Dance Community: Training, Education and Performance
Excerpted from earthdancers: Dance, Community and Environment Masters of Arts thesis by Julie-Anne Huggins York University, April 2005
FOR EDUCTIONAL USE ONLY
Introduction
Introduction Hello folks! You’ve just stumbled across (or have been assigned to read) a unique series of documents that I hope you will find informative, useful and inspirational in your understanding the dance heritage of Sudbury, Ontario. When I embarked upon my graduate research seeking to chronicle a history of the dance company earthdancers, I felt that I should contextualize the environment and community from which it developed. The story behind all this original research is one of many convoluted paths, guided by blind determination to establish an initial historical framework for Sudbury’s dance scene from 1930 - 1990. In regards to the identification of schools and studios, the picture can be looked at as a lineage or the beginnings of a family tree for dance training.
Photo by Alex Wilson
This brief sketch of Sudbury’s dance scene could be retold and fleshed out in new and interesting ways. After all, it’s only a piece of greater puzzle that reveals how dance (in its many forms and settings) has stirred culture, enlivened communities, and touched the lives of Sudburians. It is my hope that others may keep and gather more documents, audio/visual media and accounts for archiving in a Sudbury dance collection. Our arts and activities are important to Canadian identity and heritage, as sociologist Anthony Cohen states: “local experience mediates national identity.” So... let’s get dance back on the map!
I’m about to parachute you into an excerpt from a 164-page book, which unfortunately contained no photographs (I am working to evolve this free online educational document to include more images for you, while dutifully referencing to their sources.) The section “Dance Community: Training, Education and Performance” appears under the 2nd chapter of my thesis, which provides context by giving a quick and dirty overview of the city. II. Sudbury Environment a) Landscape: Industrialization, Devastation and Environmentalism b) Two Left Feet: Community Development and The Arts c) Dance Community: Training, Education and Performance In other words, there was some build-up to this section, and it doesn’t quite stand alone. Whereas the “Dance Community” section is mostly an outline, the “Two Left Feet” section highlighted a great story from the 1950s, wrought with controversy and ballerinas. I’ve included it here for you:
Since INCO had nearly monopolized nickel production in America, the United States sought to promote more international competition, though not in such polite terms. The American anti-Communist unrest was fuelled with prejudices and unprecedented accusations, and their target of choice was the union. In the end, the community as a whole would suffer from this reputation, and in the wake of the Red-Scare, Sudbury’s isolation left its cultural growth stunted (much like the trees at this point).1 The ever-growing popularity and power of the Mine Mill Union in the 1950s spurred on the socio-political suspicions. Within the Sudbury community however, this group made significant contributions to social programs and the arts, while also hosting fundraisers and sponsoring cultural events. Perhaps these efforts were to encourage the sense of family and home, or perhaps they were to soften the impact for women moving to town. At the hand of the union’s recreational director Weir Reid, ballet was given its time in the spotlight, as was Sudbury’s sprouting dance community (a particular area of interest). 2
Though the stage was set for Reid’s first dance project, the curtain never opened. Union Hall was to host two sold out concerts of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet during their international tour at the end of January 1954. 3 Despite a promising welcome from thousands of ticket holders, a “24-hour-flu” sparked a controversial cancellation of the Friday and Saturday night performances. Upon further investigation, neither the press nor the union (let alone the ballet company) could make sense of the account. Both the radio and newspapers had picked up the story when the supposedly ill ballerina Eva Von Gencsy was reported dining out with friends Thursday night and quoted as saying: “People told me I had the ‘flu, so I had the ‘flu. I never felt better then I do right now, though.” 4 She further commented that ballet company executives had told her that Thursday’s “24-hour-flu” would become a “48-hour-flu,” but to this, the company’s business manager snapped his denials.5 Dancing around the issue, the ballerina claimed her “never felt better” statement was a misunderstanding from her poor grasp of the English language. What she meant to say was that she was just “so happy to be going on tour” now that her flu had cleared up from Tuesday (or was that Thursday?). Now also seemingly suffering from bouts of amnesia, she said: “It is hard to say what day you have flu and what day you feel fine,” and “It is so hard to remember who you say what to.” 6 Apparently many people in the company had been ill, and shortly after the story got to print on Thursday, even the company’s 6 Photos of the RWB company manager president was suddenly stricken by Henry Guettel and Eva Von Gencsy snapped 7 this (stressful) epidemic. up by the Winnipeg Free Press. The show must not go on. Despite the four counter proposals the union offered, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet turned down each of them without reason. 8 The city had strong suspicions. The company’s international tour had planned to cross the border to the United States, including a presentation before President Dwight Eisenhower. However, should their performance be affiliated
with Sudbury’s allegedly Communist-led union, the McCarthyites considered it “keeping company with the enemy.” The company was faced with the threat of tour cancellation and even the possibility of being barred as individuals from crossing the border. 9 In Max Wyman’s The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the company’s apprehension was that the “[Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union] had already been expelled from the Canadian Congress of Labour for having Communist leadership,” and that there was reasonable expectation that this affiliation might pose a possible threat to their American tour. 10 Some 2,000 kilometres away, the union translated their actions as “both cowardly and reprehensible” in that “this so-called Canadian company was taking orders from the United States immigration department, under the terms of the infamous McCarran Immigration Act and, very obviously, under threat of the universally condemned McCarthyism.” 11 Sudbury had effectively been branded and cut-off, much to their frustration: “To us in Sudbury, it was a direct onslaught on the rights of the community, as well as on civil and personal rights, to deprive us of the opportunity of viewing of Canadian artists, or any artist for that matter.” 12 In spite of all the controversy, the union continued to make efforts to enhance the community, both culturally and artistically. Within the next two years, a couple more professional dance concerts were organized and even two new dance schools were founded by the union, helping to stir up Sudbury’s blossoming dance scene. 13 Though the schools had made a notable impact in the dance community, their survival soon wavered under the union’s conflicts.
Want more? Of course you do! Here’s a quick blurb introducing the “Dance Community” section that should help get you up to speed: By the early twentieth century, Sudbury had established itself as more than just a mining community, it was a home. Surely to the outside eye, it was nothing more than a big black hole in the ground filled with sinister Communist miners and a lot of snow. However, the pioneer spirit that summoned the people here would soon turn their isolation into a cultural incubator for the arts, and by the early 1930s, dance was taking its first steps. In this brief outline of the Sudbury dance community’s lineage, it should be noted that many of the key teachers listed had dance training, experience and qualifications from other reputable programs. Their local heritage, however, weaves an interesting lineage.
Endnotes 1 C.M. Wallace, and Ashley Thomson, eds., Sudbury: Rail Town to Regional Capital (Toronto:
Dundurn Press Limited, 1993) 190-214. 2 Wallace, 190-214. 3 Ray Stevenson, “Ballet Ruse,” The Un-Canadians: True Stories of the Blacklist Era, ed. Len Scher (Toronto: Lester Publishing Limited, 1992) 94-95. 4 Max Wyman, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet: The First Forty Years (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1978) 88. 5 Ted Byfield, “‘I Never Felt Better’ ‘Sick’ Ballet Star Reported as Saying,” Winnipeg Free Press 29 January 1954: n. pag. 6 Ted Byfield, “Fickle Flu, Bad English Ballerina’s Explanation for ‘Terrible’ Mistake,” Winnipeg Free Press 30 January 1954: n. pag. 7 Ted Byfield, “I Never Felt Better,” 1954. 8 Ted Byfield, “I Never Felt Better,” 1954. 9 Stevenson, 94-95. 10 Wyman, 87-88. 11 “Union Will Sue Ballet,” Mine Mill News 8 February 1954: 5. 12 Stevenson, 94-95. 13 “Grand Concert Thursday,” Mine Mill News 26 April 1954: 1+. “Famed Dancer Coming,” Mine Mill News 3 Feb. 1955: 5+. “Choreographer Coming to Sudbury,” The Sudbury Daily Star 7 Nov. 1955, final ed.: 5.