There’s growing interest in community dance here in Canada.
Some call it dance animation, dance outreach, community dance facilitation, participatory audience development, or dance education… whatever you call it, these activities fall under the banner of community dance.
There is tremendous value in engaging with dance in different ways and with different people. Participating in dance activities exposes individuals to artmaking and art sharing, and through these experiences they learn and create, engage and grow. In connecting with the changing Canadian society, dance artists expand in their knowledge and creativity that fuels their work. Presenters, too, benefit by offering value-added experiences for their audiences.
Community dance is about and involves anybody and everybody. It includes the public, dancers, dance teachers, choreographers, presenters, managers, technicians, publicists, young people, old people, people of all cultures, people of all abilities. It’s about using our creativity and enhancing our creativity through all kinds of dance for all kinds of people.
It is exciting to see people engaging with dance in different ways in Canada; this is an area of huge potential, and may herald a renaissance for dance here. With audience numbers dwindling in many locations around the country, we need to pep up our interaction with individuals in society and reestablish dance as a relevant and value-laden part of our lives.
There’s plenty of inspiration out there - this blog weaves links between all of us working in, and dedicated to, community dance.
Dance expands through engagement.
- R
What a fantastic idea, connecting everyone!
woot!
Nice blog!
Thanks, always good posts on your blog!
I am very intersted in any information on regards to the dance in the community.
Lot’s of great stuff on here!
Thanks, Ann and Robyn, for such a lovely and helpful conversation about community dance which I have just read in this month’s Dance Current. Your dialogue opens doors to the field’s richness of visions, contexts, structures and to relevant questions. I love the delight you obviously take in your work.
Art creates places and moments where both personal and collective insight happens in remarkably truthful and resonant ways. When we expand our experience of art from just a consumer product to the making of it - to our own exploration and creation - we can also galvanize energy for engagement in the creation of positive change.
I thought that you might like to know that our new International Centre for Art and Social Change, a partnership with Simon Fraser University, focuses on the arts as activism. ICASC will bring together artists, scholars, students and activists from diverse communities in Canada and abroad. Our goals are very practical - to support and nurture existing work in this very diverse field and to provide tools for future artist practitioners and the communities with whom they work. It is very exciting to think about the dialogues, skills development, international networking and research to come.
We will keep you posted about the development of ICASC’s programs and events. Our new website should be up in late February.
Congratulations on an excellent website.
Happy New Year!
Judith Marcuse, LL.D
Artistic Producer
Judith Marcuse Projects
Potent way to bring dance and people together.