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Covering the wave of Sudbury dance training schools and studios that opened in the 1970s, as well as performances that toured through the city.
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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.