Judith Rose Marcuse (born 1947) [1] is a Canadian dancer and choreographer. She created over 100 choreographic works many of which are focused on community-engaged art for social change. Marcuse's performance and choreographic work has been recognized in Canada and around the world. [2]
Judith Marcuse began her dance training in Montreal and at 15 she moved to London to study at the Royal Ballet School where her training combined modern dance influences with a traditional classical ballet education. [1] During her early career, Marcuse performed with various companies including Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Bat-Dor Dance Company in Israel, Ballets de Genève in Switzerland and Oakland Ballet in the United States, and finally London's Ballet Rambert where Marcuse began to choreograph dances herself. [1]
In 1976, Marcuse moved to Vancouver and started her own dance company named Judith Marcuse Dance Projects Society in 1978 and then Repertory Dance Company of Canada in 1983, which later was renamed Judith Marcuse Dance Company. [3] Marcuse created Seascapes (1984), [4] Madrugada (1990), [3] States of Grace (1994), [5] Time Out (1986), The Waltz (1981), Traces (1985), Moving Past Neutral (1988) [6] and others. Marcuse created experimental interdisciplinary performances that combined art with social issues beginning with The Kiss Project (1995-2000) that became an annual festival 1995-2000. [5] Later, building on the work of art for social change innovators, such as Augusto Boal and David Diamond, Marcuse created ICE: beyond cool focused on teen suicide, FIRE …. where there is smoke exploring violence and EARTH=home emphasizing environmental protection. These projects were results of collaboration with playwrights, community consultations and local partnerships. [1]
In 2007, Judith Marcuse became a founder/co-director of the International Center of Art for Social Change (ICASC) at Simon Fraser University. At the Center she led research study from 2013 to 2019 on Art for Social Change (ASC) in Canada that focused on art that is created collectively by groups of people about what is important to them. [7] The study resulted in establishment of a two-year graduate program in ASC for the Faculty of Education at the SFU. [2] Marcuse is also Senior Fellow of Ashoka International, an organization of world’s leading social entrepreneurs.
Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies in which motion or form or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who creates choreographies by practising the art of choreography, a process known as choreographing. It most commonly refers to dance choreography.
Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in the U.S. and Europe. Although originally informed by and borrowing from classical, modern, and jazz styles, it has come to incorporate elements from many styles of dance. Due to its technical similarities, it is often perceived to be closely related to modern dance, ballet, and other classical concert dance styles.
William Forsythe is an American dancer and choreographer formerly resident in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and now based in Vermont. He is known for his work with the Ballet Frankfurt (1984–2004) and The Forsythe Company (2005–2015). Recognized for the integration of ballet and visual arts, which displayed both abstraction and forceful theatricality, his vision of choreography as an organizational practice has inspired him to produce numerous installations, films, and web-based knowledge creation, incorporating the spoken word and experimental music.
Louis Robitaille, is a Canadian ballet dancer and artistic director. He was discovered at a high school dance performance and received a scholarship to train at Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal. He danced with Anik Bissonnette in Eddy Toussaint's dance company, where they garnered acclaim. He also danced with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens as a principal dancer.
A large variety of dance companies exist in Canada, encompassing a wide tradition of dances that represent both its many indigenous cultures, as well as that of its European-descended population.
Grant Strate, was a Canadian dancer, choreographer and academic.
James Kudelka, OC, is a Canadian choreographer, dancer, and director. He was the artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada from 1996 to 2005, now serving as the National Ballet's artist in residence.
Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was considered to have been developed as a rejection of, or rebellion against, classical ballet, and also a way to express social concerns like socioeconomic and cultural factors.
The terms dance technology and Dance and Technology refer to application of modern information technology in activities related to dance: in dance education, choreography, performance, and research.
Louise Bédard is a Canadian dancer, choreographer and teacher who is active on the contemporary dance.
Crystal Pite is a Canadian choreographer and dancer. She began her professional dance career in 1988 at Ballet BC, and in 1996 she joined Ballett Frankfurt under the tutelage of William Forsythe. After leaving Ballett Frankfurt she became the resident choreographer of Montreal company Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal from 2001 to 2004. She then returned to Vancouver where she focused on choreographing while continuing to dance in her own pieces until 2010. In 2002 she formed her own company called Kidd Pivot, which produced her original works Uncollected Work (2003), Double Story (2004), Lost Action (2006), Dark Matters (2009), The You Show (2010), The Tempest Replica (2011), Betroffenheit (2015), and Revisor (2019) to date. Throughout her career she has been commissioned by many international dance companies to create new pieces, including The Second Person (2007) for Netherlands Dans Theater and Emergence (2009) for the National Ballet of Canada, the latter of which was awarded four Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
Kidd Pivot, is a contemporary dance theatre company based in Vancouver, Canada. The company, currently comprising eight full-time dancers and several guest artists, is led by its founder and artistic director, Crystal Pite. Since its formation in 2002 Kidd Pivot has toured extensively around the world, presenting several works, many of which have received awards and accolades from the international dance community.
Robert Guy Desrosiers is a Canadian dancer and choreographer. After a brief dance career, he founded the Desrosiers Dance Theatre and choreographed surreal and theatrical dances. After the company’s disbandment, he pursued a variety of artistic professions before returning as a freelance choreographer.
Jennifer Wootton Mascall is a modern dance choreographer, performer, and teacher. After completing a formal training at York University, she went on to work with several dance companies, and as an independent dancer and choreographer in parts of Europe, the U.S and Canada. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Vancouver dance company Mascall Dance Society where she teaches and choreographs.
Rachel Browne was a dancer, teacher and choreographer based in Winnipeg. In 1964, she founded Canada's longest running modern dance company, Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers, and she remained its artistic director until 1983. She remained with the company as a fundraiser and advisor, and continued to teach dance. She was awarded the Order of Canada in 1997 and the Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers performance venue was renamed The Rachel Browne Theatre in 2008. She died in 2012 in Ottawa while visiting to watch a performance at the Canada Dance Festival.
Miriam Elaine Adams is a dancer, choreographer, and dance archivist from Toronto. After performing with the National Ballet of Canada, she co-founded 15 Dance Laboratorium with her husband Lawrence Adams. It was the first theatre to present experimental dance in Toronto. In 1983, Miriam and Lawrence launched Encore! Encore! to document the works of six Canadian choreographers from the 1940s and 1950s, and in 1986 they launched a centre for archiving dance and publishing books called Arts Inter-Media Canada/Dance Collection Danse (DCD).
Karen Jamieson is a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and mentor located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Elizabeth Langley is a performer, choreographer, teacher, dramaturge, creation & rehearsal director. She is the designer of a BFA Contemporary Dance Degree, in the Contemporary Dance department at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.
Wen Wei Wang is a Chinese-Canadian businessman, choreographer, dancer, and teacher. Born in Xi'an, China, he moved to Vancouver permanently in 1991. He established the dance company Wen Wei Dance in 2003 and has since created 8 full-length works for the company. He is currently the artistic director of both Wen Wei Dance and Ballet Edmonton as of 2018.
Lawrence Vaughan Adams was a Canadian dancer, archivist and publisher. He was a member of the National Ballet of Canada from 1955 to 1960, and also performed with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and New York's Joffrey Ballet. In 1963, he rejoined the National Ballet of Canada as a soloist and then, principal dancer, leaving the company in 1969.