Opening Remarks

Lawrence Adams was Amy Bowring’s revered mentor; his example has guided and encouraged her to tackle, with determination and purpose, assorted pursuits in . As Research Co-ordinator at Dance Collection Danse, Amy has been working with the organization, on contract, for five years. Many of you may know Amy through some of the projects in which she has been involved, and also as founder of the Society for Canadian Dance Studies which can boast a solid and active membership under her direction. First introduced to Dance Collection Danse in 1993 as a student undertaking research through York University’s dance programme, Amy’s passion for dance history triggered her interest in becoming seriously involved with DCD. After completing her BA in Fine Arts, Amy earned an MA in journalism from the University of Ontario. She is copy editor for The Dance Current magazine, has written various dance articles and encyclo- pedia entries, and is researching and writing a book on the 1948-1954 Canadian Festival phenomenon. And, to add more ingredients to the mix, she is a whiz at the computer! As Dance Collection Danse undergoes its planning process for upcoming and future activities, you can expect to see Amy’s involvement with DCD increase. To work with someone who is dedicated and skilled is a blessing, but to have someone on board who is also mindful and gracious is the best.

The Editoral Committee and Board of Directors of Dance Collection Danse have dedicated this issue to Lawrence Adams, whose contribution to Canadian dance makes him deserving of ... what can I say? ... atten- tion, respect, a generous dose of laughter, and some moments of sober reflection. Miriam Adams Co-founder/Director Issue 56 Fall 2003

Opening Remarks Lawrence Adams 1936 – 2003 by Miriam Adams ...... 2 Foreword New in the Archives - Canadian Dance World Magazine by John Fraser ...... 8 by Amy Bowring ...... 3 A Dance Man for All Seasons Robert Cadwallader: August 11, 1923 – July 2, 2003 by Paula Citron ...... 9 by Kaija Pepper ...... 4 Remembering Lawrence Adams: A Tribute Discovering the Elder Dancer by Allana Lindgren...... 19 by Iro Valaskakis Tembeck ...... 4 A Tribute Evening: The Speakers Michael Crabb ...... 22 ’s Yesterday ... Today Yves Cousineau ...... 23 by Michael Sean Marye...... 6 Nadia Potts...... 24 The Magazine is published by Dance Elizabeth Chitty...... 25 Collection Danse and is freely distributed. Pamela Grundy ...... 26 ISSN 0 849-0708 John Faichney ...... 27 Dance Collection Danse Carol Anderson ...... 28 145 George Street , ON M5A 2M6 Amy Bowring ...... 29 Tel. 416-365-3233 Fax 416-365-3169 Jane Nokes ...... 30 E-mail [email protected] Web www.dcd.ca Miriam Adams ...... 31 Design by Radiance Publications 416-323-9270 [email protected] Appreciation of Linda Stearns Cover photo: Marilyn Westlake, 1984 by Linde Howe-Beck ...... 32

2 Dance Collection Danse Locke says that Vesak’s brain was always churning out new ideas for promoting an awareness of dance, and Canadian Dance World Magazine was one of the many. There has been a long tradition in Canadian dance magazine pub- ew in lishing of juggling numerous commitments while also pro- in the rchives ducing a magazine, N A and Vesak is a com- by Amy Bowring pelling example of this trait. He was Retired school teacher Harry Locke recently employed at a donated four issues of Canadian Dance World Magazine, a department store publication produced in New Westminster, BC by Norbert six days a week, Vesak and Josephine Slater in 1961/62. These hand-made taught classes and magazines contain mimeographed pages of text as well as conducted images that were painstakingly hand-pasted into each rehearsals while magazine. Some covers include a silk-screened colour coordinating this design or an actual photographic print, also hand-pasted. bi-monthly maga- They are absolute treasures and we are delighted that Mr. zine. His colleague, Locke has placed them in the DCD archives – thanks to Slater, was running writer/historian Max Wyman’s suggestion. her own busy Locke grew up dance school at the surrounded by the same time she offerings of the worked with Vesak Special theme issue on religious dance Vancouver arts on the publication. scene and he Although the first Editorial indicates that five issues admits to a child- would be published, it appears that only four made it to hood addiction to print. The sixteen-page magazine was distributed freely to the Cantonese a list of 300 individuals who are described as having an Opera. He dabbled interest that is “more than general in the field of dance.” in composing Each issue had its own theme such as the symbol of the music as a young swan in ballet, religious dance, men in dance, and ethnic man and his vora- dance. There were plans for future issues on dance writing cious appetite for and dance photography. There was also a “Canadian artistic activity con- Comments” section devoted to Canadian dance news and tinues to keep him editorials. The anonymity of the editorial team is intriguing hopping between and the reason cited was: “... we do not wish to have you concert halls, the- Special theme issue on men in dance the reader, feel that this magazine is a bid for our own atres and dance fes- opinions.” tivals. He came to know the late choreographer Norbert Vesak in the mid-1950s through the annual choreographic The final issue of Canadian Dance World Magazine indi- showcase organized by the Vancouver Ballet Society. Locke cates plans to continue in the next season; however, Vesak had been brought on board to compose music and his was committed to establishing a ballet company in obvious support of contemporary dance clinched his Vancouver and the magazine endeavour seems to have friendship with Vesak. been disbanded.

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No. 56, Fall 2003 3 Robert Cadwallader

AUGUST 11, 1923 – JULY 2, 2003

by Kaija Pepper Robert, or Bob, Cadwallader was born in Chemainus, a small mill town on Vancouver Island, in 1923. When he was fifteen, he became infatuated with the jit- terbug and formed a partnership with Viola Crucil, with whom he won a number of dance contests. Around this time, he began his formal training with a tap teach- er who came to teach once a week from nearby Duncan. Soon he began ballet and adagio classes with Florence Clough on her visits from Victoria. Crucil convinced Cadwallader to accompany her to Vancouver to study at the B.C. School of Dancing, after which he joined the exodus of B.C. dancers to New York. Cadwallader danced there from 1947 to 1959 under the stage name of Robert Calder, appearing in early broadcasts of live television, in New York musicals and at Radio City Music Hall as a soloist with the ballet. Cadwallader performed and toured with the Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre, and with the Svetlova Company, which also featured French-born Marina Svetlova, a Spanish dancer and a pianist. When this concert company appeared in Vancouver in March 1952, the Province newspaper review described him as “romantic, handsome, capable and well-schooled before the audience of nearly 2000”. In 1959, Cadwallader returned to Vancouver with his wife Eleanor Fairchild, a Connecticut-born dancer he had met during summer stock performances. They were the last owners of the B.C. School of Dancing, operating it until 1961. Following their divorce, Fairchild and their daughter, Ellen, moved to the United States. In the early 1970s, Bob Cadwallader began teaching at the Kay Armstrong Vancouver Ballet School, where he was a mainstay until the school closed in 1989. Discovering the Elder Dancer by Iro Valaskakis Tembeck

Every Thursday, winter or sum- of movement called ballet-jazz which mer, a group of women fill their lunch literally swept ’s young gener- hour taking a class in a ation off their feet in the late 1960s. health club. The class is billed simply The freedom of expression advo- as ‘Jazz with Eva’. Most of these cated by this style fitted well within women, some young, others less so, the Quiet Revolution Quebeckers know nothing of Eva’s history. Her were undergoing; it liberated the passion for dance is what attracts body and presented sensuality in a them to participate in classes taught blend of ballet technique and joyful by an older dance teacher in a club abandon danced to jazz music. It also where youth, beauty and muscle ton- reflected the flower power days with ing are the coveted goals. its bell-bottom pants, Greek-styled Eva von Gencsy was a past soloist jazz sandals and long flowing hair – with the Royal Ballet, Les perfect for head rolls! The style was Chiriaeff, Les Grands Ballets so popular that it became a common Canadiens, Radio- and CBC. A reference point – upstaging the balle- ballerina turned teacher and choreog- rina stereotype by presenting a more rapher, she pioneered a hybrid form hip, sexy, Travolta type of physical

4 Dance Collection Danse expression. Unflinchingly, ballet-jazz held its widespread documentary also reveals an endearing personality, joyful popularity until the early 1980s, a popularity that remains and serene, with a modesty achieved by maturity, and a unequalled to this day, though more prominent New Dance candour and optimism that comes from the experience of a signature styles by Montreal choreographers replaced it. long, eventful life. The footage, gleaned from the National Part of ballet-jazz’s appeal also came from the style’s acces- sibility – people were able to participate as amateurs in this contemporary expression through the various studios that offered these classes throughout the province. Von Gencsy was born in Hungary in 1924 and became a professional ballet dancer in Austria. Caught by World War II’s upheaval she came to Canada in 1948 and worked as a domestic, while also being one of the featured princi- pals of the fledgling Winnipeg Ballet. She likes to equate her life with that of Cinderella – her own Prince Charming being her career and lifelong devotion to dance. With her dance partner Eric Hyrst she left Winnipeg and moved to Montreal in 1953, drawn by more lucrative prospects of the numerous televised variety shows that the newly created CBC/Radio-Canada network was producing. Around the time when a dancer thinks of retirement Eva turned to jazz, mainly mentored by the New York teacher, Luigi. Her own knowledge of ballet allowed her to blend these two forms into a new style that served as an important popular transition and inadvertently paved the way to a better understanding of the more hermetic mod- ern dance idiom. Buoyed by the swelling tide and enthusi- asm for this dance style, in 1972 she co-founded, along with Geneviève Salbaing and Eddy Toussaint, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, a company that toured extensively and was based on the style that Eva had crafted. By 1979, a falling away with the board forced her to fly solo once again and she became a freelance teacher who guest taught in various European and American venues. These days, at the ripe age of seventy-nine, she still gives masterclasses, though on a more moderate scale. Eva von Gencsy, Swan Lake, Winnipeg Ballet, c. 1950 The weekly ritual of having a late lunch with Eva fol- Film Board and CBC/Radio-Canada archives, portrays lowing her Thursday class at the health centre brought Eva’s Canadian career which spans a half century. together some of Eva’s current ‘students’. Among them Eva von Gencsy gracefully shifted from the profession- was Mireille Dansereau, a well-known filmmaker who had al milieu to the recreational and pre-professional one, never also studied ballet for several years, and myself. It was ceasing to communicate her passion for dance to those who over lunch that the idea cropped up to produce a docu- come into contact with her. Leading a simple life of her mentary on Eva – not the standard cinematic dancer pro- own choosing, she fully embraces a carpe diem outlook, file, but one that would reveal the aging dancer, a subject living wholly ‘in the moment’ and finding a spiritual force that is all too carefully avoided in dance films. Today’s in teaching dance. Forgetting the signs of age, the hip oper- society is increasingly guilty of ageism, more so within the ation and the inevitable waning of her physical prowess neverland of dance, where youth and physical vitality (she was a spinner and a kicker), Eva joyfully on. reign. With the present mind-set geared towards the ‘here The camera captures the past and present self of this and now’, we all too often neglect or disregard our elders. mature dancer, a near octagenarian, and allows us glimpses Little is remembered of career paths forged in more diffi- of the fragile tightrope of a dancer’s career at its peak and cult and pioneering times. after its prime. Throughout her career von Gencsy’s contri- The one-hour documentary EVA was shown at FIFA bution to dance has been to pass on the essence of the art (Festival international de films sur l’art), on TV5 and CBC form through her passion and dedication. Montreal. The film presents the onstage and offstage per- sona that includes the artifice and glamour well associated EVA, a film by Mireille Dansereau, was produced by with this art form, but also goes beyond. We discover Eva’s Ciné-Plurielles Inc. It is available on VHS format in both lifestyle, her family situation, financial conditions of English or French through [email protected] or dancers and other basic elements of an ordinary life. The by phone (514) 279-9114.

No. 56, Fall 2003 5 David Earle’s Yesterday by Michael Sean Marye ... today David Earle’s highly evocative solo Yesterday (1972), delves deeply into the experiences of the lone outcast, a man confronting his flag- ging solitary plight. The solo is a simple yet powerful image carrier of the traumas and addictions that lurk in our age of modernity. When Yesterday was first performed as part of the larger work Ray Charles Suite, it captivated audiences and critics alike. I have seen this solo performed in many contexts and by many David Earle in the original version of Yesterday, 1972 great dancers, and task of paying for my next work than with the responsibili- have always marvelled at its emotional resonance and ty of safeguarding the existence of the work I had just fin- power. During my career as an artist, I have become fasci- ished. I learned of the necessity for reconstruction to attain nated with the intersection of art, emotion and psychology. a more significant place within the Canadian dance milieu. When I was considering the idea of dance reconstruction I couldn’t help but gasp audibly when after an hour of talk- during a graduate studies course at York University, ing about the Ray Charles Suite with its still-very-much- Yesterday came immediately to mind as an example of work alive-creator, David casually mentioned: “As far as I know, in which the soul or essence of the creation lives more in the Ray Charles Suite is lost.” the psyche of the dancer than the steps themselves. To be able to work with mentor and friend David Earle in recon- As I began to learn the solo from David, I realized how structing this dance work, I felt that I would be given the comfortable he felt with its dark allusions and metaphors. perfect forum to explore how the emotional and psycholog- He drew on them constantly in order to convey the mean- ical experiences and drives of a choreographer influence ing of the steps that he was coaching. He described one the creation and performance of a piece. It was extremely moment of the dance as emblematic of the “Christ symbol important to me that through the process of this project, I of being sacrificed to society”; and another as conveying a speak with the choreographer in order to record his per- figure “absolutely luminous with rage” at having been sonal insights and musings about the creative process. I felt caught out in a panicked state. A stylized slow walk for- that this would help to augment the physical cataloguing ward in the middle of the solo reminded David of “when of steps that would constitute a major part of the recon- you’re at a party and someone’s really smashed and they’re struction. coming toward you and it’s horrifying ... because they’re not the person you know and love.” I travelled to David’s rehearsal space at the Temple Studios in Guelph, Ontario during March 2003 in order to During the reconstruction period David also recount- learn the solo and to document the choreographer’s ed other experiences of the piece, including his long-time impressions about the work. relationship with the rhythm and blues music that forms the score of the solo and the way in which the reactions of As the project unfolded, I realized that throughout a the audience shaped the timing and manner in which the lengthy dance career I was often more concerned with the

6 Dance Collection Danse solo was ultimately performed. He also related how the ing the Yesterday solo often seemed to be what David was solo was influenced by the personalities and backgrounds using to recall specifics of the dance. of the dancers who performed the work. The late René I believe that this imagistic and psychological approach Highway, who as a child spent years at a residential is essential to the effective reconstruction of a choreograph- school for aboriginal children, added much to the impact ic work. This is not to say that exhaustive documentation of the solo, as David says, the “inheritance of anger that he of actual physical steps is not vital to the preservation of was able to channel” made him very “moving, very great dance works. However, I feel that as long as we have impressive to see.” the opportunity to work with living choreographers, atten- As David Earle recounted more and more memories of tion to dramatic and symbolic imagery needs at least the the piece, I began to realize what was essential in preserv- amount of attention given to strict physical documentation. ing the work from possible extinction, namely the psychic We require the clarity and three-dimensionality of the landscape and personality of David himself. Almost all the physical steps to be transported from one generation to the direction given by him during the reconstruction period next, but the soul of a great dance work always resides in was symbolic rather than structurally specific. It was as if the psyche of its originator and in the images that fired him dramatic intention was not only the key motivator to how or her to create the work. These images are the aura that the step was executed but also to how it was catalogued bring the steps of a dance to life, and this aura must not be and remembered by its creator. The dance “story” underly- allowed to die. We are always dancing a living art form.

FROM AUTOMATISM TO MODERN DANCE FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN WITH FRANZISKA BOAS IN NEW YORK

Françoise Sullivan’s desire to discover dance and life beyond the borders of her Montreal home shows that the longing for a “global acceptance of life and its riches” was an Automatist tenet by which she lived. As evidenced in her early choreography, as well as in her essay, “Dance and Hope”, in 1946 Sullivan immersed herself in New York’s Franziska Boas Dance Group with an open-minded curiosity. Excerpt: Boas’s plan for her dance group was to form a co-operative production company that would be accessible to any member and would eventually have a repertoire of members’ compositions that could be performed by company dancers trained in the same technique. It is worth noting that echoes of this sentiment can be found in “Dance and Hope” [from Automatist manifesto, Refus Global] when Sullivan states: “If the dancers want to form an emotional unit, they must be liberated and disciplined in the same direction, in accordance with the potentialities of their art.”

Allana Lindgren holds an M.A. in dance history from York University. Her dance articles have been published in both Canada and the United States. Lindgren is currently doing research for a book on the beginnings of modern dance in Canada, and completing a Ph.D. in theatre history at the University of Toronto.

$28.95 (plus M&H and GST) U.S. price: $21.95 (plus M&H) Soft cover, 157 pages, featuring images of Dédale – danced frame by frame ISBN 0-929003-54-3 Order toll free in Canada 1 800 665-5320 or via e-mail [email protected]

No. 56, Fall 2003 7 Lawrence Adams 1936 - 2003

Foreword

by John Fraser He liked to surprise you. That’s what I remember best about Lawrence. Our relationship, I admit, was unordi- nary and sometimes a little fraught. I was the dance critic for The Globe and Mail and he was the handsome classical dancer who had just quit the National Ballet and done what some of the more judgmental were calling “a Rasputin”. That meant he had grown a lot of hair, on his head and on his face, and become a kind of guru to “new age” dance with the “15” group. I remember vividly a society lady friend who had clearly fantasized about the classical dancer Lawrence Lawrence Adams as Mercutio in John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet, 1964 had been – and I won’t go too deeply Courtesy National Ballet of Canada Archives into the fantasies of middle-aged soci- ety ladies about male dancers – and her sense of loss to the point of mourning when he departed the National and could be found lurking around the shiftier, darker corners of downtown Toronto. “Such a loss, such a loss ... ” she muttered. I swear her eyes had welled up, but maybe it was the gin. The hour was late. To her the 15 Dance Lab was hell on earth and Lawrence had been possessed by devils. I told him that once and he smiled that wicked, infectious smile of his and said: “She’s right!” I had by this time fallen for the new schtick with 15 but there was no way I could explain to this lost old dame that Lawrence was off on an adventure she could never possibly understand, or even need to understand. What was so marvel- lous about those early days of 15 was the raw energy of Lawrence and Miriam and all the people gathered around them – the energy and seriousness and fun. That’s what I celebrate when I think of him today; that and the strong, shining moral centre of Lawrence Adams. Now I know “moral” is a bad word to throw into this particular equation, but I do it purposely to underscore how I came to an understanding of the Lawrence Adams mystery. I came to believe that he understood his medium better than almost any- one else working in it: dancers, choreographers, critics, designers – the whole gang. He understood it better because his honest, unpretentious and probing mind was not afraid to examine anything to do with dance and also because he did not disdain anyone or anything that seemed to him to offer a genuine chance for exploration. That’s why he was so exciting to be around. That’s why he’s so missed. That’s why I’ll never forget him.

8 Dance Collection Danse A Dance Man for All Seasons

by Paula Citron the many diverse and significant verture avenues he travelled during his At the end of the second extraordinary career. As brother David act pas de deux in the says: “Lawrence’s curiosity determined original Petipa/Ivanov his life, and meant that he would be Oversion of Swan Lake, the Swan Queen forever mixed up with new people and gently turns from Prince Siegfried new ideas. His impatience with the and swoons into the arms of Benno, ballet world propelled him to explore the prince’s friend, who drops grace- the far horizons – to find where dance fully to the floor on one knee with the could go as an art form. In short, he queen draped across his upright leg learned, he influenced, he changed.” David, Joy, Charles, Lawrence, Stella in an elegant arch. At a certain notori- and Joanne Adams, 1943 Courtesy David Adams ous National Ballet of Canada perfor- he Setting mance, David Adams and Lois Smith Lawrence Adams was was not a particularly happy child- were the principals, with Lawrence born in Norwood, an hood, and he later commented that he Adams, brother and brother-in-law to Anglophone enclave in felt uncomfortable and awkward in a the aforementioned, as Benno. The TSt. Boniface, Manitoba. He was the family that was rigid and doctrinaire. only problem was that Benno could Adams was the family jock, heav- not hold his balance, and Canada’s ily into sports such as football and prima ballerina slipped off his knee rugby. David, eight years Lawrence’s and rolled, not once, but twice, right senior, remembers how embarrassed into the footlights, leaving Benno Adams was that his brother was a spread-eagled on the stage. In fact, ballet dancer. His active life came to a Smith is convinced that it was only grinding halt when, in Grade 8, the footlights that prevented her from Adams was felled by rheumatic fever ending up in the orchestra pit. and almost died. In fact, three of the Nonetheless, in the same breath that children had close brushes with people gleefully recount this story, death. David had rickets and Joanne they also state categorically that was a blue baby. Adams never went Lawrence Adams was one of the back to school. Instead, he began a greatest demi-character dancers of his quest for self-education that he would day, combining strong technique with pursue all his life. Brother David also dazzling acting skills in roles like the theorizes that the illness had created spirited Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, in Adams a restlessness of spirit. the dissolute hero in The Rake’s In his early teens, Adams began Progress, and the dashing sea captain youngest of four siblings that includ- to study ballet with Mara McBirney in in Pineapple Poll. Choreographer John ed sisters Joy and Joanne, and brother Vancouver, not out of love of dance Cranko himself considered Adams David. His father was a mechanic per se, but to build up his strength. the greatest Mercutio in the world. who repaired cars and buses, and When he was fifteen, he came to live Being a principal dancer with a began his career by fixing up a broken with his brother David and sister-in- stunning career at the National Ballet, down Model T Ford and selling it for law Lois Smith in Toronto. “He had would alone make Adams worthy of a profit. Adams’ university-educated become a wanderer”, says David. “He note, but when he succumbed to pan- mother was a legal secretary who was ready to grow up and leave the creatic cancer at age sixty-six, this loved to change residences, and the family home.” Apparently Adams country lost a true visionary. In his family literally lived all over St. secretly took lessons with Boris post-performance career, Adams kept Boniface and Winnipeg. Adams’ par- Volkoff, a prominent Toronto ballet reinventing himself, from dance ents ultimately relocated to teacher, until he felt secure enough in experimenter to dance archivist, with Vancouver with Joanne and adoles- his craft to openly announce that he all kinds of influential pit stops in cent Lawrence, to join oldest sister was taking classes. Smith remembers between. It is doubtful that anyone in Joy, a florist. Joanne was the house- a precocious, teenage show-off, forev- dance in Canada can match Adams on keeper for the family. For Adams, it er doing splits in the living room.

No. 56, Fall 2003 9 For example, when principal dancer the National Ballet repertoire. Part of Grant Strate bought a new Plymouth their self-education (David dropped Barracuda, Adams’ first question was, out of school in Grade 9) was immers- “What does the engine look like?” ing themselves in scientific research. When Strate responded that he didn’t David recalls that they loved to inves- have a clue, Adams could not believe tigate theories, and were very keen, that Strate had never looked under for a time, on the study of alternating the hood. Even when Adams was a currents, learning through the writ- principal dancer in the National, he ings of Nicola Tesla, the man who would help out the technicians when invented electricity. Their reading they were short-handed. In the late included The Science of Being which 1970s, he began building an ultralight dealt with reincarnation, a belief aircraft and published the Canadian David still holds to this day. Homebuilt Aircraft Magazine; and later, “Lawrence had good innings this time in the mid-1990s, authored The Guide round”, he says. “Next time there will be a whole new set of obstacles he’ll have to face, but he’ll carry this learn- Lois Smith and David Adams in David's Pas de Deux Romantique, 1959 ing with him.” One of David’s fond- est memories of his brother is staying Adams’ first professional perfor- at a lodge in Port Carling, and the mance took place on July 19, 1952 at two of them lugging Lawrence’s tele- the Arena Gardens in Midland, scope up the Muskoka hills for some Ontario when he was sixteen. On serious stargazing, flashlight on the summer hiatus from the National star chart, then finding the constella- Ballet, David Adams, with Volkoff tion in the heavens. At one point, and others, had created a pick-up Adams saw a far-off trail of light company called Toronto Theatre through the clouds and in all serious- Ballet. According to David, they were ness speculated that it might be flying short a von Rothbart for the Swan saucers. Says David, “Nothing was Lake excerpts, and called on Adams, beyond the realm of possibility for who did a more than credible job – my brother.” displaying strong, clean movements and keen dramatic expression. Lawrence Adams and Lois Smith, Swan Lake he National The enterprising teenager, an Courtesy National Ballet of Canada Archives excellent carpenter, began a company Ballet called Adams Industries. He persuad- to Canada’s Railway Heritage. Says ed the bank to lend him money to Smith: “Lawrence seemed to be able According to David, his brotherT eventually accepted ballet buy a new van that he used in pursuit to do anything, and do it well.” of odd jobs, such as making custom- Dance teacher/choreographer Joan with open arms, and his joining the built loud speakers for an audio com- Phillips has a 1957 copy of Maclean’s National Ballet in 1954 was an pany. David describes his brother at Magazine that contains an article this point in his life as “a young busi- describing, in detail, the Adams/ nessman who took ballet lessons”. Smith/Adams household. Of particu- This jack-of-all-trades ability would lar interest is the Adams brothers’ come in very handy for future enter- workshop filled with a battery of prises, and stories abound about tools, including an electric drill, sol- Adams and his ingenuity. He designed dering iron, a circular saw, plus a and built the dimmer board and mind-boggling array of chisels, pliers sprung floor for 15 Dance Lab. He con- and hammers. In addition to the verted his toaster oven into a book- shelves filled with technical maga- binding machine for Dance Collection zines and manuals, there were books Danse, and in a desperate attempt to on astronomy and mathematics. stabilize deteriorating half-inch video- Other indications of the brothers’ tapes, he discovered that baking them eclecticism were camera equipment, in the oven enabled them to play per- an eight-inch reflecting telescope and fectly. As a result, Adams could never fencing foils. Adams also had a movie accept the fact that other people were camera and filmed anything and Lawrence Adams in Andrée Howard's not as interested in things mechanical. everything, including a great deal of Death and the Maiden, c. 1959 Courtesy National Ballet of Canada Archives

10 Dance Collection Danse remembers a highly intelligent, very nineteen, seven years his junior, and funny man who lived intensely in the the future Mrs. Adams won her moment. On one hand, Adams was a prince by putting him in his place. genuine good soul, and very loyal to The couple married in 1967. Strate his friends; on the other he was a calls her the lion tamer. “He was the rebel who questioned everything. adventurer”, he says, “and she was When many years later they met up the rock.” again at board and committee meet- This remarkable couple, whom ings, Sidimus felt that Adams was everyone thinks of as “Lawrence-and- still holding firmly to the issues that Miriam”, embarked on a series of pio- he had felt so important when he was neering ventures that would have a in the company, particularly the rights profound impact on dance in Canada. of dance artists and the place of dance That they were able to maintain a as an art form. “After all this time, close personal and professional life Lawrence never lost the incredible was based on their ability to work as charisma that he had as a dancer.” a team, yet allow individual space Discontented with the narrow that reflected their mutual respect and Lawrence Adams as Mercutio in world of the National Ballet, in 1960, consideration. In their all-consuming John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet, 1964 Adams took a year off from ballet, pursuit of work, and to everyone who Courtesy National Ballet of Canada Archives performing in the musical Brigadoon. knew them, they formed a complete inevitability. He too, became a princi- He then joined Les Grands Ballets unit unto themselves. pal dancer – praised particularly for Canadiens in 1961 for a year, followed When Miriam looks back, she can his charismatic stage presence, bril- by a year with New York’s Joffrey truly say that life with Adams was an liant musicality, and manly athleti- Ballet touring Europe and Asia, educational experience – even in cism. While he performed a wide returning to the National in 1963. learning to live with a model railroad diversity of roles, from the classical to winding through their apartment’s the contemporary, Adams shone in the iriam front room. In fact, Adams never lost dramatic or comedy ballets that Toronto-born his interest in science, and to many, required strong character portrayals – Miriam Weinstein he was a true genius who instinctive- a perfect showcase for his vibrant per- first became ly understood the mechanics of things sonality, acute sense of theatre, and as Macquainted with Adams in her last without the benefit of education or David points out, his seeming lack of year at the National Ballet School. He specific training. When he first met inhibition. Reality was also important had just come back from the Joffrey Miriam, he was embarrassed by the to Adams, and he would, for example, company and was staying in shape by spend hours rehearsing how a charac- taking classes at the school until he ter would stand and walk. As a result, could rejoin the National Ballet. he could take roles and make them his During the school’s Spring Showcase, own. Smith recalls Adams as a quick Adams performed in the Czardas study who did not really like partner- from Swan Lake with Weinstein as his ing. “He preferred to be alone on partner. She next caught up with stage”, she says, “because he loved Adams when she joined, and he playing to the audience.” Surprisingly, rejoined, the National in the fall of while female audience members and 1963. During a tour that season, she company ballerinas alike swooned recalls him as the company clown over Adams’ good looks and body who was always making jokes. beautiful, he never saw himself as a Determined not to conform with sexy matinee idol. He was, nonethe- everyone else in laughing at less, every inch a ladies’ man, though Adams’quips, Weinstein sharply said not a party boy. In fact, despite his – in a hotel elevator – “I don’t think The Albertan newspaper, 1967 apparent bonhomie, Adams also had that’s so funny!” On the tour bus, he an intense need for privacy. walked to the back where she was sit- fact that he did not know how to read Former National Ballet principal ting, sat down beside her, put his and write properly. He could, dancer Joysanne Sidimus regards him head on her shoulder, and fell asleep. nonetheless, make fun of himself. as a great artist who never performed All the new ballerinas might have When brother David was thinking of the same role in the same way had a crush on Adams, but they were choreographing a ballet based on because he was always finding some- also afraid of him. Miriam caught Shakespeare’s Richard III, Adams read thing new and fresh to say. She Adams’ attention by disdain. She was the play. When he announced that it was Shakespeare’s best, Strate called

No. 56, Fall 2003 11 Adams a landing at the back of the St. Lawrence Hall for a workshop. Principal dancer Yves Cousineau had Adams build him a Hi Fi cabinet (which he still has), and thus began a close business and personal relation- ship. They were roommates on the road and shared a dressing room in the theatre. When on tour, they would visit museums and galleries where Adams displayed a love of fine things as if to the manor born. The two opened up an antique shop in the cheap-rent Mirvish Village in 1963, cleverly called Adams and Yves, and Sidimus remembers that they even collected antiques on ballet tours. “A lot of the guys liked to sleep on the luggage racks during the long bus trips,” she recalls, “but they lost the space because that’s where the antiques got stored.” They also rented a table at the St. Lawrence Market Antique Show, and because they were well-known ballet dancers, Windsor Star, 1967 they were a big draw for customers. Cousineau is convinced that it was a him on it. “How do you know it’s the The Adams’ house is like a sign of Adams’ growing discontent best?” he asked, and Adams replied, bizarre dance museum. As a tangible with the National, that he began to “Because I’m a slow reader so I have metaphor of the demeaning clichés in cut classes and spend more time in to read the best!” The Adamses’ base- which society views dance, the couple his workshop. ment mirrors the anarchic science and filled their home with flea market technology workroom that Adams kitsch. A visit to the pink house at 145 had created with his brother when he George Street is an inundation into shared David’s house. A paper cutter, the wacky world of plaster ballerina book binder and table-saw sits beside figures, rhinestone dancer brooches, an array of video equipment, but and walls covered in prints and old within this totally confused maze of photos. Visiting LawrenceandMiriam machines, there was order, and work meant lots of stimulating conversa- got done. tion and never a dull moment, even if Adams created chaos as a matter one had to negotiate around Mr. Dog of norm. His desk was piled high and Stanley, the Adams’ pets. “We with paper, but he knew where every- always worried about money”, says thing was. He was a true eccentric to Miriam, “but we spent forty years whom nothing was trash. In other laughing.” words, he was incapable of throwing anything out, and he reminded dams and Miriam of the Peanuts cartoon charac- ter, Pig Pen, who travels in his own Yves dust cloud. In contrast to Adams’ Adams espoused the mayhem was Miriam’s exquisite neat- beliefA that to maintain a strong dance ness; it was Miriam who cut Adams’ career, one also had to have outside hair and bought his clothes. Image- interests to keep the mind stimulated. based concepts like neat appearance Thus, throughout his National Ballet and ordered surroundings he dis- years, Adams continued working in missed as a waste of time. Although carpentry – cleaning, repairing and Miriam admits that, on occasion, he restoring furniture. In fact, wardrobe did a superb job of vacuuming. master Jimmy Ronaldson gave Yves Cousineau with Kirby, 1959 Photo: Anne Moses

12 Dance Collection Danse rehearsal. He also As a couple, Lawrence and found aspects of the Miriam Adams dominated Toronto’s ballet world to be experimental dance scene in the shallow, and felt that 1970s, initially with their group 15 artistic values were Dancers, then via the seminal 15 being sacrificed to Dance Lab which presented avant- the business of sell- garde choreographers from across the ing dance. Says country. “Lawrence was interdisci- Miriam: “Lawrence plinary before there was even the was not being chal- word,” says Louise Garfield, one of lenged intellectually. the Lab’s cutting edge participants. He was curious and Using students from the Lois inventive, but after Smith School of Dance, in 1972 the fifteen years on Adamses created 15 Dancers with the stage, dance had Lawrence Adams in the Adams and Yves antique shop mission of encouraging their fledgling become a drag. His flock to think of themselves as cre- By the end of their six-year part- mind needed something more stimulat- ative beings and not just as a choreog- nership, Adams and Yves enterprises ing.” David feels that his brother rapher’s tool – a concept which was, also included an art gallery and a rebelled against the people in adminis- in a way, the complete antithesis of framing and print shop, with Adams tration, feeling there needed to be a the ballet feudal system. ‘Anything and Miriam cutting up the metal and change at the top, rather than against goes’ was the company motto as they glass to make the frames. Their classical dance per se. Strate sees experimented with the infinite possi- gallery, says Cousineau, showed Adams’ love/hate relationship with bilities of contemporary ballet chore- artists whom they respected, but who dance as the wellspring of his subse- ography, including text fusions and were not well known. One of their quent career. “On one hand, he wanted improvisations. As well as chore- most successful exhibits was a pot- to tear down traditional dance”, he ographing and performing, the pourri of costumes and set designs points out. “On the other, he wanted to from dance, theatre and opera from preserve it.” As Cousineau says: across the country – one of the first to “Lawrence had to be somewhere be mounted in Canada. As Miriam where he could feel he was making a points out, the art gallery had an enor- meaningful contribution. Ballet’s loss mous impact on the Adamses’ life. was dance in Canada’s gain.” “We were introduced to the visual arts community”, she says, “and would Dancers listen to them talk about their art form with a significant knowledge of its and 15 history and context, as opposed to Dance Lab dancers whose conversations revolved 15 around bodies, aches and pains. It was Miriam Adams and Lawrence Adams in a turning point for him, and planted Miriam's Watch Me Dance You Bastards, 1978 the seeds that would lead to his mis- dancers also took on the responsibili- sion of preserving dance history.” ties of publicity, lighting, costumes When the Adamses left the National, and stage tech because Adams the partnership with Cousineau ended believed that they should be general- and the couple kept the shop going ists. In fact, he is credited with coin- while teaching at the Lois Smith School ing the term “dance artist”. Their first of Dance. Both sources of income show at the Poor Alex Theatre, and would help to support their next pro- subsequent tour to Ottawa’s National jects 15 Dancers and 15 Dance Lab. Arts Centre, caused a sensation in pushing the boundaries of dance. xiting the Choreographic offerings such as Adams’ Brick Series (A Day in the Life National of a Brick, 1973 and The Brick #1, 1973) For Adams, leaving the were considered absolutely outra- ENational in 1969 was due, in part, to a geous, as was Miriam’s spoof, Another growing dissatisfaction with classical Nutcracker (1973), that deconstructed dance – not with the performance A Day in the Life of a Brick, Ottawa, 1973 the well-known ballet classic. The aspect, but with the grind of class and Brick pieces, in particular, infuriated

No. 56, Fall 2003 13 experimental videos. isus The atmo- Foundation, sphere at the Lab was a heady one the Arts and the space V played a part in the Television Centre careers of a Who’s Who of Canadian & Other Ventures dance royalty such as David Earle, Adams also recognized the potential Jean-Pierre of video production through the Perreault, Jennifer establishment of the Visus Mascall, Marie Foundation, founded the same year Chouinard, Anna as 15 Dance Lab, and managed in co- Dance Artists '75: Jill Bellos, Lily Eng, Susan Aaron, Peter Dudar, Blewchamp, operation with video artist Terry Elizabeth Chitty, Miriam Adams, Lawrence Adams, Margaret Dragu Christopher House, McGlade. Visus’ goal was to create a Judith Marcuse, video company to both record dance people who watched a light show Margie Gillis, Peggy Baker, Peter activity and to assist choreographers bounce off a brick wall being con- Boneham and Judy Jarvis, to name in producing videotapes of their structed to Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. but a few. Artists were paid a small work. Visus also had a weekly spot In the other piece, Adams floated a fee plus eighty percent of the box featuring the performing arts on the huge Styrofoam brick on the Rideau office. Tickets cost $1.50. Garfield, local Rogers Cable station. At the Canal during 15 Dancers perfor- now a film producer, was part of the same time, the Adamses also dreamed mances at the NAC. Cousineau feels Clichettes, a group born at 15 Dance of establishing a dance theatre/televi- these pieces were particularly signifi- Lab, and noted for their riotous lip- sion studio/community centre com- cant. “Lawrence was building a wall sync production numbers to popular plex and in 1976 they submitted a for the audience to cross, not one for hits of the ’50s and ’60s. Says blueprint to city council. Entitled him to hide behind. It was an invita- Garfield: “I owe my career to Studio Place, they proposed to refur- tion to dance experimentation. He was Lawrence and Miriam because they bish a former downtown Toronto a revolutionary, not a missionary.” gave me the confidence to pursue Transit Commission sub-station. But On Britain Street in the seedy dance outside a modern dance com- that plum went to Young People’s Jarvis/Queen area, the Adamses rent- pany. They practically invented the Theatre. ed part of an old factory where enam- ‘indie’ idea. Anyone could perform at When Adams found an old type- el had been baked onto washing the Lab, and they saw their purpose setting machine, it was put to use to machines. They arranged part of the as promoting the space to be as invit- further the cause and context of dance space for the picture framing shop; in ing as possible.” history. With Elizabeth Chitty as edi- the remaining area, 15 Dancers built a The Lab lasted six legendary tor, the duo published Spill (1976-78) tiny theatre with Adams constructing years, ending in 1980 when the and Canadian Dance News (1980-83). the sprung floor, sound system and Adamses determined it had run its The former featured dancers writing electrical wiring grid, among other course. Explains Miriam: “In the about dance – an important building necessities. The forty-one seats came cyclical world of dance, people were block for dance as an art form – but from the old Imperial movie theatre starting to repeat themselves and the failed to find a large enough audi- that was closing down, and they liter- work was becoming less interesting.” ence. The latter was a monthly publi- ally chiselled the mounted chairs out cation, dependent on advertising and of the concrete floor, finding subscriptions, which covered dance volunteers to launder the red from a lively national perspective. It velvet upholstery. Fifteen fell victim to the recession of the early Dancers soon disbanded and 1980s. The purchase of a new typeset- the space became the 15 Dance ting machine became a money earner. Laboratorium – its purpose was Through LAMA Labs (1977-82), the to provide a performance venue Adamses engaged in typesetting, lay- for independent dance artists out and design services for arts orga- and new dance works – the first nizations and independent artists. of its kind in Canada. Also a Given his love of technology, first were forays into perfor- Adams, an early computer enthusiast, mance art, environmental was quick to buy one when they dance, site-specific works and The Brick #1, 1973 became available. He developed com-

14 Dance Collection Danse puter software and was also a leader with camcorders. He wanted them to in scanning artifacts such as pho- become artists/producers – to broad- tographs and three dimensional en their horizons to include skilled objects. Recognizing the computer’s people from the commercial film potential, Adams established The Arts industry who could help them create Network which published dance arti- the visual impact they wanted.” cles on-line through the Bulletin To help pay the bills, the facility Board System. When Jill Officer at the was also rented out for other purpos- University of Waterloo ran out of es, particularly the lucrative market of money to continue her Dictionary of producing specialized videos for cor- Theatre Dance in Canada, Adams took porations. Nonetheless, the timing for it over in 1990, published it on floppy ATC was fatal, as corporate money disk and then put it on-line. As dance dried up with the recession of the late writer/historian Amy Bowring says: ’80s. As well, the coming of computer- “Lawrence was the original IT (infor- based multi-media convinced Adams mation technology) man.” and Faichney that they would have to In 1981, Adams had proved that close their facility. As Faichney points he was a man ahead of his time by out, like so many others have about submitting a proposal for a Pay TV Adams, he was ahead of his time – in licence for a Toronto arts and cultural this case, understanding the potential channel. Although the proposal was of digital media when the concept was shortlisted, the licence was not award- still an esoteric one. ed. The Arts Television Centre (ATC), which operated from 1984 to 1990, ncore! the Laidlaw Foundation, Sonja was Adams’ attempt to create a pro- Barton, a Saskatchewan dance teach- duction facility that he hoped would Encore! er, was hired to conduct research encourage artists to create innovative around the country, gathering oral The Adamses are also programming for television. He found history interviews as well as docu- responsible for the recon- the second-hand equipment and rent- E mentation and memorabilia. The struction of pre-1950 choreography of ed an old auto body garage on George express purpose of the project was to Canadian dance artists via the Street, which he and John Faichney prove the length, breadth and depth ENCORE! ENCORE! Project (1983- remade into a television studio. of a rich Canadian dance past. The 86). Friends remark that Adams’ Faichney worked with Adams as man- result was the monumental ENCORE! career is an anomaly because it ager of ATC; according to him, the ENCORE! Project which reconstruct- looked forward as much as it looked ATC emphasis was on how an artist ed and recorded, through notation back, but there is a logical explanation organizes a production, both from the and videotape, works by Gweneth about the latter. As said, he was fasci- technical and the artistic side. In other Lloyd, Winnipeg (Shadow on the nated by visual artists who could dis- words, Adams was an explorer in the Prairie); Nesta Toumine, Ottawa cuss their work within an historical new genre of dancefilm. Says (Maria Chapdelaine); Boris Volkoff and context. As well, when early Faichney: “Lawrence wanted to do Lima Dent, Toronto (Red Ear of Corn Canadian modern dance choreogra- more than send choreographers out and Heroes of Our Time, respectively); phers such as as well as several shorter, experimen- Nancy Lima Dent tal works by Jeanne Renaud and began attending Françoise Sullivan from Montreal. performances at 15 For Vancouver’s Expo ’86 Dance Lab, Adams Canadian Pavilion, and with publicity discovered there assistance from Patrick Gossage of was a Canadian Media Profile, the couple presented dance history he the successful There’s Always Been knew nothing Dance, based on the historical research about. they had gathered. The multi-media The Adamses production turned history into a pop- applied for a grant ular product by showcasing a sophis- to research specific ticated and complex mix of live per- and seminal pre- formance, early films, old pho- 1950 choreography tographs and videos. Directed by Jim in Canada. With Purdy, Anna Blewchamp was commis- seed money from sioned to choreograph the production, Canadian Dance News, 1981

No. 56, Fall 2003 15 “We realized we could fur- went to 15 to use Visus’ video equip- ther dance as an art form, ment in the late ’70s, and remembers not by making choreogra- a wild, intense guy scurrying through phy, but by research and the place like a whirlwind. Both writing. All we needed Anderson and Strate have each writ- was a computer.” She ten several books for DCD, and both credits Nick Laidlaw and had to deal with Adams as an editor. later the Laidlaw To say their editorial meetings were a Foundation who helped battle royal would be an understate- the Adamses out with ment. From Strate: “It was like that numerous grants, and the Japanese movie Roshamon where you arts councils on all three see the same story from four different government levels who viewpoints. I was the author, but began to recognize the Lawrence was locked in his point of In rehearsal for Gweneth Lloyd's Shadow on the Prairie: couple’s mission. DCD view, and was always prodding you Josephine Andrews, Gordon Wales, Carlu Carter, Sharon Wehner, Loney Reece, Andrea Smith, Sonya Delwaide, book titles include biogra- to do what he wanted. Your view- Gweneth Lloyd; seated: David Adams, Debbie Chapman phies on Maud Allan, June point kind of disappeared.” And from Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann Roper, Jean-Pierre Perreault, Anderson: “I sat with Lawrence and Judy Jarvis and Arnold Miriam as they edited my book by with live performances by actors Spohr, as well as critical writing on reading it out loud. He had this thing Jackie Burroughs and Ricardo Keens- dance by Carol Anderson, Patricia about language and the discourse of Douglas, and ballerina Vanessa Beatty and Mary Jane Warner, among dance, and was obsessed about clari- Harwood. The fourteen performances, others. DCD also publishes a magazine ty, and the meticulous expression of which presented an overview of that showcases profiles of lost dancers what dance needed to say. I literally Canada’s theatrical dance history, and choreographers, as well as other had to fight my way from word to played to enthusiastic audiences and research projects. Hand in hand with word, and comma to comma. generated widespread press coverage. DCD’s success, however, was the frus- Nonetheless, I’m grateful to be pub- As exciting as the post-National tration that there would always be a lished because few are publishing Ballet years were for the Adamses in small market terms of vision and daring, they were for books on also filled with disappointment, as dance. ventures either ran their course or Along the petered out due to lack of funds. “We way, the couple got back on track”, Miriam says, became more “when we started publishing both astute about electronic and print books. This was the importance the way we could convince people of public rela- that Canadian theatrical dance history tions for dance was a worthwhile cause to pursue.” history. For example, in ance 1992, they host- ed the Last/ Collection Lost Dance Danse Symposium to D introduce a The Birdsall Sisters Collection, 1921 Dance Collection Danse was the obvi- wider audience to the preservation of Dance Collection Danse Archives ous successor to ENCORE! ENCORE! dance by initiating a discourse on the Founded by the Adamses in 1986, value and significance of Canada’s dance books. I’m sorry I didn’t have a DCD preserves Canada’s dance histo- dance legacy. The event launched chance to tell him that.” ry with the largest dance archives in Karen Rennie’s (now Stewart) book Amy Bowring first met up with the country comprising oral histories, Moon Magic: Gail Grant and the 1920’s Adams when she was a York house and souvenir programmes, cor- Dance in Regina, gilded by perfor- University dance major. She came to respondence, photographs, posters, mance excerpts of Anna Blewchamp’s George Street to search DCD’s newsclippings, videotapes, film, set monumental reconstruction of archives on the Ballets Russes’ perfor- designs, scrapbooks, choreographic Gweneth Lloyd’s lost 1942 master mances in Canada. “Lawrence’s love notation, costumes, backdrops, and work The Wise Virgins. of dance history was intoxicating”, organizational and company records. Choreographer/writer Carol she says. “Listening to him talk on DCD is also this country’s only dedi- Anderson first met Adams when she the phone as he learned about a new cated dance publisher. Says Miriam:

16 Dance Collection Danse the point of murder. Says Anderson: n Original “Lawrence was like a lion who loved As a knight errant in to shake his mane and roar. He defence of dance, and an delighted in a good tussle and the iconoclast against elitism need to tease things into the light, just Aand bureaucratic smugness, Adams for the sake of a good airing.” locked horns with a considerable When Adams was convinced that number of people across the country. an undertaking was important, he A man of flinty integrity, his sense of would goad people into doing things outrage and injustice would rear its they might not ordinarily have time head at the short-sightedness of oth- for. I have first hand experience, hav- ers. In fact, playing devil’s advocate ing being guilted into a commentary was one of his missions in life, and he on Robert Desrosiers’ 1982 work Bad was particularly interested in putting Weather. A phone call from Adams to the test how people functioned and never requested one’s participation. what made them tick when it came to He took it for a matter of course that arts issues. To know Adams meant the project would happen by com- being provoked, challenged, irritated pletely ignoring one’s sputtering and infuriated. Says Miriam: excuses. Or else he would end play “Lawrence had his own agenda. He you. In my case, when I told him how was deliberately provocative because he wanted to make people angry in The Fleurette McCuaig Collection, c.1936 Dance Collection Danse Archives order to get them to think. He enjoyed discovery, or as he conducted an oral being a troublemak- history, was inspiring. He loved peo- er, but he was almost ple’s stories and he always had time always right, which for them – whether it was a little old used to make me lady in Chilliwack, or an important mad. His insight and choreographer.” Bowring was so judgement were impressed with the boxes and boxes very astute.” of playbills that permeated the house His colleagues that she made DCD her second home. (including this writ- The couple finally found the money er) forgave him his to offer her a summer research job, curmudgeonly ways and Bowring is now DCD’s research because we knew his co-ordinator. Lawrence’s aim was to motives were to con- make sure that dance had the same stantly question respect as other art forms, and that it complacency. For did not disappear through neglect. example, no sooner His motto was that to popularize had Cathy Levy Canadian dance history, you had to been appointed the tell a good story, and he spent the last new head of years of his life putting those stories Ottawa’s Canada into print. Another goal was that Dance Festival in DCD be a courier service, not a bus 1990, when Adams stop. In other words, the collection phoned her, the first had to get out to the people. of many unsolicited calls, to lecture Photo: Miriam Adams In Bowring’s view, Lawrence and her on what her producing values busy I was, he conned me by suggest- Miriam Adams have simply done should be. Strate recalls that when ing a compromise. He would inter- things in dance that no others have Adams was on the Dance in Canada view me on the phone and that text attempted. To her, they are also dance’s board, stormy meetings were the would become the article. Of course, most overlooked couple, never, for norm, because Adams would never when he sent me the verbatim tran- example, having been appointed to the be willing to change his mind. Rather, script of the phone call, he knew I Order of Canada. he would wait until everyone else couldn’t let the hems and haws and changed theirs, even if they were on repetitions and speech fragments

No. 56, Fall 2003 17 writing a book, Stagecraft for Dancers, a manual to address theatricality and performance aspects often overlooked in pursuit of technique. He was also in the process of designing web exhi- bitions through harvesting Dance Collection Danse’s archival materials. Adams does, however, leave a mighty legacy, specifically making Canadians aware that this country has a dance history anchored in a true creative spirit. In a self-fulfilling prophecy, Adams on several occasions had told his wife that he wouldn’t live past sixty-five. “He didn’t want to deal with aging and infirmity,” says Miriam. “If he couldn’t work, he did- n’t want to be alive.” Yet, the death of this larger than life, charismatic dance Lawrence and Miriam, 1988 icon was a shock to everyone who énouement knew him. Says Strate: “Even though stand, and that I would be obliged to Lawrence was in his sixties, I always The first signs of Adams’ shape the conversation into some- thought of him as a young man illness were depression, thing meaningful – which I spent a because he never lost his youthful then the loss of energy considerable amount of time doing. idealism.” So much for being busy! Dand appetite. It was a virulent cancer that spread quickly, but he was deter- Adams also perfected a way of mined to keep it a secret so he could keeping people working closely with With thanks to David Adams, appear to carry on as normal. He Miriam Adams, Carol Anderson, Amy him – like Faichney who was a close refused to die in the hospital. He told Bowring, Yves Cousineau, John Faichney, associate for ten years – even though Miriam that he did not want to deal Louise Garfield, Cathy Levy, Susan Adams could be completely exasper- with sympathy time that would eat Macpherson, Linda Maybarduk, Joan ating. He simply swept people up in into his work time. In the last three Phillips, Joysanne Sidimus, Lois Smith his tail wind, and assumed that they months of his life when the cancer and Grant Strate. wanted to do battle as a way of work- took firm hold, he never gave in to ing. Faichney declares that people his illness, nor did he ever give up his stayed with Adams because he questing spirit. Even when he was inspired them. From a social point of housebound and receiving palliative view, Adams was incapable of care, he still wanted to debate the phi- ‘schmoozing’ or networking to foster losophy of Emmanuel Kant. When he his visions. In fact, he just wanted to knew the end was near, he called a do his work, and refused to do the board meeting to discuss the continu- public relations that comes with the ation of Dance Collection Danse, but territory. It was the more socially he did not live long enough to see it astute Miriam who was asked to through. serve as a board member for various Yet this rough-hewn fighter who arts organizations. Abrupt and intimi- would give no quarter displayed an dating, Adams was, nonetheless, in unexpected tender side in his latter public gatherings, unfailingly gentle- days. Miriam found out that Adams manly, even gallant, despite his sar- had called her cousin, and left a mes- castic wit. He was also very, very sage on the answering machine, funny and could have been, in the requesting her to look after Miriam opinion of many, a stand-up comic. when he was gone. She was deeply touched. At the National Ballet of Canada’s 50th Anniversary, 2001 Sadly, Adams left many projects Photo: Joysanne Sidimus unfinished. For example, he and brother David were in the middle of

18 Dance Collection Danse Remembering Lawrence Adams: A Tribute

by Allana Lindgren

Photo: Miriam Adams, 1983

He was absent ... yet everywhere. the Great Hall, the main room where the proceedings were Shortly after Lawrence Adams’ death, several people to take place. Shortly before well-wishers started to appear urged his wife Miriam to organize a special event to pro- in the early evening, committee members loaded two long vide an opportunity for friends, colleagues and family to rectangular tables with food and wine. honour his extraordinary life. As a result, Miriam assem- Lawrence, looking handsome and assured in a royal bled an organizing committee that, besides herself, includ- blue suit, adorned the cover of the programme for the trib- ed Mimi Beck, Amy Bowring, Louise Garfield, Pamela ute. The photograph of him was from a performance work Grundy, Sallie Lyons, Clare and Heinar Piller, and Michael Miriam had created in 1983 called The National. A satire on Ripley. Within weeks they arranged to hold the event at the CBC nightly newscast, the piece presented Lawrence, Toronto’s historic St. Lawrence Hall, coordinated a series of as weatherman, in a series of slides including the one used speakers, engaged Laura Taler to create a video tribute, and for the programme in which he stood outdoors, a globe drafted a schedule for the evening no less detailed and resting on the ground in front of him – man with the world daunting than the staging of a professional production. at his feet. On the programme’s back cover was a close-up On the appointed day, May 14, 2003, a sense of antici- from the same series. In this photograph Lawrence was pation grew as committee members arrived around noon to holding the globe on his shoulder like a defiant Atlas. begin setting up. A few hours later, after the curtains had Before the proceedings began people sipped wine and been drawn shut to block out the late afternoon sun, the mingled in the Great Hall’s ancillary rooms or examined a gas-lit chandelier, sconces and fireplace cast a warm glow display of books published by Dance Collection Danse over the salmon-coloured walls and decorative ceiling in Press/es. Of course, here too, Lawrence could be found.

No. 56, Fall 2003 19 His presence was evident not only in electronics repairs for other dancers the range of topics the Press/es had in order to remain intellectually and published, but as a self-taught print- creatively challenged. er/bookbinder, several of the vol- Nadia Potts, a former principal umes literally bore his fingerprints. dancer with the National Ballet and Strangers struck up conversations by currently the programme director of asking, “And how did you know dance at Ryerson University provided Lawrence?” Eddie Kastrau, as roving levity as she recalled a series of cameraman, moved through the humorous and typical anecdotes crowd stopping to record favourite about Lawrence. The most infamous Lawrence anecdotes, while in one cor- involved a guest lecture Lawrence ner a television monitor had been set Allana Lindgren, Amy Bowring gave to a group of second-year Photo: Andrew Oxenham up to play back the recorded memo- Ryerson performing arts students in ries to groups of people lingering book Dancers and Choreographers: A which the aim beneath his outrageous near the bar. Selected Bibliography, lives in New antics was to shock the students into For a private and rather solitary York and had never met Lawrence in thinking seriously about their career man, Lawrence seemed to know person. Nevertheless, she had devel- choices while urging them to pursue everyone. More to the point, if friends oped a telephone friendship with him meaningful, not just material, goals. comprise a composite of personality, it over the years and travelled to Lawrence’s visit to Ryerson has is possible to surmise that the man Toronto especially to attend the trib- become so legendary that it was even who had assembled such an assort- ute. Most moving was the presence of recounted during a panel on peda- ment of people was eclectic in his Linda Stearns who was ill with cancer gogy for university theatre professors interests, conversant in several fields that would claim her own life just at the annual Association of Canadian and, quite frankly, extremely well-con- two months later. Theatre Research conference in 2002. nected. Consequently, it soon became With 300 people in attendance it Lawrence not only created con- clear that although the evening was a was standing room only, and the troversy in his later years, however. formal tribute of speeches and a short Master of Ceremonies, arts writer In 1969 Lawrence and Miriam left the videotape made especially for the Michael Crabb, apologized for the National Ballet. In so doing they event, the real tribute was in the num- late start as more people continued to turned away from the world of ber and diversity of people who were squeeze through the doors. Those princes and swans and started 15 present and those who sent their con- unable to appear paid their respects Dancers and later, 15 Dance dolences. Writer and the Master of including Lawrence’s brother, David Laboratorium, to provide a venue and Massey College, John Fraser. John Adams and David’s former wife Lois environment for artistic experimenta- Harvey of TheatreBooks. Jim Garrard, Smith, the first National Ballet celebri- tion. Elizabeth Chitty met Lawrence the Executive Director of the Toronto ties. Greetings were also sent from during this time period. As Chitty Arts Council. The Canadian theatre Celia Franca, Arnold Spohr, Judith spoke of her experiences with world was represented by Tom Marcuse, Paul-André Fortier, Max Lawrence and Miriam while they test- Hendry and David Gardner. Wyman, Kaija Pepper, Grant Strate ed the artistic potential of the then Those people wishing to speak and many others. new technology of video, or as they with Miriam Adams formed an St. Lawrence Hall was an appro- typeset and printed their own dance impromptu receiving line. CBC direc- priate place to remember Lawrence magazine, Spill, or as their revolution- tor, Eric Till. CBC archivist, Laurie Adams. Not a saint, he had nonethe- ary ideas incited vitriolic responses at Nemetz. DCD Magazine printers less spent many years in the building the Dance in Canada Association Mike MacDonald and Carolyn sharing his name when he was a meetings, it was impossible not to feel Klymko from Ampersand Printing in young dancer with the National Ballet the excitement and passion of this Guelph. In scanning the crowded of Canada. Those were the days when period when, as Chitty so eloquently room it was possible to spot film the company called the Hall home stated, “We were fuelled to use our director Norman Campbell and his during the summer months before minds with our bodies, where experi- wife Elaine. relinquishing the space to the mentation was an ethic.” Not surprising, the dance com- Salvation Army who converted it Dancer Pamela Grundy recalled munity was out in force. David Earle. back into a hostel for indigent men that her first memory of Lawrence Christopher House. . during the winter. Those were the and Miriam was at the 1974 Dance in Patricia Beatty. James Kudelka. Bengt days when Lawrence shared a dress- Canada Association conference when Jörgen. Rina Singha. Danny ing room with Yves Cousineau, the she saw the couple standing behind Grossman. Serge Bennathan. Joost first invited speaker to address the their van with its doors open to Pelt. Claudia Moore. Nancy Lima audience. Cousineau reminded every- exhibit a mess of video equipment. Dent. Leslie Getz, the founder and one that even as a ballet star in ascen- Though her words were personal and editor of the bibliographic publication dance, Lawrence had pursued other expressed in the form of a letter Attitudes and Arabesques as well as the interests such as carpentry work and addressed to Lawrence, Grundy

20 Dance Collection Danse summed up the feelings of many in veying the reckless derisiveness of removed the box. It is through this attendance when she said that youth as Mercutio in John Cranko’s kind of determination that one gets Lawrence and Miriam had always Romeo and Juliet. Lawrence, with a the sense that Miriam was the con- made her feel like she belonged in the bushy beard and long ponytail, exit- stant centre around which Lawrence’s dance community. ing the stage door of the National frenetic energy spun itself into prolific John Faichney, who had worked Ballet. A voiceover of Lawrence jok- accomplishments. It was through her with Lawrence at the Arts Television ingly interviewing himself in 1973 as words that glimpses of the very pri- Centre in the 1980s, spoke next. he lamented the state of dance. vate Lawrence Adams emerged – a According to Miriam, Faichney was The central motif of Taler’s film man whose concern as he was dying one of Lawrence’s few close male was a brick. The brick’s strength, its was that his wife not be forgotten by friends. Listening to Faichney describe potential to construct foundations and her friends while she grieved. his relationship with Lawrence, it was to forever endure made it an apt After the speakers, the evening easy to imagine two friendly oppo- metaphor for Lawrence, the artist and continued for a few hours. The old nents engaged in intellectual tussles, the man. Moreover, for a time in his gang from the National Ballet posed baiting and debating each other. Quiet, 15 Dancers’ period, the brick became for a group picture. More wine was yet impassioned, Faichney also Lawrence’s main creative inspiration consumed, empty glasses became lit- reminded the audience that Lawrence’s and tool as he experimented with ter. The bricks left damp outlines on caustic criticism was underpinned by a bricklaying in a series of perfor- the white linen. When almost all of darker, contemplative side that was mances. During one such perfor- the guests had gone, the planning acutely trenchant about his own and mance, he appeared on stage and built committee started to sweep up. the world’s shortcomings. a brick wall. During another, he and Bottles of beer were opened and a Carol Anderson, the most pub- other members of 15 Dancers floated a kitchen party of sorts ensued. Events lished author in the Dance Collection giant Styrofoam brick down the of the evening were recounted, the Danse Press/es stable, spoke of Rideau Canal in Ottawa. Following remaining food wrapped. In the end, Lawrence as editor and publisher. Taler’s lead, bricks were used at the everyone agreed the tribute had Like all the speakers, Anderson stood tribute to hide the green plastic con- worked its magic. at the microphone, illuminated in the tainers of decorative potted tulips and The final image in “Remembering darkened room by a single spotlight were arranged as centerpieces on food Lawrence Adams” before the screen as if speaking a soliloquy. The sense tables in the Great Hall. fades to black is a photograph of of solitude created by the lighting, After the film, Jane Nokes, the Lawrence taken by Vanessa Harwood however, did not stop many of the chair of Dance Collection Danse’s in November 2001 at the National other DCD writers nodding in recog- board of directors spoke, revealing Ballet’s 50th Anniversary Reunion. nition of Lawrence as the meticulous that her relationship with Lawrence The photograph is startling because it wordsmith and painstaking reader was an ongoing parry of witticisms. A is so recent. It is difficult to accept Anderson conjured. professional archivist and leader in that this is not just the latest picture The most poignant moment of the her field, Nokes described a of Lawrence, but the last. Yet, it is also evening came when Amy Bowring Lawrence, who, in wanting to pre- possible to study this photograph and spoke. Chosen by Lawrence and serve the past, raced into the future see, in his receding hairline and the Miriam to master the workings of with his ideas about data manage- lines around his eyes, the old man Dance Collection Danse, Bowring ment that, almost twenty years later, that Lawrence might have become. recalled how Lawrence either intimi- are now standard practice. He looks directly at the camera, his dated people with his gruff manner When Miriam Adams, the last expression enigmatic. or inspired them. In speaking of how speaker of the evening, approached Lawrence was a complex man. she hoped to continue contributing to the podium, Michael Crabb rushed to He was a ballet star who fixed radios the vision Lawrence had created, hand her a box of Kleenex. “I have a in his spare time. He was a critic of emotion overcame her. The empathy system,” she said, arranging her sacred cows, yet believed in the in the room was palpable. papers, “and that’s not part of it.” She mythopoeia of Canadian dance histo- Then the lights went down and ry. He was given to witticisms but Lawrence appeared. Larger than life, tethered to melancholy. A restless as usual, but cast on a projection autodidact, he was also a patient screen. In “Remembering Lawrence mentor. He was an iconoclast who, Adams (‘ ... and his assault on the for better or worse, has become an mysteries of the brick ... ’)” by film- icon. Gifted. Humble. Kindhearted. maker Laura Taler, a lifetime passed Curmudgeonly. Lawrence Adams was in twenty minutes. Lawrence, stand- never interested in accumulating ing in front of a fence as a child. material wealth, but leaves his friends Lawrence, dashingly handsome, an immeasurably richer for having Rita Davies, Elaine and Norman Campbell, known him. undeniably splendid dancer, perform- and Miriam Adams ing in Pineapple Poll. Lawrence, con- Photo: Andrew Oxenham

No. 56, Fall 2003 21 A Tribute Evening

The Speakers Photographs by Andrew Oxenham

Michael Crabb Yves Cousineau Nadia Potts Elizabeth Chitty Pamela Grundy

John Faichney Carol Anderson Amy Bowring Jane Nokes Miriam Adams

M ichael Crabb Lawrence is the star of Master of Ceremonies “ this evening’s event Welcome everyone to this historic hall for a celebration Lawrence Adams was an honest, no nonsense man. He of the life of Lawrence Adams. was a knight in shining armour, standing up for all” of Naturally this is a poignant moment, a moment dance in Canada. He will be sorely missed. tinged with sadness. That’s why you’ll find boxes of tis- Max Wyman, dance critic and historian, a collection sues strategically placed. But I hope there will also be of whose writings Lawrence and Miriam published a opportunities for laughter, since Lawrence always few years ago, sent a lengthy tribute from which there enjoyed a good laugh. is only time to excerpt. Max writes: There are many people who would like to have Like many people, I always found the rebellious and been here, but for various reasons could not. One of anarchic side of Lawrence part of his charm and attrac- them lives just outside and sent me this mes- tion. He didn’t fit anywhere, and even when he tried to sage to read for you tonight: – his days at the National Ballet, for instance – he only Today I remember an only brother and an important fitted in by standing out ... He had a lusty and down- early workplace. They were both named Lawrence and to-earth delight in ideas and discoveries that made the they have both gone from my life. climate around him more congenial, gave a sparkle and That message – just a part of a longer one – was, of a warmth to our days. That is a rare and wonderful way course, from Lawrence’s older brother, David Adams. to have lived a life. Yes, Lawrence is gone from our lives. However, I Lawrence is the star of this evening’s event and if don’t believe people just vanish. Though they may dis- he could stand where I am now I think he would not appear from sight, the life they have lived certainly only be deeply touched, but delighted and impressed does not. You don’t judge a life by the number of years by the range of disciplines represented, and by the lived, but by the quality of that living, and Lawrence range of generations present. This is a big crowd, a full lived his years to the hilt. house you might say. Lawrence would be pleased. As you can imagine, David Adams was not alone Miriam Adams has invited a number of people to in sending a personal message. speak this evening and I ask you to join me in welcom- My old friend Arnold Spohr, for thirty years artistic ing the first of these – many of you will remember him director of the , asked me to read this: from his dancing days with the National Ballet.

22 Dance Collection Danse woodworking, electronics, repairs of all kinds. Many ves Cousineau are grateful for the work he did for us. I still have a wonderful mahogany Hi-Fi cabinet that he built for We are here today to pay hommage to a me while I was studying mime in Paris. Y friend who has left us. A friend who During our tours across Canada and the United would not altogether approve of this reunion. But States, Lawrence and I would find time to visit art understand, Lawrence, that we are here to show galleries and antique shops. We had no money to how we cared about you and loved you ... and spend, but something else was developing. In one of love always has the last word. the towers of the St. Lawrence Market was the C’est une histoire d’amour. National Ballet Company’s wardrobe. He managed to Lawrence’s death caused me to recall my past – a obtain a space to set up a workshop for construction and very satisfying, yet difficult, process. The most repairs. Waddingtons auction house was in front of the splendid time we spent together was not only on St. Lawrence Hall and we would purchase numerous the stage, but also in this hall, this “St. Lawrence” odd items to restore. Tepperman’s wrecking yard was Hall ... where we had ample room to move, to another of our haunts. We drove to Montreal to visit train, to rehearse; where Cecchetti was the order of the buildings being demolished to make way for the day. Perhaps unknown to the public, there was Expo ’67 and discovered some exceptional antiques. so much talent – cut and uncut – when in the 1950s We also went to Quebec City and the Charlevoix Canadians from across the country met to form the region in our searches. nucleus of the National Ballet Company. We When we decided to present some of our worked under harsh conditions, and weekly remu- antiques for a sale in the market, one of our friends nerations amounted to what you would pay today suggested the obvious name, Adams & Yves. We for a decent meal. began this partnership on Markham Street. Ed As dancers in the corps de ballet we learned Mirvish was gener- the various dances of the classical repertoire and ous enough to rent, we also learned to stay in line! Season after season for a minimal fee, a Everything we developed our talents. Lawrence’s, from the basement space for our beginning, was remarkable. A born dancer, he had store. There, we were in the artistic something very fine to express. After a while, able to show some of “ though, he was not being challenged enough; he the costume designs world was in left to try his wings elsewhere. He returned and that were being created was soon recognized as an exceptional performer. for the National Ballet. the making What his talent needed was strong and capable So, a small gallery was artistic direction and constant support during his being started. Within three years we created three development. We saw him transform when John shops on Markham Street. Our first show at the ” Cranko came to Toronto to stage Romeo and Juliet. Adams & Yves Gallery was on theatre set and cos- One cannot forget Lawrence’s contribution as tume designers Jürgen Rose, Desmond Heeley, Tania Mercutio to this great ballet. Cranko brought us Moiseiwitsch and Mark Negan whose work we con- the blood transfusion we all required. While he sidered very important. was here, Cranko also rehearsed his ballet I think the seed for the Dance Collection Danse Pineapple Poll, infusing us with a refined approach archives was planted on opening night of Celia to his work. And to Lawrence he provided insights Franca’s ballet, Cinderella. Our good friend and direc- into the character of Poll that motivated him to tor on the Ballet’s board, M. Tony Cassel, came back- shine in the role and to deliver the brio and the stage and said, “I have a proposition to make to you. masculinity, the bravado, that was so compelling. The National Ballet is in dire need of an archives, We were the first precious stones of the National nothing is being done and we have lost so much over Ballet and there were many of us, if I may say. We the years – could you please consider this.” I don’t did not come to professional dance because we had think Lawrence did anything about the archives of developed through instruction from a fine teacher, the National Ballet, but he and his wife Miriam, we came because we had a passion for the art form, years later, founded something much bigger and far because we found that dance was a unique way to more important. They created a national archives of express ourselves. We gave of ourselves voluntarily, the dance in Canada. not expecting a full-time job. As dancers and inter- As I leave you, let me tell you a joke that preters we outgrew the fairy tale ballets. There was Lawrence enjoyed hearing. Before the opening of a so little else to feed on in Toronto at the time. play, Sarah Bernhardt asked a young actor if she had Everything in the artistic world was in the making. stage fright, or as we call it in French, “le trac”. The Lawrence kept very busy in his free time – girl answered “No”. Sarah responded, “Don’t worry it will come with talent.”

No. 56, Fall 2003 23 adia Potts

I have known Lawrence Adams over a year dancers and actors. He asked me to suggest some- N period of forty-eight years. one who could give a one-hour lecture. I gave him I remember Lawrence’s dancing in such roles as Lawrence’s number and warned him that Lawrence the Captain in Pineapple Poll, the officer in Offenbach in might be a bit off-the-wall, but certainly would be the Underworld, the prince in Nutcracker and, of course, interesting. as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. There has never been Lawrence started by taping signs on the black- anyone, neither actor nor dancer, who has ever por- board that read, “Foul language may be used in this trayed the role of Mercutio better than Lawrence. presentation.” After talking about Dance Collection For me, the best way I can capture Lawrence Danse he threw out, as was Adams is by relating a series of anecdotes which have, his way, a rather controversial He made and will always, remain with me. comment. “Dancers don’t read. When I first joined the National Ballet company I This accounts for them being so a point of stupid.” The dancers were left “ definitely had that sweet, innocent, virginal look. People were always trying to get me to “let go”. defensive and speechless while shocking Once, when Lawrence overheard one of these the actors, who naturally talk conversations, he intervened in my defence and told more, came to their defence. He them into everyone to leave me alone. He said that I had things had made a point of shocking thinking very much together, knew exactly what I was about, them into thinking. and would end up doing very well. The fact that an Lawrence, silencing an actor who “older man” would stand up for me and thought that I proudly announced that he was interested in pursuing was doing fine gave me confidence. His comments commercial work, referred to it as “a pile of shit”. He” helped me through some tough times. encouraged the students to take risks to pursue high art My next memory is of North Bay, on tour. At the and to do work that was meaningful. Later he comment- age of eighteen, I was one of the lead cancan girls in ed to Mark: “I wish I knew then what I know now.” Offenbach in the Underworld – a definitely ‘not me’ kind After talking for more than the required hour the of role. I didn’t have much time to learn the part and students took a break and Mark had quite a time set- was feeling quite uncomfortable. Just before my debut tling them down. For the rest of the class everything performance Lawrence insisted that I come up to his Mark said returned to one of Lawrence’s comments. I dressing room. He proceeded to draw a beauty mark later found the students in the hallway outside my on my cheek in the shape of a spade, much to the office still heatedly in discussion. I can safely say that it delight of all present. He stood in the wings especially was the most famous lecture ever given at the Theatre to observe my debut performance and watched my School and is remembered clearly by everyone who attempt with great amusement – at the same time, in a attended. very supportive manner. I think that Lawrence often My last encounters with him, especially this past found people entertaining, and if he didn’t find them fall, were regarding a subject dear to his heart. entertaining he found ways to make them entertaining. Lawrence had an obsession about preserving dance. I Next came Lawrence’s words of advice. When I had come to him with a project involving the recording was about to get married he said, “To make a marriage of ’s classes and he put me in touch with work you have got to talk, just keep talking.” Rhonda Ryman who was working with DanceForms – Later when I became the Dance Program Director an extension of the LifeForms computer software. With at Ryerson University, he would occasionally drop by Lawrence’s encouragement, I am exploring the use of my office to make sure I was doing what he thought computer-generated renderings of ballet positions to were the right things. He was constantly trying to push enhance the word descriptions of a selection of Betty’s me into doing more. I would think, what is it this time, classes. This program could lead to the preservation of what does he want from me now? Lawrence could choreography right at the source of its first staging. often be quite aggravating, but his suggestions always Hopefully, more people will get involved with this new gave me something to think about. technology. Just after we launched a new four-year BFA pro- Whenever I think about Lawrence I always gramme in Dance at Ryerson I was approached by remember his laugh. I would like everyone to take a Mark Ceolin who was teaching, for the first time, a few seconds to recall your memories of Lawrence’s course called Performance Arts in Canada to second- unique laugh.

24 Dance Collection Danse lizabeth Chitty

When I got the phone call telling me of With Terry McGlade, Lawrence and Miriam had E Lawrence’s death, after the shock and disbe- a video organization, Visus. It was typical of lief, my first thought was – “I don’t know who I’d be Lawrence to be fired up by a brand new technology without Lawrence.” like video and in keeping with his life-long passion I knew Lawrence best during the years of 15 Dance as guardian of Canadian dance history. I remember Lab, in the mid to late ’70s. I first set foot in the black spending endless hours behind a camera at 15 under box theatre on George Street and met Lawrence, Lawrence’s direction as we transformed dances into Miriam, Mr. Dog and Stanley in December of 1974, my video. We would never think of doing a fixed shot. final year at York University, dancing for Jennifer There was no such thing as an archival video, we Mascall in her first show which was the second show shot for the camera. of 15 Dance Laboratorium. In January I saw Lawrence Lawrence and Miriam and I created a little dance and Miriam’s installation at the parallel gallery, A rag called Spill. In a corner of 15, we typeset, cut negs Space, where they sat on the board of directors. I inter- and used all the prehistoric tools of cheap newspaper viewed them for an article published in the York Dance production of the time. The editorial policy was one Review in Spring 1975 and I’d like to read an excerpt: of “non-editing”. What they do is what they haven’t already done, it being This got us into various hot waters. In the end, essential to them to “re-define dance continuously, to Spill was done in by an incident in which a disgrun- hold no reverence for established definitions.” It is nec- tled dancer’s boy-friend sent in a string of nothing essary for them that doing be an adventure and that the but expletives, which was a dare calling us on the non- process of doing be kept alive. editing policy. The term, “independent choreographer” was In the rigidity invented at 15, modelled on the term, “independent of my youth- filmmaker”. In those days, it carried with it a rejection ful idealism, I grew up with an of the model of the dance company and its hierarchy. I believed we We thought a lot about power, rejecting conventional had to publish invisible belief that it. We were “ power structures and making art in alternative ways. We found a perfect mentor in Lawrence. being manipu- being an artist lated but prin- It was Lawrence who came up with the moniker, ciple must pre- meant being British “dance artist”. Lawrence thought it needed underlin- vail. Lawrence ing that we made art. In 1975, he and Miriam orga- disagreed. He or American ... nized the first of the Dance Artists festivals at which was not about Lawrence presented an audio work about bricks. This to be backed If anyone helped was one of a series of works he made about bricks into a corner. starting in 1973. When I think about those works now, I After that, for me overcome that see Lawrence as kin to Fluxus. He would probably hate me, the spill that – he’d hate the idea that his work might be justi- was gone. invisible belief it fied by a European and American art movement. Finally, Lawrence was fiercely nationalist. I think that was Lawrence my memories nationalism drove Lawrence at least as much as love of of Lawrence would not be complete without honour- dance. Nationalism seems to be thought of now as an ing the steadfast love of Lawrence and Miriam for” embarrassment, but I do not forget its role in creating each other. Forty years of working and living cultural identity and the role that Lawrence and others together – what an amazing feat, a gift and an like him played. inspiration. I grew up with an invisible belief that being an Lawrence – so many of us never told you how artist meant being British or American. To be an artist much we loved, admired and respected you, how took sheer bloody-mindedness over the impediments much you meant to us; and I’m grateful of the of class, gender and, yes, being Canadian. If anyone opportunity to say so to Miriam, and tonight in this helped me overcome that invisible belief it was company. Lawrence.

No. 56, Fall 2003 25 amela Grundy

I started to write this letter when, due to let me get started on the Dance Lab or this letter PLawrence’s illness, our Dance Collection will turn into a novel! However, let me just say that Danse board meeting was cancelled. I suspected that I I feel truly sorry that the younger professionals would not see him again. today have not had the access to you that my gen- eration had. What an education they have missed. February 25-27, 2003 How your interest in dance has manifested Dear Lawrence, itself over the years has been truly remarkable. I The news of your ill health comes after the have watched with fascination and have admired unfolding of dark events in my personal life over all of your various incarnations. You are such an the last six months. My being in a reflective state inspiring example of examining one’s interests and for sometime now has prepared me to say this. figuring out where and how those interests can In my fragility (I always thought I was pretty flourish while at the same time making a difference tough) I’ve been thinking about the people who for countless others. That’s brilliant. have held me together over the years, so to speak, Without even consciously thinking about it, I not in an active and practical sense but those peo- realize that our shared passion for history and ple who, by their very nature and presence, have preservation has deeply connected us. My interest given me great comfort and hope. You are one of in history was passed down to me by my father these people, Lawrence. Over the last few days I and I am in turn passing it down to my children have come to realize that you have been a father (especially Sam who has happily spent his last figure for me in the dance world, my dance father. seven summers dressed as an eighteenth-century You challenged me on everything I ever thought soldier). It’s in the genes. Randy is of the same ilk. about dance, especially early on in my career. Our summer programme in Nova Scotia is in part Often it took me days or weeks or even years to a product understand what you were on about but eventual- of our love Lawrence ... ly I got it. And speaking of the early days, I will of dance always remember when I first met you and and history. You challenged Miriam. It was in Montreal, 1974, at the Dance in The students “ Canada conference. The two of you were standing come to an area me on everything behind your van (that old blue one I think) with steeped in his- the back doors wide-open displaying a tangle of tory to live and I ever thought video equipment. A short conversation convinced work in an me that the two of you were delightfully nuts, my 1870s church about dance kind of people. with a large I remember being intrigued that you had fled component of the course devoted to learning the ballet after achieving such a high level in that dances from Canada’s modern dance past.” No profession. What struck me most though, and was wonder we don’t have very many students! reinforced later that summer as you were filming in Although you stick pretty close to home I have and around the Judy Jarvis season at Toronto often fantasized about you and Miriam visiting us Workshop Productions theatre, was that both of in Nova Scotia. I think you would be intrigued by you made me feel as if I belonged to the dance what we have done there. community, as if I had a right to be there. After all, I Always ahead of your time, the work you have was just a green kid newly graduated from the done through Dance Collection Danse is extraordi- University of Waterloo. I didn’t know anything narily important. We just have to wait for (force) about anything or who was who. That didn’t seem the others to catch up. When I visit you and Miriam to affect the way you related to me. I was in awe of at George Street, I feel as if I am home. I have the two of you. I still am. While she may not have sometimes asked myself, “Why aren’t I over there told you herself, I will tell you that you meant the working with Lawrence and Miriam?” Who knows world to Judy Jarvis. You were a safe haven in the the answer to that one, but what I do know is that I midst of a storm. She struggled to belong. She will do everything I possibly can to ensure that struggled to find likeminded people in the dance Dance Collection Danse survives and flourishes. community and you and Miriam and the Dance The organization will be infused with new blood. Lab provided a refuge. You helped to give her the The torch will be passed. I love you Lawrence. courage to continue as long as she did. Now don’t Your friend, Pam

26 Dance Collection Danse ohn Faichney

I had the privilege of working with Lawrence monstrous losses of European culture. Yet, oddly to J Adams through the 1980s at the Arts those who recall his reflexive patriotism, he also Television Centre. At the time it did not appreciated the forthright, self-created music of always seems like a privilege; as some of you may American composers like Aaron Copeland. For a recall, Lawrence could be demanding in ways that took while, he seemed to be stimulated by the mindless one by surprise. The complement to his buoyancy and pop music of the golden age of music videos – generosity – qualities by which we should remember though I’m inclined to suspect that his claimed him – was an equally buoyant and generous stubborn- enjoyment was, in this case, a pose – as was, I ness, which, once expressed, might be abandoned a suspect, much of his own choreography and few weeks later. At the time, I had a theory that performance art. Lawrence didn’t feel he had come to know something Why dwell on these preferences? Sometimes I – a problem, a technique, whatever – until he had think that Lawrence kept a secret: that he actually branded it with his own fingerprints. He was like the cultivated a discriminating taste – that he was not child who, upon being given a clock, proceeds to take it simply orient- apart, as though one could not come to know time itself ed to surprise, Lawrence was until it were re-assembled in one’s own hands – and if a showmanship second or two were lost, was that such a price to pay? and intelligent animated by a When I was more blind to my own desires, I often self-promotion, “ found his behaviour exasperating. Now, finally, I think but found him- tragic sensibility, of his idiosyncracies not as secretly functional, but as self gripped by his insistence on an emphatically humane life, and as aesthetic choice which he both the favour he paid to his collaborators. In the late and dilemma. 1980s, when Lawrence’s time was substantially taken While he honoured, and up with Dance Collection Danse, he would often show admired up at the Arts Television Centre office in the late after- Respighi’s tone fought against noon, looking for, as far as I could tell, something to poems – because, argue about. In retrospect, it occurs to me that this after all, how could you not love something that was habit – which I felt at the time reflected a kind of need- just so trashy – this was not the measure of his taste.” iness on his part – could have been his attempt to res- It seems to me that Lawrence was animated by a cue me from an absence of argument. tragic sensibility, which he both honoured, and Yet many people work out lives of compelling fought against. Lawrence might think of this as his authenticity, but do not affect us as Lawrence did. To Russian sensibility – finding oneself called to a big- characterize Lawrence as quixotic doesn’t seem ade- ger purpose, by which one risked being consumed. quate to the kind of purchase he had on our lives. Much of what Lawrence did seemed propelled by a Unlike the stories you have heard or are about to sense of urgency, or even anxiety. hear, the story of the Arts Television Centre shows few His self-criticism was ruthless as to be painful to markers of success, being both ahead of its time in hear. Yet Lawrence continually aimed to puncture the embracing industrial production disciplines – a move sense that he or anyone else was engaged in some- that thoroughly perplexed the 1980s media arts com- thing tragically privileged; instead he behaved with munity – and falling behind the times in the eclipse of ribaldry and irony. The cajoling, conspiratorial char- television by computers. But we had our adventures; acter of his personality invited us to treat our creativ- maybe there will be another time to tell of them. ity as an ordinary social process – when dwelling My own recollections of Lawrence during this peri- upon what was at stake would only terrify us. od are less bound to those adventures than to hanging Many of us met Lawrence at a time in our lives around in that office: scheming, arguing, fixing things, when we were not quite fully formed, and while he breaking things, and so on, while Lawrence’s cigarettes may not have been fully realized himself, he became consumed all the available oxygen. And, of course, I an anchor-point. In particular, he exemplified being think of Miriam Adams, who brought to bear her own and making in a spirit of lightness, sentiment, justice, admirable stubbornness. and drama, that charged us, and intimated that we Some of that time we spent in the company of the were recognized. CBC. Lawrence admired the music of Gustav Mahler, He was a lovely man and, to me, a mentor more hearing in it, I believe, the overbearing ambition and than one could ever hope for.

No. 56, Fall 2003 27 arol Anderson

It was pretty hard to please Lawrence. But thing, turning it sideways and upside down. That was C it was worth trying. Once in awhile he’d get what Lawrence and Miriam did – discussed and read that smile – a secret smile – gentle, ironic, a little sly. It out loud, meticulous about every word that passed was good to see, if a bit unnerving. through their hands. Lawrence understood the connec- One day after I stopped dancing I marched into tion of book to memory, of word to meaning, of having Lawrence and Miriam’s front room to say I wanted to it out there. The sound, out in the air – something so write a book about Judy Jarvis. Lawrence raised his dancerly about testing it out. Something so dancerly eyebrows and looked at Miriam – they talked about too about the ingenuity and sweat equity of his books, everything together all the time, but seemed to under- made stand one another perfectly without saying a word. by Lawrence with his That look. This was 1988; I turned up just at the time hand, they were starting to publish. Since then DCD has pub- carved coffee and cigarettes, lished so many books. Lawrence was visionary, and he out of “ and Miriam have changed dance in Canada, adding nothing. and the looping range immeasurably to its resources, to its history and con- Once the text. I didn’t get to tell Lawrence how grateful I am. books of his raves and his Just about anything I wrote, they published, and I were now realize how rare that is. done he unfettered curiosity kind of Lawrence told me once about his uncle, Uncle Boy lost interest. The wizard of making books. When a the snail scientist. He used to get the CNR to drop him book was finished, Lawrence liked to hold it in his off at mile 843, or wherever, in northern Saskatchewan ” hand, and then drop it on the floor. That was his idea and then pick him up a week later. He’d go off and of a book launch. Then he’d get the smile. search for the trails of these obscure, determined crea- tures. It struck me that this was sort of what compelled Lawrence said whatever was on his mind. It might Lawrence. His enthusiasm for seeking the silver tracks make you crazy, but he was never mean, just honest. of dance wherever they might be found was beyond Dance Collection Danse and DanceWorks put me up to reason, really, but thank god. writing Carol’s Dance Notes, and every time I wrote one, Lawrence would sigh and say, “not quite”; his search Lawrence was continuously grappling for lan- for the right language – mine was always too poetic, guage, how to talk about dance in a language that too arty, too damn long. He wanted liner notes, infor- wasn’t artspeak, that wasn’t borrowed. He had issues mative, descriptive, brief, sometimes for choreogra- with certain words, especially choreographic terms. phies that weren’t finished yet. In 250 words? “Creator” was one of them, “creation” another – too Impossible! Challenging, always, but the challenge was divine, perhaps. “Works of dance” was a term he a measure of faith. “Write what you see,” he’d say. favoured, earthy and arty at the same time. He under- stood that what’s in a name is part of respecting and This March, writing the first Carol’s Dance Notes deepening its context. Sometimes he’d phone and we’d without a call from Lawrence, I swear I could hear him talk about language for an hour – terms, something that in my ear. Write what you see. I’m grateful I had those he was thinking about, a new list, a new article, his idea hours on George Street, Lawrence with his coffee and for including choreographic works in the encyclopedia. cigarettes, and the looping range of his raves and his He never stopped probing and thinking. He was fasci- unfettered curiosity. Those times gave me a weird feel- nated by what peoples’ brains turned out – those silver ing of stewardship, of confidence, like mom and dad tracks. He had an urgency about capturing memory, are talking it over with me – though Lawrence was and spent long hours on the phone with people, creat- about the furthest thing from a mentor/father figure, ing a bank of oral histories of Canadian dance. more like the zen dancing master, ready to whack you over the head with a stick. During the winter of 1998 I spent afternoons for many weeks sitting in the front room at George Street, I think we find our mentors where they show them- reading aloud, editing an anthology, This Passion: for the selves and Lawrence was a teacher of mine for sure – love of dance. It was painstaking, frustrating, infuriating permission granted, no bullshit. Lawrence is with us in at times. Some days felt like a civil war battle, fighting spirit; I think he’s smiling his smile. For sure he’s hop- hand-to-hand along the sentences, advancing infinitesi- ing we keep our dance alive, keep talking the talk, and mally from word to word, Lawrence challenging every- keep writing it down for the record.

28 Dance Collection Danse my Bowring

Lawrence often said that there are two sages. The various pieces of equipment generally A kinds of people in the world – those who have pen and pencil notes on them – codes, measure- work to live and those who live to work. Lawrence ments, things that would be helpful for the duration was definitely the latter. He rarely took a day off and of the machine’s life, which was usually long. There’s worked about fourteen hours a day, although I did see a radio that has no on or off switch anymore – you him take the occasional nap. just turn the volume up or down. It was always set to I will always remember the day I met Lawrence a classical music station. Adams. I was a student at York and I arrived at the On the far wall is a small shelving unit Lawrence pink house on George Street to do some research. As I made. It consists of forty-four slots the perfect size for was sitting on the couch pouring over playbills, holding one book per slot. As the books came out of Lawrence turned to me and said, “So who are you?” in the printer, he would align the pages, smooth out any the way that only Lawrence could ask that question. I curls the printer had caused, flip through to make sure was intrigued by this man and I kept going back until everything Lawrence and Miriam finally let me hang around per- looked right He wanted dance manently. That initial meeting in 1993 became a men- and then place torship that I feel so incredibly privileged to have had. the manuscript artists ... to see ... York University did a good job of giving me a ground- in a slot where“ ing in dance practice and theory, but Lawrence provid- it waited to be that the stories of ed my apprenticeship as a dance citizen. bound to its He was selfless in his work for dance – an inspir- cover. dancing lives are ing trait. Of the young people who have come to Dance A ninety- Collection Danse, Lawrence had a knack for either degree turn worth telling intimidating the hell out of them and scaring them reveals a larger away, or firing them up to do incredible things. How shelf containing boxes and boxes of paper of varying many of us has he inspired to reach our full potential? weights. Then there are several other shelves” holding Spurring us on to start magazines, become translators, parts of the collection – books, magazines, audio cas- write books, research lost artists, participate in dance settes of oral histories, videotapes and numerous advocacy, question the status quo and defy complacency. slide carousels from the ENCORE! ENCORE! project. He planted so many seeds that grew into great projects. A couple of shelves also contain items that are dis- He was a self-taught everything and through him tinctly Lawrence – computer software and miscella- one could feel that nothing was impossible. He taught neous parts, railway and astronomy magazines. me most of what I know about computers; he taught Lawrence’s chair, which looked over the stair- me how to clean the mould off papers that had been in case, was where he did his work while occasionally someone’s basement too long; how to repair torn docu- cursing at the computer and calling out a deep ments with special archival tape; how to reframe a pic- “WOOF” when Miriam came through the door. ture, to pack books so that they would arrive in pris- Like many here, my life was significantly altered tine condition, and even the best way to swing a ham- by meeting Lawrence Adams and it is immeasurably mer. Most importantly, he taught me that there is great affected by his passing. I would never presume to value in the work that he and Miriam started at Dance think that I could walk in his footsteps but it will Collection Danse. give me great pride to walk a parallel path beside These past couple months I have found solace them, to carry on the work that he and Miriam start- being in the places where Lawrence worked. On the ed. He wanted dance artists to take pride in their second floor of 145 George Street is the heart of DCD work, to see that it was worth hanging on to, that it where Canadian dance history is preserved and books was worth documenting, worth revisiting – that the are made. CDs and zip disks are piled high making stories of dancing lives are worth telling. their own little towers on shelves and tables. There are I will miss his enormous presence, his incredible four keyboards, three printers, two monitors, two com- mind, and his very large heart disguised by a cur- puter towers, and a scanner – all within reaching dis- mudgeonly disposition. I will miss getting excited tance. Ink cartridges with just a smidgen of colour litter with him over the arrival of new archival collections, the top of one printer just in case the last drop may be sharing pet stories at lunch, and theorizing about suitable for some small job. Books and papers lie in dance history. I treasure the time I have had with stacks of varying sizes. There are DCD books, computer him learning, dreaming and laughing. manuals, print-outs of books in progress, scraps of mes-

No. 56, Fall 2003 29 ane Nokes J As the interim president of Dance Collection be a pleasure. Lawrence was a larger than life figure, Danse, I want to thank all of you for your pres- truly a memorable life force, and his glorious enter- ence here tonight and for your long-standing contribu- prise deserves to carry on and flourish. tions to the brave and wonderful experiment Lawrence The contributions that my friends Lawrence and and Miriam started in 1985. Miriam have made to the history of Canadian dance, When the Honourable Pauline McGibbon, chair of and to the elevated profile Canadian dancers and ENCORE! ENCORE!, asked me to join the board in choreographers enjoy today, is monumental. I pledge September 1985, and to serve on the finance and to continue to support the wonder that is Dance archives sub-committees, I was pleased, a little flat- Collection Danse, to continue the work of a lifetime for tered, and rather excited to help design the “Living Lawrence, to continue to work with Miriam to achieve Museum/Archives”. I could not have imagined that I even greater success. was signing on for an adventure with two principals of I thought I Lawrence was unparalleled energy and a supporting cast of memo- would close tonight rable characters who would dance in and out of our with Lawrence’s own ... truly a sphere in ever-changing patterns. words, the words of a “ I am the third member of the team that has been futurist. This is from a memorable life DCD over the last eighteen years – at least on paper. letter he wrote me in While Lawrence and Miriam were the designers of 1987: force, and his DCD, I am the dreamer who thought a museum with- I found myself at out walls was not only desirable but also possible. I 2:00 a.m. drawing glorious enter- have been the sounding board for any number of inno- some ideas from our vative schemes and dreams that have sprung from that lunch conversation prise deserves early concept. As Lawrence and Miriam – often at the and I thought it same time – would say – “JaneNokes (my name was would be fun to run to carry on always one run-on word), what do you think of this this by you! The and flourish idea?” or “JaneNokes, does this wash?” design idea is rough- In the full-blown enterprise that now is DCD, I ly based on the need to search/find/retrieve and have been an archivist between two brilliant dance search/compare and search/compare/find/retrieve. partners who more than know their stuff when it ” In this model, the information (any difference that comes to preservation and dissemination of dance his- makes a difference) can be available at one or several tory. Lawrence and Miriam’s ability to grasp the possi- locations. bilities for archives in the twenty-first century has been The best physical model is a cube, which is divided into awe-inspiring. smaller cubes, subdivided into smaller cubes, etc ... As for my professional archival credentials, I am Basically all that is happening is very fast linear search- the Director, Corporate Archives and Fine Art for es through clumps of data which have been arranged to Scotiabank Group (so I share two of Lawrence’s pas- be available at particular coordinates, in other words sions). I am the President of the Academy of Certified each clump has a tag which says that it shall be avail- Archivists; I was the founding Chair of the Toronto able in particular cubes. Area Archivists Group; I was the President of the Association of Canadian Archivists; I was Chair of the After going on at some length to detail what for Business Archives Section of the Society of American 1987 was a remarkable description of what we now Archivists. I have served on professional association take for granted in on-line metadata searches, Lawrence task forces and committees throughout North America abruptly and so characteristically shifted to this: and was a keynote speaker at the 1987 Biennial Did you know that there is a school of thought that sug- Conference of the Australian Society of Archivists. gests that the layout patterns of cities are a reflection of Dance Collection Danse has married the goals and the neuron structure in the brains of the people who live ambitions of an archives, a museum and a research and in that city! Hmmmmmmmm. I guess this cube might publication facility. It is a model for forward-thinking not work in Italy. arts, culture and heritage institutions to emulate. Breathtaking flights of original thinking mixed Today and tomorrow I am and will be glad for with surprising interjections. How very quintessentially every minute devoted to DCD. To know and work Lawrence! with Lawrence and Miriam was and is and always will

30 Dance Collection Danse iriam Adams

Life with Lawrence was a lot of work. Lawrence’s wisdom and humour, read his editorials MFor those people who wished they were me, sometimes from Dance News, a paper he launched in the mid I wished I were you. nineties. And, if he were here, Lawrence would say: When we Lawrence would “What’s all the fuss about? Everybody Go Home.” But knew his con- the reason we are here is because Lawrence is not ... dition was seri- sometimes say, and that’s lousy. ous, Lawrence “ called my friend I’m sure all this enthusiastic attention would have ‘Life is one of Bonnie at her been a surprise to him. We were kind of private. We office and left a didn’t socialize, or network, or hang out. We didn’t the strangest message on her “do” lunch. voicemail. He experiences I’ve However, at one point during his illness, Lawrence told her to take did say: “You’re feeling stranded. Don’t worry, people me out for coffee ever had’ will rally.” Ergo, this! sometimes, to There are hundreds of people I have to thank for look after me. He said not to call him back, and, all the flowers, food, letters, emails, cards, phone calls, “Miriam doesn’t need to know about this call.” I donations, and various offers to help ... too many to ” thought I knew Lawrence, but that appeal surprised mention them all, but especially those who came to the me. Although it shouldn’t have, because in the sum- rescue, on cue: mertime if a bug came inside he would put a glass Clare Piller, as always; Bonnie Pape, Fran over it and a piece of card underneath and take it Goldman, Gus and Lucy Weinstein, Susan and Brian outside. And if there was a mouse in the house, he Gold, Amy Bowring, Michael Crabb. would put food out for it. Thirty-six years go by fast when you are very busy. Lawrence would sometimes say, “Life is one of When you are working – heads down, moving along to the strangest experiences I’ve ever had.” the next programme, event, idea or project – you don’t I was recently reading a Canadian Conference of know if anyone notices. I always knew that our life the Arts report from November 2002 where Hank together was unusual, but I did not realize how Bull is quoted as saying: “post-avant garde means no dynamic until I read about it in the newspapers – after more masterpieces”. Which implies that current arts Lawrence had passed away. practice involves networking, exchange, collabora- He always spoke about the importance of building tion, democratization, interactivity, and so on. mythologies ... the fact that Canadians are so bad at it. Now, Dance Collection Danse is in the process of Turns out he had created a considerable mythology publishing the next issue of our Magazine – focussing around himself. Unwittingly, of course. Earle Birney, on ... Choreographic Masterworks! It’s a subject Canadian poet said, “It is by our lack of ghosts we are Lawrence and I talked about for years. I need to haunted.” Things have shifted. It is now by the ghost know what he thinks about this “No More of Lawrence we are haunted ... if not haunted, then Masterpieces” discourse. I know what I think, but I reminded. have to hear from him. It’s at these moments you I met Lawrence when he was twenty-six. He had look for signs ... read very few books ... although, growing up, he pored I just wrote a short editorial for our Magazine over magazines about astronomy, science, model rail- and here is the last paragraph: ways. His syntax left much to be desired and he “Those who visited our studio theatre, 15 Dance ‘dropped his G’s’ (as we used to say). When we were Lab, way back in the 1970s, would have seen, hang- getting married, the Justice of the Peace said: “Repeat ing high over the stairwell, the balsa fuselage of an after me: These people, here gathered.” ultralight aircraft Lawrence was building. For me, it And Lawrence replied: “These here people ...”. remains the quintessential and enduring image of a The fact that he evolved into a builder of books multifarious life, fully performed.” and magazines and newspapers; that he became an Someone asked: “Would you rather be the one editor and writer who encouraged and teased others in who dies, or the one who’s left?” Who has an answer dance into doing the same, is completely paradoxical ... for that? and remarkable. If anyone wants to know more of

No. 56, Fall 2003 31 Appreciation of Linda Stearns

few who did not, she threw lavish Branksome Hall, where Linda, like her parties in her elegant homes. She mother before her, was head girl. by Linde stored the belongings of those unable From the age of four, she yearned Howe-Beck to keep their apartments while on to be a ballet dancer. What she did Linda Stearns belonged to the extensive tours. She hosted more than not realize until after she achieved dance. It reciprocated unequivocably. a couple of wedding receptions and that goal was that she was destined Stearns died July 4, 2003, at her fami- gave unstintingly in every way to her for a career beyond the aspirations of ly home in Toronto after a long battle closest friends. most artists. Her senses of duty, dedi- with cancer. In illness as in her career, Giving came naturally to her. Born cation and perfection, her acute eye, she found strength and time to speak into a well-to-do Toronto family on her admirable organizational skills about her love of dance, especially to October 22, 1937, Stearns was the and the ability to appear calm in any the many with whom she had kept in eldest of three children; her father crisis, would catapult her into posi- contact, frequently through insightful Marshal was an investment broker, tions of ballet mistress, co-artistic letters penned in a neat, upright and mother Helen, a former dance stu- director and finally artistic director of script. dent and art lover known for her char- Les Grands Ballets Canadiens where A private, self-effacing person, itable work. Despite their privileged she spent twenty-eight years. After Stearns’ trademarks were humour, upbringing, Linda, Nora and brother retiring from the company in 1989, dignity, no-nonsense insight, thought- Marshal were taught to work for their she turned to coaching. At the time of fulness and generosity. For the livings. That ethic was reinforced at her death she was ballet mistress for dancers who loved her as well as the her school, the exclusive and private the Toronto-based company, Ballet Jörgen. Stearns began ballet training with Bettina Byers in Toronto and contin- ued in London, England. She then studied at the School of American Ballet in New York where her moth- er’s friend, the great Alexandra Danilova, was among her teachers. Danilova also gave her private lessons and advised her to audition for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Stearns joined the Montreal troupe in 1961, becoming a soloist three years later. She performed leading roles despite her undancerly low-arched feet. (She thought her feet ugly and, off-stage, always disguised them by wearing high heels.) Trained for the classics, she nevertheless enjoyed tackling more modern roles such as the Arabian in The Nutcracker or Mother Courage in La Couvée (The Brood). She is remembered as being outstanding in the title role of Medea. Daniel Jackson, one of her first part- ners, remembered her exceptional musicality – her brother Marshal has said that she would have been a musician if she hadn’t become a dancer – as well as her strictness, humour and unfailing generosity. Linda Stearns on stage with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens Courtesy Nora Stearns

32 Dance Collection Danse She was only thirty-two when her The time after the troïka was tur- family library and the street shows stage career was curtailed by unex- bulent and trying. For two years, she would stage with neighbourhood pected – and at the time, unwanted – Stearns shared the artistic direction of children. The Stearns family always changes within the company ranks. Les Grands Ballets with Quebec lent emotional support to Linda; for She was first appointed assistant bal- dance pioneer Jeanne Renaud, a years they postponed their Christmas let mistress and then ballet mistress. woman of immense talent and experi- celebrations until Les Grands Ballets As usual, Stearns put her own desires ence in modern dance. In 1987, a pro- Canadiens’ The Nutcracker closed and aside and got on with the job. She gramme of experimental works Linda could make the trip home to soon began to enjoy it. caused shocked spectators to cancel Toronto. Her impeccable memory and Linda showed a similar commit- keen eye became legendary. “I ment to her friends to whom she imp- learned all I know about ‘seeing’ from ishly sent Valentine cards signed in Linda,” Jackson said. Nothing hidden places. She was an audacious escaped her drive for perfection. She cook who enjoyed sharing the pro- got the best from her dancers and the ceeds of her experiments; an inveter- company’s performance quality ate giver of gifts – every member of soared. Her immaculate staging of the company would receive a hand- ballets such as George Balanchine’s picked Christmas gift; a sports enthu- Serenade were often clearer and clean- siast who liked watching hockey on er than those danced by Balanchine’s television; and a great lover of nature, own dancers. In Les Grands’ tradi- especially animals. She owned a num- tion, Stearns felt spirit and commit- ber of large dogs, some she brought ment to the dance were more impor- to the office. Gardening gave her tant than technique. She and Jackson pleasure too and she arranged her joked about their taste for strong, ver- plants to line up as neatly as the dish- satile male dancers. “If their feet did- es in her kitchen. n’t point very well we’d agree they’d “The delphiniums were perfectly be excellent,” laughed Jackson. in line like tallBalanchine dancers,” For Stearns, 1978 through 1985 Photo: Andrew Oxenham said former dancer and ballet mistress were happy years. During that peri- Kathy Biever who lived in Stearns’ od, an artistic triumvirate – Stearns, large Montreal home in the 1980s. their subscriptions. Renaud resigned Jackson and Colin McIntyre – directed Biever watched at close range as and Stearns was left alone to rebuild Les Grands. It was a time of expan- Stearns battled her personal devil, the company along more traditional sion and diversion for the company, low self-esteem. “She was her own lines. By 1989, the woman Les Grands and she, a team player, was in her ele- worst enemy and had very little con- called “our faith, our energy, our wis- ment. She was instrumental in bring- fidence in herself despite her accom- dom, our vision” was exhausted. ing more Balanchine works into the plishments. But she loved to laugh After twenty-eight years of giving her repertoire along with those of Paul and laughed at herself.” all to the company, she retired. Taylor, John Butler and Antony Tudor. Calling each other sisters, Biever For a brief time, she adopted a First contacts were made with Nacho and Stearns shared simple pleasures country life surrounded by horses Duato, a move that would benefit the as well as many adventures and mis- and dogs in Harrow, Ontario. Later, company well into the twenty-first adventures. They travelled the world she renovated an old schoolhouse century. Stearns also negotiated the staying in inexpensive, sometimes near Campbellville. Regenerated, she arrival of James Kudelka, nurturing uncomfortable, places as dictated by resumed her dance career as a coach him through the creation of landmark Biever’s budget. Once, when expect- and mentor. She worked with the ballets such as In Paradisum. She ing to visit Turkey, they landed in British figure skating duo of Torville believed utterly in his talent and the Egypt instead. Gamely, they had and Dean and taught ballets to com- importance of his work, demonstrat- crossed the Mediterranean in a storm, panies such as Southern Ballet ing this faith during an important sitting on deck drinking scotch while Theatre in Orlando, the Alberta Ballet tour of China in 1984 when an injury other passengers turned green below. cancelled the state-sanctioned co-ed and Ballet Jörgen. “Most of the dancers loved her, version of In Paradisum. Stearns felt Stearns always maintained ties which is rare for a director,” Biever the ballet was too important to with her family. She and her sister said. “She protected and nurtured replace so, even though she knew Nora, inseparable as children, them like her children. She never Chinese officials had vetoed the all- remained close. “She was very much knew how many people male cast, Stearns daringly put it on my guardian,” remembered Nora. “I she touched.” stage. As she expected, it was a huge idolized her.” She recalled Linda’s success. musical theatre performances in the

No. 56, Fall 2003 33 Canada's first comprehensive French/English-language dance reference book, the Encyclopedia of Theatre Dance in Canada/ Encyclopédie de la Danse Théâtrale au Canada reflects 150 years of Canadian dance through 275 entries: individual dancers and chore- ographers (with photos); dance companies; significant Canadian choreographies with original programme notes and commentaries; and a listing of music composed for dance. The authoritative source on Canadian theatrical dance — the ideal resource for professional schools, universities, colleges and public schools, and an invaluable reference for international journalists and Canadian Studies programmes worldwide. Encyclopedia of Theatre Dance in Canada/ Encyclopédie de la Danse Théâtrale au Canada Soft cover $29.95 Hard cover $45.00 672 pages ISBN 0-929003-42-X Courtenay Silhouette Theatre and Books 604-334-9219 Vancouver Duthie Books 604-732-5344 [email protected] Edmonton Laurie Greenwood’s Volume II 780-488-2665 [email protected] Saskatoon McNally Robinson Booksellers 306-955-3599 [email protected] Winnipeg McNally Robinson Booksellers 204-453-0424 [email protected] Toronto TheatreBooks 416-922-7175 [email protected] Montréal Zone Libre 519-844-0756 [email protected]

An Instinct for Success Arnold Spohr & the Royal Winnipeg Ballet

by Michael Crabb

... meticulously documented survey of Spohr’s career. Allan Ulrich, Dance Magazine

Even though [Spohr’s] screaming studio rages were legendary, there was clearly trust with his dancers – which is why they took the abuse. His ability to get the best out of them kept them loyal, and he was clearly a superb ballet master. Paula Citron, Dance International

Hard cover $34.95 (plus M&H and GST) U.S. $26.50 (plus M&H) 288 pages ISBN 0-929003-45-4 Order toll free in Canada 1-800-665-5320 or via e-mail [email protected]

34 Dance Collection Danse Dear Friends,

Dance Collection Danse is initiating its annual fundraising campaign. We are encouraging you to support the organization and its important activities so that collection and preservation, as well as research into Canada’s theatrical dance past, can continue. New life is brought to these stories through DCD’s book publishing programme as well as through this Magazine – offering you adventures into Canada’s theatrical dance legacy.

Dance Collection Danse is partially supported by public funds, and the organization is required to balance these funds with cash donations, demonstrating that individuals from across Canada support DCD’s ongoing work.

We know that you understand the importance of maintaining the histories of those who have and are dedicating their lives to the artform. We urge you to respond and become one of our generous donors. Make your contribution today.

Miriam Adams, Co-founder/Director

Dance Collection Danse is a federally registered charity, under the corporate name: Arts Inter-Media Canada/Dance Collection Danse. Please make donation cheques payable to Dance Collection Danse and use the enclosed Postage Paid return envelope to send your donation.

DANCE COLLECTION DANSE 145 George Street Toronto, Ontario M5A 2M6

An official receipt for Income Tax purposes will be issued in your name.

Charitable Registration No. 86553 1727 RR0001

No. 56, Fall 2003 35 Recent Donors

Joanne Adams Peggy Kucen McCann Stephanie Ballard Kennetha O’Heany Patricia Beatty Irina Reid Joan K. Kenning In Memory of “Natasha” Zólotova Sandra L. Macdonald In Memory of Linda Stearns Colin Russell Susan Macpherson Heidi Strauss Carl Mansfield Dominique Turcotte

And in Memory of Lawrence Adams ...

Anonymous Carole Eder Slade Lander Paula Ravitz Anonymous John Faichney Jill Lhotka Jill Sladen Susan Aaron Jennifer Fisher Linda Maybarduk Lois Smith Mrs. D.S. Beatty Katherine Gare Alguire Linda Stearns Anne Bermonte Murray Geddes and Alison McMahon Nora Stearns Mary M. Bosley Mary Marzo Sylvia Palmer Zetler Iro Valaskakis Tembeck Veronica Tennant and Judith Colpman Brown Elaine Gold Anne M. Patterson Dr. John Wright Rachel Browne Fran Goldman Kaija Pepper Saida Gerrard Tzerko Frances Greenwood Joan Phillips Chris Clifford Philip and Diana Maureen Webster C.W. Kenneth Heard Sara Porter Weinstein Consolati Lyman Henderson Julie Poskitt Mary F. Williamson Rita Davies Rosslyn Jacob Randy & Berenicci Leland Windreich

Dance Collection Danse gratefully acknowledges the support of the for the Arts, City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, all the individual donors, and Nick Laidlaw. Special thanks to Scotia Capital for the generous contribution towards the Lawrence Adams Tribute, and to Ampersand Printing for their generous contribution toward the printing of Magazine # 55.