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

Generation4

th

In the early 1970s, Gerry Gauvreau was appointed artistic director of the dance

program at the Centre des jeunes, fuelling the new company Les Folkloristes Ontariennes

(The Ontario Folklorists).59 These dancers ranged from ages ten to eighteen, and toured

internationally with ballet, jazz, folklore dances of Canada, and modern interpretations.60

Fourth Generation

60 The Ontario Folklorists to perform in Russia.

By 1973, the Gauvreau School of Fine

Arts was opened, and the company

followed in affiliation. The new

studio’s colourful array of classes

included ballet, pointe, jazz, tap,

gymnastics, ballroom, folk, drama

and modelling, as well as the trendy

disco-jazz, dancercize, slimnastics,

and slim dancethetics.61 By 1978,

the school’s name changed to

Gauvreau School of Performing Arts,

while the company’s name evolved to Canadian Showcase Chorus Corporation in 1980,

focusing their talents on ballet, musical theatre, as well as song and dance.62

Another project had been brewing for a couple of years at the hands of Tini Pel

and Ida Sauve, whose toil and trouble sought to increase local performing opportunities

for all young dancers in the area. In the spring of 1971, the Kiwanis Club of Sudbury

had informally adopted a dance division into its annual Kiwanis Music Festival;

however, it took several more years before the name changed to the Kiwanis Music

and Dance Festival. This competition would bring many young students from across

Ontario to perform and receive adjudications from respected dance professionals and

teachers, with prizes and scholarships awarded to outstanding performers.63 In its

founding year, ballet teacher Diana Jablokova Vorps of Toronto adjudicated in the style

categories of ethnic dance, freestyle jazz, tap dance, acrobatics and adagio dance, stage

dance, modern dance, classical ballet, classical ballet pointe, and demi-character. The

competition’s most notable performances were also featured in a showcase at the end

of the festival.64 For many dance studios, this was not only good exposure, but for some

it would become an important part of their business.

During the mid 1970s, a few more

studios arrived on the Sudbury dance scene.

Glenys Lafrance, a former student and teacher

of the Centre des jeunes, began teaching in

the Sudbury and Chelmsford areas around

1970, providing affordable training in tap, jazz,

ballet, acrobatics, modern, step dancing, and

folk dancing. She later merged her students

with the Centre des jeunes program (Studio

de Danse Civitas Christi) when she was

appointed director in 1973. Around 1976,

Lafrance established the Regional School

of Dance, and with a staff of seventeen, her

holistic and accessible approach addressed

the outlining communities of Azilda, Levack,

Copper Cliff, Dowling, Onaping Falls, and

Chelmsford. Annual recitals, exams, community

events and local/regional competitions were

made available and affordable for the school’s

substantial student base, with the support

of fundraising and volunteers. However, the doors closed on this noble endeavour in

1985.65 Another teacher at the time was Claire McLaughlin, a former student of and

teacher for Ida Sauve. In 1973, McLaughlin opened Claire’s School of Dancing, offering

classes in acrobatics, tap, and jazz, as well as ballet, pointe, modern, lyrical, and stage in

later years. Her teaching partner Annette Lumbis, also a former Ida Sauve student, left

two years later.66 Annette Lumbis Dancers was then founded, whose two locations also

taught acrobatics, tap, jazz and modern. Both schools eagerly took advantage of the local

and regional Kiwanis Festivals, and also staged annual recitals for their students. By 1982

however, Annette Lumbis Dancers had disbanded.67

Soon after the curtain closed on the Sudbury School of Ballet in 1973, former

student Helene Skakoon opened The Ballet Academy in 1975. Performing in local

Kiwanis festivals, community projects and annual studio recitals, students were exposed

to modern and national styles along with their rigorous coaching for ballet exams.68

This small but significant studio focused on quality over quantity, specializing in ballet

training from the RAD syllabus, and investing in students with strong potential to become

professionals.69 Despite its honourable intentions, the school closed its doors by 1980.

69 Larissa Lapchinski & Nathalie Rask of The Ballet Academy.

69 Magda Arango, Barbara Saville, Lisa Barry, Anna-Lyn DiPaolo, Shauneen Ryan, & Laura

Maloney of The Ballet Academy.

A The Bird Cage Dance with Karen Martin, Nancy Wong & Jodi Lahaye of the Sudbury

School of Ballet.

A Bretonne Dance with Josette St. Aubin, Wendy Green, Stephanie Dietz, Elizabeth

Gauvreau, Corin Potvin, Deborah Belcourt, Mary Ellen Gauvreau & Rebecca Pott of the

Sudbury School of Ballet.

70 Religion In the Arts at Huntington College.

All the while, Tini Pel was working to develop another opportunity for the art form, that

of liturgical dance. Her first performance was in a local Anglican church in the early 1960s

and was so well acclaimed that her dancers soon began touring to other cities and appeared

74 Carolle Bradley, Denise Vitali, Tini Pel

75 Lareen Baricelli & Denise Vitali. 75 Anne Sirois & Denise Vitali.

on television. By 1973, her work further inspired a

course at Huntington College of Laurentian University

called Religion in the Arts, as well as the later Religion

for a New Generation, for which she was a guest teacher

featuring her choreography.70 Around this time, the

Cambrian College continuing education program also

sought Tini Pel and other dance teachers to enhance its

local and outreach dance classes, which offered ballet,

ballroom and the ever-popular disco.71 Responding

to the growing need for more local advanced dance

education, the Arts Guild sponsored an intensive summer

course in 1974, which offered advanced level RAD ballet,

classical repertory, modern, folk, character, stage makeup and

even Benesh notation.72 The name Arts Guild Dance Theatre

was then adopted in 1976 as the school’s distinguished

performing company.73 In 1979, Pel also began offering a

three-year post-secondary course including studies in Russian

ballet, jazz, social dance, ethnic dance, dance history, theatre

arts, dance notation, anatomy and music theory.74 Denise

Vitali and Lareen Baricelli-Lavallee were two of the students

in this program, and together they produced an independent

two-person show in 1979 entitled Jazz’n Stuff, which was again

produced in 1980 with Vitali and her new partner Anne Sirois.75

Within the Centre des jeunes, Ida Sauve was appointed program director in 1974 and

helped to organize the Centre des jeunes Dancers as a performing and competing group,

which often collaborated with the Ida Sauve Dance Company.76 Further, in the early 1970s,

classes in ballroom with Doris Lalonde and Gaston Lapierre had become quite popular,

setting the groundwork for competitions and examinations.77 Cambrian College further

facilitated these ballroom classes, where teachers such as Noreen Saari, Susanne Bourque,

and later Giselle and Rheal Rouselle were building a following.78 By 1978, the Rouselle

couple, former Centre des jeunes students, decided to open a Monsieur Danse franchise

school; two years later, it was converted to their own studio Prodanse. Though there had

83 Sudbury Arts Festival Association - Spectrum

Also in the mid 1970s, professional performances graced

local stages, such as the tour of the Anna Wyman Dance Theatre.81

In 1975, the Sudbury Arts Festival Association (SAFA) produced

Spectrum ’75, which was intended as an annual fall “series of

concerts and cultural activities, as the first phase in encouraging a

higher standard of performance and fostering an appreciation of

the arts in Sudbury.”82 Thanks to this funding and organizational

body, touring companies such as Ballet Ys, Danse-Partout and

Mini-Bolsoi were welcomed in the latter half of the 1970s.83 As

evolution would have it, Spectrum disappeared back into the

primordial ooze, and SAFA matured into the Sudbury Arts Council

in the following decade.84 All these offshoot developments

certainly brought new excitement to the horizon of the 1980s.

83 Mini-Bolshoi

been several independent ballroom teachers in the area, often

offering classes at various studios, theirs was the only school

dedicated to this form, since the closure of the Arthur Murray

Dance Studios nearly fifteen years prior. Here, under certified

instruction, students could compete and receive examinations

in both the social and international styles.79 The interest in

dance training was growing outside of the studio setting,

and in 1975, the City of Sudbury had commissioned Annette

Lumbis to teach a ten-week introduction course in acrobatics,

jazz and tap in the public schools throughout the area.80

Endnotes59 Sudbury Bell directories, 1969-1972.60 “Folklorists to Leave with Police Escort on Way to Russia,” The Sudbury Star 9 Aug. 1973: 3.61 Sudbury Bell directories, 1969-1990.62 Gerry Gauvreau, personal interview, 8 October 2004.63 Michele Caruso-McGuire, personal interview, 30 December 2004.64 Eleanor Marzetti, ed., Annual Kiwanis Music Festival 1971 (Sudbury, ON.: n.p., 1971).65 Glenys Lafrance, telephone interview, 24 January 2005.66 Tracy McLaughlin, telephone interview, 16 November 2004.67 Annette Lumbis, personal interview, 9 October 2004.68 Helene Van Alphen, telephone interview, 26 November 2004.69 Tom Colton, “The Academy of Hard Work,” Northern Life: Lifestyle 14 Nov. 1979: 1.70 “Religion in the Arts at Huntington College,” Northern Life 4 July 1973: 11. “Huntington College: Religion for a New Generation,” ts., Denise Vitali Records, Sudbury.71 Denise Vitali, personal interview, 19 December 2004.72 “Advanced Dance Course Sponsored by Arts Guild,” Nothern Life 21 Aug. 1974: B3.73 Tini Pel, personal interview, 10 November 2001.74 Norm Tollinsky, “Arts Guild Dance School Shapes Sudbury Ballerinas,” Northern Life: Lifestyle 7 Feb. 1979: 13.75 “Local Ballerinas Kick Up Their Heels,” Northern Life: Lifestyle 23 May 1979: 4. “Dance Potpurri,” Northern Life: Lifestyle 28 May 1980: 3+.76 Ida Sauve, personal interview, 8 October 2004.77 Suzanne Bourque, personal interview, 9 October 2004.78 Suzanne Bourque, personal interview, 9 October 2004.79 Gisele Rouselle, telephone interview, 24 November 2004.80 Annette Lumbis, personal interview, 9 October 2004.81 Anna Wyman Dance Theatre, program, Sudbury, n.d.82 Teresa Pagnutti, “Arts Council Awarded Funds,” Northern Life 22 Aug. 1979: 3.83 “Wintario Funding Sudbury Arts Festival,” Northern Life 4 Aug. 1976: A-6. Pauline Melhorne, “Wrap-up of Spectrum ’76,” Northern Life 27 Oct. 1976: A11. Teresa Pagnutti, “Mini-Bolshoi Packs’em In,” Northern Life: Lifestyle 17 Oct. 1979: 1.84 “SAFA to Expand as Arts Council,” Northern Life 17 Jan. 1979: 10.

Additional Image ReferencesA “Sudbury School of Ballet holds Wembly recital,” Northern Life 4 July 1973: 11.