Dance Community:Training, Education and Performance

Excerpted from earthdancers: Dance, Community and EnvironmentMasters of Arts thesis by Julie-Anne Huggins

York University, April 2005

FOR EDUCTIONAL USE ONLY

Generation3

rd

Entering the 1960s, Sudbury’s dance

scene was creating more performing

opportunities for its students. Aside from

annual studio recitals and occasional

tours to regional competitions, stage

time for local dancers had been amateur

and quaint. Fashionably late, the Royal

Winnipeg Ballet finally tiptoed through

Sudbury in 1960 and in hosting auditions

prior to their performance, they helped

to stir enthusiasm for dance.32 The idea

for an independent performing company

in Sudbury still lingered, and with ballet

as a common base in studio training,

Third Generation

32 Royal Winnipeg Ballet: Ted Patterson, Richard Rutherford, Jim Clouser, Sheila MacKinnon

33 Premiere performance of the Nickel Belt Ballet Company.

the ever-growing dance community (theoretically) supported the venture. The non-

profit Nickel Belt Ballet Company was founded and incorporated by charter in 1961,

under the presidency of Morton Pilskow and artistic directorship of Daniel Stevich, a

dancer/choreographer from Europe.33 The group’s focus was teaching ballet, presenting

performances, undertaking public educational projects, encouraging Canadian music

and choreography, and supporting excellence with awards and bursaries.34 Auditions

were open to all dancers ten and over, and they were expected to attend at least one

ballet class per week at any studio, as well as weekly rehearsals with the company.

Training and repertoire consisted of classical ballet, modern ballet, jazz and folk. Guest

teachers and choreographers included Tini Pel and Natasha Sawchuk of Sudbury, as well

of Nancy Lima Dent and Cliff Collier of Toronto.35 Despite initial enthusiasm, there was

little support from other local dance teachers; consequently, most company members

were students from the Arts Guild, and they were featured in collaborative performances

with the school.36 Soon after their first full-program premiere performance in 1963, the

company was absorbed by the Arts Guild. Other notable dance projects in Sudbury

included Canada’s Centennial Celebration in 1967, during which Tini Pel staged a

collaboration of the local dance community, and the city welcomed Ballet Concerts, the

touring chamber ensemble of the National Ballet of Canada.37 Sudbury audiences would

again welcome this charming troupe in 1968 and later in 1971.38

Also around the mid 1960s, Ida Sauve formed an informal troupe

known as the Ida Sauve Dance Company. Though it was too transient

to incorporate, the group consisted of Sauve’s top senior students,

performing and competing locally, regionally and even across the

border.39 By the end of the decade, her home would be known as Ida

Sauve’s School of Dancing.40 Other studios were waning however. As

the Mine Mill Union was debating about closing its schools, Barbara

Cook resigned in 1960 and established her own Sudbury School of

Ballet.41 In her stead, the new Mine-Mill Ballet School was taken up

by Joseph Bayer, of the Crouse lineage, and Ann Marie Konya.42 By

1961, however, the Crouse School of Dancing had adopted Mine-Mill

location and it too folded within the year.43 The Arthur Murray Dance

Studio also took a final bow in 1964.44 A few other short-lived studios

came and went, one of which was Giselle Dance Studio where classes

in tap, acrobatics, modern jazz, step-dancing, baton, and examination

preparation were offered by Giselle Toner from 1962 to 1965.45 Another

cameo school between 1967 and 1970 was Dee Dee’s Dance Studio, where former Toner

student Diane Poirier taught tap, step-dancing, ballet, jazz, acrobatics, baton, physical

fitness, and even go-go dancing.46 Finally, after Merilyn Peterkin decided to close her

doors, the Gauvreau family purchased her school and renamed it Gerry’s School of

Dancing in 1964. Though the school was gone by the following season, the aspiring

young dancer Gerry Gauvreau, a former Helen Hymander and Shirley Simard student, was

making headway teaching and directing at the Centre des jeunes.47

Growing in popularity since 1950 was

Father Albert Regimbal’s French community

cultural centre Centre des jeunes, also known

as the Sudbury Youth Centre.48 Unlike other

cultural groups in the city, dance was more than

just folklore and tradition, it was considered

contemporary and artistic: a statement clearly

apparent with the inclusion of the Montreal

Modern Dance Company at the 1954 Festival of

Nations multicultural show.49 Dance training

began here around 1964 under the direction

of Florence Gauvreau and her son Gerry, who

titled their program the Centre Civitas Christi

Dance Studio (and later the Studio de Danse

Civitas Christi).50 Within a few years, classes picked up at several of their satellite studios

throughout the region, including the towns of Chelmsford, Azilda and Hanmer.51 With the

affiliations of several local dance instructors, a wide variety of styles was offered in these

dance programs, including ballet, jazz, tap, baton, ballroom, folk, step-dancing, gymnastics,

improvisation, acrobatics, drama, modelling, and physical fitness.52 Notably, some of

these teachers later included Glenys Lafrance, Leslie Kallio, Joanne Gervais, Barbara Roth

Johnson, Ida Sauve, Diane Boulais, Denise Vitali, and Rheal and Giselle Rouselle.53 Further

adding momentum to French Canadian culture and the performing arts, the Centre des

jeunes sponsored the first tour of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens to Sudbury in 1964.54 It was

here that another non-professional performing company was founded in 1969, one that

Gerry Gauvreau would bring to new heights in the following decades.55

49 Performers at the Festival of Nations.

49 Montreal Modern Dance Company to perform at the Festival of Nations.

54 Artistic Direcor of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens,

Ludmilla Chiriaeff.

55 Ontario Folklorists in jazz, modern ballet, and the 35 member Junior Corp.

As the 1960s came to a close, the year

1969 witnessed the departure of Barbara

Cook, who would also be missed by the

Sudbury Little Theatre Guild where she had

choreographed over the years. Directorship

of the Sudbury School of Ballet was passed

on to one of her senior students, Barbara

Roth Johnson, who continued the tradition

of ballet instruction and examinations.56

Many recall the 1960s as Sudbury’s dance

boom, an exciting time where it seemed that

there were more students per capita seeking

to study dance than in any other city in

Canada.57 Suzanne Bourque recalled eagerly

hopping on a bus in the mid 1960s to spend

her first pay cheque on dance classes – an

influence that would carry on through her

life.58 Exciting times were ahead in the 1970s,

as a fourth generation of schools and dance

projects was ushered in.

Endnotes32 “Royal Winnipeg Ballet Here Thursday,” The Sudbury Daily Star 12 Nov. 1960: 3.33 “Nickel Belt Ballet Company Presents Premiere Performance Friday Night,” The Sudbury Star 14 Nov. 1963: 3. Fantasy ’62, program, Sudbury, 9 June 1962.34 Fantasy ’62, program, Sudbury, 9 June 1962.35 “Nickel Belt Ballet Company Presents Premiere Performance Friday Night,” The Sudbury Star 14 Nov. 1963: 3.36 Nancy Lima Dent, letter to Tini Pel, 15 June 1962, Nancy Lima Dent Collection, Dance Collection Danse, Toronto. Fantasy ’62, Sudbury, 9 June 1962.37 Tini Pel, personal interview, 10 November 2001. “New Ballet Group Here Saturday Night,” The Sudbury Star 21 Sept. 1967: 17.38 Adrienne Neville, email interview, 1 December 2004.39 Ida Sauve, personal interview, 8 October 2004.40 Sudbury Bell directories, 1969-1970.41 Barbara Cook, interview with Lawrence Adams, Barbara Cook Tape 5 of 6, Dance Collection Danse, Toronto, 16 March 1994. “Large Audience Attends Farewell Ballet Recital,” The 598 News 29 June 1960: 2.42 “Open New Dance School at Sudbury Union Hall,” The 598 News November 1960: 2.43 Sudbury Bell and Vernon directories, 1960-1962.44 Sudbury Bell directories, 1960-1965.45 Sudbury Bell directories, 1961-1966.46 “Busy Social Season Ahead for the Gal Who’s in Shape,” The Sudbury Star 4 Sept. 1964: 6. Sudbury Bell directories, 1966-1971.47 Sudbury Vernon directories, 1963-1965. Gerry Gauvreau, personal interview, 8 October 2004.48 Alain Blanchette, et al. Du Centre des jeunes au Carrefour francophone: 1951-1990 (Sudbury, ON: La Société historique du Nouvel-Ontario, 1992).49 “Festival of Nations at Sudbury Arena,” The Sudbury Daily Star 11 May 1954, final ed.: 3+.50 Sudbury Bell directories, 1963-1969.51 Debbie Bourgeois, telephone interview, 30 November 2004.52 Sudbury Bell directories, 1964-1977.53 Gerry Gauvreau, personal interview, 8 October 2004. Diane Boulais, telephone interview, 16 November 2004. Leslie Kallio, telephone interview, 13 December 2004. Giselle Rouselle, telephone interview, 24 November 2004.

54 “Les Grands Ballets to Give Performance Here,” The Sudbury Star 12 Feb. 1964: 3.55 “Dancers Dazzle Thousands,” Northern Life 12 June 1974: B-456 Helene Van Alphen, telephone interview, 26 November 2004.57 Gerry Gauvreau, personal interview, 8 October 2004.58 Suzanne Bourque, personal interview, 9 October 2004.