, which I love and respect, I never felt I was being myself;
I was also trying to be someone else. When I found modern
dance—I was fifteen and at the Banff Centre, doing, of all things,
Graham technique which isn't necessarily everyone's favourite,
I felt "this is it." It made sense, I could do the movement, it felt
easy and natural, and from there on I knew. I love ballet, but
there is a part of me that was not connecting, and when I was
doing modern or jazz the shoe just fit.
A lot of creation is me dealing with my identity.As I was training, I could do various things well, but I didn't think
I fit into any one of them. I did ballet and teachers said: "It's too
jazzy", Then I did Jazz and they said: " It's too ballet, too clean...."
That is also where creation started for me: Trying to create a
place for myself, rather than fitting into a definition. Now, when
I teach or give lectures, I really believe in not labeling artists. I
experienced being labeled, and I don't think that is positive for
kids. It's not fair, not allowing the child or the artist to pursue
their own path. I did take it to heart, and I didn't want to teach
for a long time because I knew that what you say makes an
impression and sticks with people. It can determine their self
worth. At the end of the day, I think it is steps and choreography,
and strengths and weaknesses. For example, I would never con-
sider myself a hip hop dancer but the way I can get out of the
feeling that I am not good at it, is to just focus on the fact that I
am learning steps.
AK: I remember that when I first saw you dance, I was struck by
how comfortable you were on the floor. That is not usually the
first thing you associate with someone who comes from ballet.
AFB: Yes, the floor and I are friends. The floor makes sense to
me, Maybe it addresses some subconscious aspect of myself?
Last year I created a solo for 10x10x10, much of which came
from a day when I just didn't want to get up from the floor. I
have been told by my dancers that my floor work can be chal-
lenging, but I never felt that way. Another aspect of my work that
falls outside the ballet frame is that I find dance can be
very presentational and frontal, which I want to question,
and so I try to think of changing the direction of 'front', and
as a creator and performer it helps me change my brain.
AK: It reads to the audience, I believe. The first few times
I saw your dances, I was struck by the variety of facings,
with many more three-quarter views, and backs and
sides and bums than I would have expected if you had
been aiming to present to the fourth wall.
AFB: I try to challenge whatever appears to be the most
obvious. I like to refer to Jonathan Burrows' A Choreog-
raphers Handbook, which is a fascinating collection of
notes and questions to which there are no right or wrong
answers, but challenges what I call templates of creation.
Somewhere in your brain you have registered the suc-
cessful formula and try to copy it. I want to be conscious
when I am making a decision that it is what I want to
make, rather than to emulate. So in my studio notebook
it sometimes says, in capital letters, " What are you trying
to say?" For me, the answer is often to find less. I love
technical and complicated movement, but the satisfac-
tion lies in images, moments and looks, and so much of
the work is taking away, until these are what is left. For
example, I like the focus on a hand gesture, which can get
lost in the gloriousness of space in the theatre. That is an-
other reason why I am interested in pursuing professional
development as a choreographer in film, where the subtle
moment that I love can be the center.
AK: If you hadn't turned out to be a dancer, what would
you have done?
AFB: I never thought I would dance professionally, but
ever since I was thirteen or fourteen years old, I knew I
wanted to be a choreographer. I didn't really think about
anything else since I started dancing when I was three,
and only now am I thinking about different careers, and
while I want to make dance and run my company I have
all sorts of other fantasies.
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 1 0
continued from page 9
AK: Do you work with outside eyes?
I always ask trusted peers to have a look when I feel I
can share the work. For my last piece I decided to ask Joe
Laughlin to act as a mentor, because it was the first time that
I wasn't in the work myself, but usually it is less formal and
I ask dancers from my peer group. I try to have a rehearsal
director if I am dancing in my own work.
AK: In working with Joe, do you experience yourself as part
of a community with 'gaps' between generations, or are the
layers permeable?
AFB: A few years ago I would have said "there is no gen-
eration gap", but now, as I transition into mid-career as
performer, I really feel it, and see what is happening to my
peers, both younger and older. But I don't think that those
levels are thwarting anyone, and everyone is gracious and
approachable in my experience. I remember reading recently
that we should have three mentors: One who is of the same
age so you can talk about what is going on now, one who
is five years older, so can you can see what's coming, and
someone who is established so they can give you a wider
picture. I am also aware as I get older that I have to pace my-
self more. I get injured more easily, and I feel the wear and
tear of the past years, but when I was younger I was quite
scared; I couldn't imagine not dancing, but now that I'm here,
I think I'm okay with it. I love the stage I am at right now as a
performer. I have worked with a lot of people and am happy
and satisfied with what I have experienced as a dancer, so if
something happened tomorrow that meant I couldn't dance
any more, I would be sad, but I would be able to make peace
with that. Not everybody feels like that when they are in
transition time. I am lucky.
AK: How do you adapt to the physical changes?
AFB: I like to dance hard, so now I am trying to train specifi-
cally for the work I am involved in. I cross-train. I do yoga,
which has really saved my body, and cardio-training at the
gym. The dancing I do now as a performer means I have
to train more parallel lines, and if I am doing contemporary
modern virtuosic work, I kick it up a notch at ballet class.
Everything is different, and I am learning to work in different
ways, but I like it.
AK: Do you have a sense of where things might be going in
the next five years?
I am trying to figure that out right now. It could be more of
the same, with more focus on working as a choreographer,
but there is something about film that I also want to actively
pursue. I might like to take a film directing course, work with
actors more, explore theatre.
AK: I noticed you have become part of a theatre project with
Horsehoes and Handgrenades Theatre.
AFB: That was very exciting. I like to experience different ways
of working, and I think I would like the challenge of being in
a play, learning lines, being a character. I like to challenge
myself, and I have reached the point where it is time to think
about something new and creative.
AK: What is the new piece that you are working on?
AFB: It will be a full length work that premieres in the Spring
of 2014 with six dancers, including myself, in a kind of post-
apocalyptic setting. Last year was all research, and this year
we are workshopping the idea, and we will be showing an
excerpt as a work–in–progress at the Dancing on the Edge
Festival this summer. Next year, and leading up to the pre-
miere, we will have another work in progress showing at the
Shadbolt Centre, when we focus on the production aspect
of the work. I like creating complete experiences, which is
something I learned from Lola MacLaughlin. She created
these worlds where everything was on the same level: The
movement was as important as the lighting, the set design
was as important as the sound, it was all one piece of art. That
is something I would like to do: To create a dance show, that
is also the experience of a world that connects with people,
that offers crazy imaginative experiences, and lets me having
fun with my imagination. The current working title is The Art
of Stealing. I'm interested in the physical act of theft itself but
also in a greater unseen, anonymous force that steals from
us-the stealing of your time, your money, your energy, your
health, so I'm hoping to create movement that essentially
breaks down and a force that drains the world I'm creating.
We'll make sweet moves and then we'll see...
AK: Thank you!
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 1 1
A Laboratory for Collaborators
CO:LABA joint project by The Dance Centre and the Canadian Music Centre, CO:LAB was
a ‘collaborative laboratory’ where six choreographers and six composers came
together for a week in December of 2012, to explore the possibilities of a contem-
porary interdisciplinary creative process. The concept of CO:LAB was to provide
an opportunity for artists to share, challenge and surprise each other creatively,
provoking new ideas and opening dialogue without the pressure of a final pro-
duction. CO:LAB was led by facilitator/directors Martha Carter, John Korsrud and
Lee Su-Feh.
Composers: Christopher Reiche, Adam Hill, Viviane Houle, Michael Park, Dorothy
Chang Bortolussi, Edward Henderson
Choreographers: Barbara Bourget, Paras Terezakis, Daelik, Deanna Peters, Troy
McLaughlin, Julianne Chapple, Carolyn Chan
Musicians: Timothy Van Cleave, Stefan Smulovitz, Dory Hayley, Lisa Miller, Ron
Samworth, 'Joseph Pepe Danza'.
Dancers: Laura Avery, Elissa Hanson, Jennifer McLeish-Lewis, Molly McDermott,
Michelle Lui, Lisa Ho, Paul Almeida
'Speed Dating' at CO:LAB. This and all following photos: A. Kahre
D a n c e C e n t r a l S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 4 3
Collaboration is perhaps both the most commonplace and
the most elusive form of practice, and one that has to be
re-invented with each new project and configuration of
collaborators. No two collaborations are alike, and neither
are the expectations with which artists seem to enter into
them, even if the formal framework is well established.
Between dance and music, forms of collaboration range
all the way from the strictly hierarchical to the radically
collective, and every conceivable model in between. The
objective of CO:LAB was to open a space for both discus-
sion and experimentation between artists. The concept
grew in part out of 10x10x10, a project between The
Dance Centre and the Canadian Music Centre, which had
brought together ten teams of composers and choreogra-
phers to create a series of ten-minute works which were
presented at Scotiabank Dance Centre in October of 2011.
With CO:LAB, the intent was to focus on the collaborative
process itself, while removing the pressure of having to
think of creating a 'product', and to provide the resources
for three groups of collaborators to devote several days to
the experiment. The result was an extraordinary week at
Scotiabank Dance Centre, and the beginning of an ongo-
ing and valuable dialogue among the participants.
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 1 2
While dance and music have been connected from their very
origins, collaborations between choreographers and compos-
ers continue to take on new forms, as styles, working meth-
ods and technologies change in both practices, and as each
project constitutes a unique dialogue between the forms. In
the case of CO:LAB, the frame for the experiment included
both composers and musicians, choreographers and dancers,
and a group of facilitators/directors, who recombined each
day into three groups that shared a studio space each.
Following the evening reception and a talk by Merran Smith,
the first day began with a 'speed dating session' followed by
a group discussion about the process of collaboration itself.
It was noticeable from the introductions how wide a range of
practices were represented, in both disciplines, with partici-
pants ranging from artists who worked mainly in a classical
idiom, to those who were primarily improvisers— and several
whose creative range encompassed both, and more.
The question posed at the beginning was: What is the collab-
orative process? How does it function in relation to creative
work within each discipline, what are the conditions it re-
quires and imposes, and how does an open-ended collabora-
tion differ from the process of creating a product?
D a n c e C e n t r a l S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 4 3
Each day was going to be devoted to exploring these ques-
tions in practice, in a shared process that would begin with
a new configuration of collaborators and end with a 'shar-
ing' of the results, in whatever form they had taken over
the course of the day. In the first discussion of the process
with all the participants it quickly became apparent how
much the participants' experience of previous collabora-
tions has been shaped by the need to create a product, and
how challenging it is to navigate a creative space outside of
that goal. There was evident enthusiasm for the experiment,
along with questions about the ways in which it would be
structured.
The three groups that formed, each with two choreog-
raphers and composers, as well as a four musicians and
dancers, went to separate studios and began the process of
finding source material. It was interesting to observe how
differently each artist reacted to the propositions that were
made. In a group that used a set of magazine images to
explore ideas of character and narrative, for example, the
composer made it clear that visual material did not work
for him as a source of inspiration. The discussion that en-
sued was fascinating as it explored various ways of finding
source material related to the musical and the kinetic realm,
and how it could be transmitted or shared.
Another group began with a series of improvisations that
literally connected the musical and the physical dimension
by 'playing the body' as a percussive instrument. In some
instances, composers worked with musicians as co-cre-
ators, while others composed and shaped material as they
would in a classical context. Percussion played an impor-
tant role in two of the groups, augmented by tap dancing in
one instance, and some groups abandoned instruments for
completely vocal scores.
Movement creation similarly ranged from structured im-
provisation to setting repeatable steps. Since the groups
were quite large, the studios could quickly become noisy
and somewhat chaotic, but they were also for the most part
filled with a palpable enthusiasm for the process. Some
groups, working collectively set themselves to working
with tasks, and involved the 'audiences' at the end of the
day in organizing the material, for example by memorizing
'snapshots' that would be recreated when their 'number'
was called. Directors in some instances worked with theatre
game structures, props, and spatial motifs such as loops,
which in turn gave rise to discussions between collabora-
tors about the role of iterative, repeating structures in their
respective disciplines.
"In this process, we are looking
for an epiphany"
Barbara Bourget
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 1 3
D a n c e C e n t r a l S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 4 3
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 1 4
The facilitator/director's personality strongly influenced
the creative flavour of each studio, which ranged from the
methodical and restrained to the cheerfully anarchic, and as
the groups reconfigured each day, these styles of directing
asserted themselves anew, along with an observable differ-
ence in how the directors shaped the relationship between
movement and music.
In some sessions, one shared space was negotiated by all
the participants, while in others, space exploded in simul-
taneous and overlapping activities. One group, began the
creation process with large sheets of paper which evolved
into a landscape of ideas that found their way onto the walls,
the windows, and the instruments, while two floors down,
a slow unison movement sequence was carefully devised
and crafted into a finished form accompanied by a through-
composed piece of Japanese Shakuhachi flute music.
Some studio spaces reverberated with sound and move-
ment shared across large distances, while others gathered
around a tightly compacted collective working in direct
physical contact. There were moments of shared impro-
visation and exuberant play, as well as sometimes difficult
discussions that focused on the tension between roles, the
complexities of having more than one composer working at
"Can you dance in the same space-without dancing together?"Ron Samworth
D a n c e C e n t r a l S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 4 3
the same time, the expectations related to 'outcome', and
the degree to which a collaborative process shifts agency
from outcome to process, and thus demands the skills and
openness to accept and shape an 'incomplete' structure,
both as the starting point and possibly as the result.
All collaborations pose questions: How is power divided
and shared, what elements and forms take precedence and
why, and how does the framing of the process inform its
results? Ideally, these questions are related to the content of
the work, and lead to greater mutual understanding and re-
spect between the partners in the collaboration. But as with
any other intimate relationship, the rewards are commensu-
rate with the degree to which we invest ourselves and leave
behind the 'script'. In the arts, failure is not always allowed
to be an option, and success can be habit-forming, which
sometimes translates into the type of working relationship
that masquerades as a collaboration, when it can in fact be
a form of instrumentalizing another's work.
Removing the 'deliverables', as CO:LAB did, therefore opens
a realm where old reflexes can be allowed to retire, and it
showed, in a kind of fearlessness that grew with each day,
and with each new constellation of collaborators.
It helped, of course, that many of CO:LAB's artists were old
hands at collaborative ventures, but the frame of the proj-
ect created a pressure cooker in which the polite responses
would soon evaporate, and an observer could note how
each day the confidence in the integrity of the process,
and with it a measure of assertiveness for each participant
grew, until they all appeared to have a voice at the table.
The 'showings' at the end of each afternoon reflected this
growing sense of involvement and investment. They also
reflected the range of personalities and the many modes
of creation that had been brought to the process: Some
collaborators searched for ways of breaking down the
methods they would normally use to create material, while
others worked more formally and seemed to treat each
others' work as a complete, autonomous entity to which
they responded. Accordingly, each presentation involved
the 'audience'—made up of the other groups as well as a
few guests— in a different way: Some groups presented an
instance or example of a process, while some presented
what could pass for a finished work. Some sessions result-
ed in a constant flow of movement that involved the musi-
cians as well as the dancers, while others created a space
dominated by objects and other obstacles to the body, to
the point where they began to resemble installations.
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 1 5
D a n c e C e n t r a l S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 4 3
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 1 6
Small 'C' ContemporaryA conversation with Jai Govindacontinued from page 5
would say: "He is still wearing the costume. It sounds like
the same type of music. How is it contemporary?" They
would not understand it because they have not seen
what was done twenty five years ago. If I present Bharata
Natyam today for someone who doesn't know anything
about it, they will think it has been done like that for the
past two thousand years.
Knowing the history of a form is important to under-
standing the choice we make in the present, and what
they mean. Presenting it on the stage is such a choice.
Here is a dance form that began as a practice in a
temple, without an audience. Only a hundred years ago it
evolved, first from the temple to the stage, then to being
performed by women for an audience. My teacher, who
passed away just five years ago received death threats
for bringing his wife on the stage, because they were
Brahmin. In the last few years it has changed again, as
artists make use of lighting and staging in new ways. This
is evolution in the context of a classical form, and while
some artists, just as they do here, choose to use the clas-
sical language, others decide to start from scratch, but
you have to be informed to be able to tell the difference.
I remember being at a conference and sitting beside Pina
Bausch when she was visiting India. All the top dancers
and choreographers were there, and there was a panel
discussion. They were all talking about their differences
and how unhappy they were. Pina was the guest artist,
dressed in a gray Marlene Dietrich outfit, with her hair
pulled back, sitting in the audience, smoking, and they
asked her if she would talk. She went to the microphone
table and before she could speak she choked, and a tear
appeared on her face. She said: "I don't know what to say;
the only thing is that I discovered that I love India; what
a marvellous country, all the colours, smell, art, culture
everywhere, such rich heritage, and to hear you bickering
among each other has saddened me.
It was interesting to see how small a role digital media,
musical form, or dance technique per se played in either
the process or the 'outcome', and how much freedom each
day brought to explore both the musical and the kines-
thetic dimensions of the encounters. This was reflected in
the 'showings': They became increasingly focused on the
process, and recorded the questions that each group had
encountered, rather than the solutions they had devised.
They invited the audience to witness a space that openened
up rather than ways of filling it.
Fill it did, however: Crumpled paper, eggs, landscapes of
cardboard, clothing and instruments framed the physical
encounters and the sounds that enveloped them, and while
something of the formal framework remained intact, the
encounter between music and dance produced a moving
record of the connections and differences that bind these
disciplines together. It reminded us that they may long to
merge completely, but like oil and vinegar, they can cohabit
in the same space only when an effort is made to bring
them together, and they form what is known in chemistry as
an emulsion. We witnessed something of that in CO:LAB.
AK
CO:LAB
D a n c e C e n t r a l S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 4 3
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 1 7
You have such fantastic roots, a deep heritage of dance and mu-
sic, where you can start from a focused point. When I started to
make dance I didn't have all that. I had to start from nothing."
Pina also came to Montreal to present Cafe Müller, which was
the most contemporary thing at the time, at Place des Arts - "Midi
de la place", where you could go at lunchtime to see artists show
some of their work or give a talk. She showed an excerpt, and
during the question and answer, I asked: "I don't know if you have
a school, but if you were to train dancers, what would you train
them in?" There was no hesitation, and she said "classical ballet".
Everybody's jaw dropped, because her work was total anti-ballet
at the time, but she saw that in the classical form you train a tool,
an instrument, and that you make it more flexible and expressive.
Forms are tools, they are not handicaps. The reason so many
contemporary companies are using ballet is that they understand
what an incredibly valuable tool it is. Some people work differ-
ently; they take their vocabulary from different sources, and cre-
ate a form of dance with it. How you understand it depends on
how you see and how well informed you are, both as a choreog-
rapher and as an audience member.
AK: There is a parallel in contemporary music written for non-
Western instruments. Indonesian Gamelan is a good example.
It is a musical form — or rather a vast range of connected forms
— with a three thousand year long history, and a classical canon
that is very much alive, and it has a contemporary dimension,
with composers both in Indonesia and in the West writing new
work, and completely contemporary music, using Gamelan in-
struments and idioms.
JG: But would anyone who has never heard Gamelan be able to
tell the difference between the ancient and the contemporary
form?
AK: People in Indonesia will know, and some of the contempo-
rary work includes non-traditional instrumentation or electronics,
or text, but an audience that has no other point of reference may
well not. It is similiar in visual art, where the term contempo-
rary has shifted from describing a manner or language—be it
figurative or abstract, conceptual or community-engaged—
and is now understood to mean an explicit engagement with
what is referred to as critical discourse. This has created a
division similiar to what you find in dance, where 'contempo-
rary' is used as a noun rather than an adjective, and has left a
number of artists, particularly those who work in a figurative
style, feeling excluded, and without access to funding.
JG: As humans, we try to categorize everything. I think that art
ultimately navigates between all of these categories. Some
people change their work in order to be part of the main-
stream. You do what you do, and it may or may not be part
of the mainstream. I never felt the need to be apologetic, for
example for the narrative dimension of dance, when it is such
a rich source. Indian classical dance has about eighty hand
gestures— why should we throw these away? We can be
creative with those elements, and our work should be judged
on the basis of the informed choices that we make rather than
whether it fits a predetermined category.
AK: Thank you!
D a n c e C e n t r a l S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 4 3
Calendar of Events
For a regularly updated calendar of dance performances and events, please visit our website www.thedancecentre.ca.
March 1, 2Ballet BC presents The National Ballet of China in Swan Lake. 8pm at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver. Tickets and info: www.balletbc.com/single_tickets.html, www.balletbc.com
March 1, 2Undergraduate students in the Dance Program at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts present Motion, Pictures Student Dance Show. 8pm at Studio D at Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Vancou-ver. Tickets and info: http://www.sfu.ca/sca/index.php/events/details/motion-picture-sfudance-2013
March 2-23Vancouver International Dance Festival. For a complete list of performances, show times and venues, and ticket information visit: www.vidf.ca
March 2-April 26Ballet Kelowna tours Passages. For a complete list of venues and dates, showtimes, and ticket information visit: www.balletkelowna.ca/
March 6-9Joe Ink, The Dance Centre's Global Dance Connections series and the Vancouver International Dance Festival present Retrospective: 25 Years. 8pm at Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver. Tickets: www.vidf.ca Info: www.thedancecentre.ca / www.joeink.ca
March 6-10The Dancers of Damelahamid present the Coastal First Nations Dance Festival at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA), Vancouver. Info: www.damelahamid.ca March 7-10The fourth and final Vancouver International Salsa Festival at the Westin Bayshore Hotel, Vancouver. Info: www.salsafestival.ca
March 13Cowichan Theatre presents Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada performing Ghosts of Violence. 7:30pm at Cowichan Theatre (located in the Island Savings Centre) Duncan, B.C.Tickets and info: 250-748-7529 or www.cowichantheatre.bc.ca
March 15, 16Dance Victoria presents Black Grace (Auckland). 7:30 pm at Royal Theatre, Victoria. Tickets and info: www.dancevictoria.com
March 22-24Ballet Victoria presents The Secret Garden and other works. 7:30pm on Mar 22 and 23, 2pm on Mar 24 at McPherson Playhouse, Victoria. Info: www.balletvictoria.ca
March 22, 23DanceHouse presents Carte Blanche (Bergen, Nor-way) Corps de Walk.8pm at Vancouver Playhouse. Tickets and info: www.dancehouse.ca
March 23- April 13Flamenco Rosario proudly presents Mis Herma-nas: Thicker than Water, My Sisters and I. For a complete list of venues and dates, showtimes, and ticket information visit: www.flamencorosario.org
March 28The Dance Centre presents the Discover Dance! noon hour series - Mozaico Flamenco Dance Theatre. 12 noon at Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver. Tickets: www.ticketstonight.ca, Info: www.thedancecentre.ca / www.mozaicofla-menco.com
March 31New Works presents Dance Allsorts - South Asian Arts Bhangra/Bollywood.2pm at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre, VancouverTickets: Advanced tickets at eventbrite.com or at the door. Info: www.newworks.ca
D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3 1 8
D a n c e C e n t r a l S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 4 3
March/April 2013
April 18-20The Dance Centre's Global Dance Connections series and Vancouver New Music present Marta Marta Productions (Vancouver)The Ligeti Project (Premiere). 8pm at Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver. Tickets: www.ticketstonight.ca, info: www.thedancecentre.ca / www.martamartapro-ductions.com / www.newmusic.org
April 21New Works presents Dance Allsorts - European Folk Dance at the Balkan Spring Festival. 2pm at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre, VancouverTickets: Advanced tickets at eventbrite.com or at the door. Info: www.newworks.ca
April 22-29The Canadian Dance Assembly proudly presents National Dance Week leading up to International Dance Day. For information on NDW and events across the country, visit http://www.cda-acd.ca/en/programs-services/national-dance-week.
April 24-27The Firehall Arts Centre presents Arkadi Zaides and Company Land-Research.8pm at the Firehall Arts Centre, Vancouver. Tick-ets and info: www.firehallartscentre.ca
April 25The Dance Centre presents the Discover Dance! noon series - Historical Performance Ensemble. 12 noon at Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver. Tickets: www.ticketstonight.ca, info: www.the-dancecentre.ca / www.historicalperformance.net
April 25-27The Dance Centre presents theGlobal Dance Connections seriesChartier Danse (Toronto/Montreal) –Stria. 8pm at Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver. Tickets: www.ticketstonight.ca, info: www.thedancecentre.ca / www.chartierdanse.com
April 25-27Ballet BC presents the World Premiere of Jose Navas' Giselle. 8pm at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Tickets and Info: http://www.balletbc.com/single_tickets.html, www.balletbc.com
April 29International Dance DayIn 1982 the Dance Committee of the International The-atre Institute (UNESCO) founded International Dance Day to be celebrated every year on the 29th April, anniversary of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), the creator of modern ballet. Find out about how you can celebrate:http://www.international-dance-day.org/en/danceday.html
April 30-May 4The Cultch presents Tara Cheyenne Performance (Vancouver) – Highgate. 8pm at The Cultch, Vancouver. Tickets and info: www.thecultch.com
1 9 D a n c e C e n t ra l M a rc h / A p r i l 2 0 1 3