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

Generation2

nd

The Sudbury community was quickly

catching on to the idea of social dancing, and

not stepping on each other’s toes. Not only

were many studios helping people discover

their right foot, but two franchises boasted

the latest in fashionable ballroom: Don

Barré Schools of Dancing (1952-1956) and

Arthur Murray Dance Studios (1955-1964).20

In 1954, the Hymander school closed and

in its stead, Shirley Simard began offering

instruction in ballet, pointe, tap, acrobatics,

Second Generation

22 Crouse School of Dancing recital: Regina Jakubonis, Joan Noble, Jane Sutton, Heidi

Tauebert, Jane Collard.

22 Shirley Simard’s Dance Studio: Rachelle Villeneuve (front), Mary Catherine Keenan, Pauline Cushing, Rosie Matichuk, Kathleen Young, Marilyn Peterkin, Ida Sauno (back).

musical jazz and baton twirling at Shirley’s

Dance Studio.21 Further, Simard’s dancers began

Sudbury’s tradition of attending Royal Academy

of Dancing ballet curriculum examinations in

1956.22 There were also a few obscure names

and studios that briefly sprouted up in this

period, including Classic and Moderne School of

Dancing (1953-1954), Mrs. Ludwig Konya Dancing

School (1953-1958), B. Tanski Dancing School

(1954), and Joan Thorburn of the Espanola Dance

School (circa 1956).23

23 Sixty-five students of the Espanola Dance School in dress rehearsal for

Jack and the Bean Stalk.

It was during this second

generation of the dance scene that

the Mine Mill Union was furthering

its involvement in the arts. Despite

the disappointing (de)tour of the

Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1954, the

union sponsored the performances

of Sophia Golovkina and Leonid

Zhdanov of the Bolshoi Theatre in

1954, as well as Canadian dancer/

choreographer Willy Blok Hanson

in 1955.24 Further, they established

the Mine-Mill Dance School and the

Garson Community Dance School in 1955 under the directorship of Toronto modern

dancer/choreographer Nancy Lima Dent, where she offered classes in ballet, modern

and folk.25 Though Dent had also been commissioned to help develop an adult dance

company, she returned to Toronto in 1957 and the project remained abandoned.26

This same year, RAD ballet instructor Barbara Cook was invited from Toronto as Dent’s

successor to direct the Mine-Mill Dance School.

22 Mine Mill Dance School students as guests in the Garson Community Dance School’s recital: Gloria Barylski, Catherine

Sadick, Tini Pel, Luigi Renzella.

22 Spring flowers in Garson Community Dance School’s first recital: Margaret Kalssen, Leslie

Hoffman, Sharon McDougall, Susan Reeves, Linda Hollingshead.

26 Nancy Lima Dent.

Heralding a growing dance enthusiasm were the performances of American

ballerina Marina Svetlova in 1957, Toronto’s Don Gillies in 1958, and the National

Ballet of Canada, which returned for its second consecutive performance in 1958.27

27 Kay Ambrose of the National Ballet of Canada with dolls named after ballerinas Lois

Smith (as the Swan Queen) & Lillian Jarvis. Swan Lake to be performed in Sudbury.

In the midst of the hype, former student

of the Mine-Mill Dance School Tini Pel

started offering dance classes at the

Wahnapitae Dance School in 1957.28 By

1958, she turned her focus to a larger

project and opened the Arts Guild

school, which addressed a variety of art

forms. Her dance classes offered tap,

character, ballroom, ethnic, national, jazz,

modern, RAD ballet and examination

coaching.29 The end of Shirley’s Dance

Studio also marked this period, as Simard

returned to Toronto in 1958, selling the

studio to one of her former students who

renamed it the Marilyn School of Dancing.

Merilyn Peterkin, having also studied

with Helen Hymander, offered classes in

ballet, tap, acrobatics and baton. Further,

her affiliation with the baton-twirling majorettes of all the local marching bands

provided more performing opportunities for her dancers aside from their annual

recitals.30 Around this time, Ida Sauve began teaching classes in acrobatics, tap,

ballet, baton, modern, jazz, and modelling from her home, having trained with Helen

Hymander, Shirley Simard, Merilyn Peterkin, Nancy Lima Dent and Barbara Cook.

Young and ambitious, Sauve would eventually develop one of the foremost dance

schools in the area.31

Endnotes20 Sudbury Bell and Vernon directories, 1951-1965.21 Sudbury Bell and Vernon directories, 1953-1955.22 “Dance Student Display Their Knowledge,” The Sudbury Daily Star 25 May 1956, final ed.: 17.23 Sudbury Bell and Vernon directories, 1952-1959. “Espanola Dance School Readies Show,” The Sudbury Daily Star 2 May 1956: 3.24 “Grand Concert Thursday,” Mine Mill News 26 April 1954: 1+. “Famed Dancer Coming,” Mine Mill News 3 Feb. 1955: 5+.25 “Sudbury and Garson Dance Classes,” Mine Mill News 22 Nov. 1955: 1+.26 “Choreographer Coming to Sudbury,” The Sudbury Daily Star 7 Nov. 1955, final ed.: 5. Betty Meakes, “People ‘n’ Things,” The Sudbury Daily Star 10 June 1957, final ed.: 15.27 Betty Meakes, “Ballerina, Other Artists Outstanding In Last Concert of Current Series,” The Sudbury Daily Star 15 March 1957, final ed.: 3. “Receive Flowers at End of Evening of Dance,” The Sudbury Daily Star 18 March 1958: 13. Betty Meakes, “‘Joe Bftsplk’ Weather Frowns on National Ballet Company,” The Sudbury Daily Star 8 May 20 1958: 15.28 “Tina Pel,” Mine Mill News 26 Nov. 1957: 5. “The Second Annual Dance Recital,” Mine Mill News 9 June 1958: 8.29 “Arts Guild Dance Studio,” Northern Life 13 March 1974: B3.30 Merilyn Peterkin, telephone interview, 30 November 2004.31 Ida Sauve, personal interview, 8 October 2004.