Dance and Modernization in Late Twentieth Century Montreal
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The Montreal Dance Text—04/28/2018 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2360-2218 DOI: https://doi.org/10.31500/2309-8813.13.2018.152204 MOVING CENTER STAGE: Dance and Modernization in Late Twentieth Century Montreal BLAIR A. RUBLE (Photos Curated by Eli Larin, University of Concordia, Montreal, QC). Writing about the thousands of amateur and semi- America. Transformation came as the rest of the conti- professional dancers who were soon to descend on a lo- nent increasingly became incorporated into what would cal dance competition on April 26, 2016, the home- grow in a few years into the most dynamically mobile grown newspaper of the off-island Montreal bedroom continental economy in world history.2 Even the forces community of Terrebonne, Journal La Revue de Ter- of traditionalism so prevalent in Quebec could not resist. rebonne noted that the Montreal region of some four Nothing escaped this transformation, including millions souls was home to as many dance schools — performance dance. Beginning almost immediately fol- 96 — as Italy.1 That weekend, 10,000 dancers would lowing the World War II, those Montrealers connect- arrive at an otherwise unremarkable suburb of about ed to continental trends in the arts began to push back 100,000 nestled on the St. Lawrence River’s north shore, against repressive policies. New Montrealers debark- thereby confirming once more that Montreal had be- ing from war-torn Europe brought their cultural tastes come one of the world’s hot spots for dance. and expectations with them. Before 1945, the only se- Homegrown dancers and choreographers were not rious dance reaching Montreal stages was performed just local, of course. At the same time as the Terrebonne by visiting companies made up of Americans, Europe- dance invasion, Montreal companies were appearing ans and displaced Russians (including Ruth St. Denis, on stages around the world, often to rave reviews. Per- Mary Wigman, Charles Weidman, Isadora Duncan, formance dance has entered the soul of Quebec where, Anna Pavlova, and various legacy companies from Les just over a half-century ago, the art form had been all Ballets Russes).3 By the 1960s, Montreal had its own but banned by the moral strictures of clerical tradition- classical company and the firstof what would become alists. The city’s and province’s explosion in all manner a panoply of modern dance troupes. of dance — and other arts — tracked remarkable polit- The opening bell in the culture wars against cler- ical, social, cultural, and spiritual transformations that ical hegemony came in August 1948, with the artistic swept across Quebec society throughout the mid-twen- manifesto entitled Le Refus Global issued by a hand- tieth century. The story of dance offers one insightful ful of artists propelled a new vision for Quebec cul- piece of the larger tale of a sudden embrace of modernity. ture.4 This proclamation was the brash cry of abstract artists influenced by the French surrealists. Enraged Mimeographs, Television Screens, and Immigrants at the “cassocks that have remained the sole reposito- Quebec came out of World War II stuck in a time warp ries of faith, knowledge, truth, and national wealth,” that placed La Belle Province at odds with much of North the group took on the title of Les Automatistes. 69 СУЧАСНЕ МИСТЕЦТВО 2018, випуск чотирнадцятий In August 1948, sixteen of their number composed of creating a distinctively French-Québécois television and self-published a manifesto proclaiming the “un- fell to Radio-Canada in Montreal.9 tamed need for liberation,” “resplendent anarchy,” and ex- Working within a limited budget, producers turned toling the creative force of the subconscious. Mimeo- to the local performing arts community for content. graphed in four hundred copies, their platform sold Montreal playwrights and actors created madly popu- for a dollar a piece at a local Montreal bookstore. This lar drama and comedy series such as La famille Plouffe, seemingly obscure artistic declaration set the tone for in- based on a novel by Roger Lemelin.10 Set in a work- tense cultural debates to follow. Twenty-three year old ing class Quebec family, this and other shows brought dancer, choreographer, painter and sculptor Françoise Quebec daily life and language to the screen. These ef- Sullivan was among the sixteen signatories.5 forts provided steady employment for Montreal writ- Sullivan had grown up in Montreal, trained in clas- ers, directors, actors and musicians; an important safe- sical dance by Gérald Crevier. She studied painting ty net that enabled survival in an otherwise harsh eco- at École des beaux-arts de Montréal as well, where she nomic environment. 11 became friends with Borduas and others among Les Beyond drama, variety shows came to be a conve- Automatistes.6 In 1945 she moved to New York where nient way to fill time by promoting local comedians, she delved into modern dance with Franziska Boas, musicians and dancers. Given the uncongenial climate Martha Graham, and Louis Horst. Returning to her for dance, producers found they had to rely on many native city in 1948, Sullivan performed with Jean-Paul dance professionals who had immigrated from abroad Riopelle and Maurice Perron in a snow-covered field or who had disguised their Québécois identity behind near Mont-St Hilaire in what proved to be a landmark made up foreign — usually Russian sounding — names. work in Quebec modern dance: Danse dans la neige (Dance in the Snow).7 The Founders As Sullivan’s career reveals, Les Automatistes Maurice Lacasse, the son of a ballroom dance emerged just as the modern age burst forth in Que- teacher and grandson of a legendary folk violinist, bec. Economic and political transformation swept away was born in Montreal in 1906. His father, Adelard, an old order dominated by Anglo-economic and Fran- moved to the city and became a schoolteacher after co-clerical power; new technologies and the arriv- having been forced to leave the family’s country home al of post-war immigrants transformed the possibili- a few years before Maurice was born. Adelard’s pa- ties for cultural renewal. Dance would become a ma- trons raised money to send him to New York to learn jor arena for this change; and television would bring the latest crazes –— such as the Waltz, and Cake- it to the forefront of cultural change. walk — where he studied with Irene and Vernon Cas- Broadcasting in Canada is an expensive under- tle before returning to make his living from a St. Law- taking given the country’s vast distances punctuated rence Boulevard studio. Maurice grew up surrounded by a relatively few settlements and cities of any size. by dance and music.12 Initial telecasts began in Montreal and Toronto in Sep- At twenty, Maurice ran off with a Frenchwom- tember 1952, with the first national service follow- an — Carmen Sierra — who was a year his senior. ing in 1958.8 This expansive public enterprise provid- After eloping, Maurice and Carmen connected with ed important shared content to all Canadians and of- a company of Russian balalaika musicians and dancers. fered a counterweight to the powerful American ra- The group invited Maurice and Carmen to join them dio and television networks leaking across the border. when one of their acts fell to injury. Their combination The challenges confronting English language broad- of toe, tap, and acrobatic dancing became an instant hit casting in Canada were magnified in the French service. and the couple embarked on a five year North Amer- Audiences were smaller and more dispersed; and readily ican tour. It was during this time that Maurice — like available content proved more difficult to find.The task many North American-born dancers — changed his 70 Moving center stage: Dance and Modernization in Late Twentieth Century Montreal BLAIR A. RUBLE Laurent Ziegler — http://unstill.net/. Amjad by La La La Madame Chiraeff is greeted by HRH Princess Margaret Human Steps, performed in May 2008 in Vienna, in the Sadler›s Wells Theatre, Courtesy of Les Grands Austria Ballets Canadiens de Montréal name to the Russian-sounding Morenoff to try to as- Millaire, Lise Gagnier, and Françoise Sullivan were sociate with the success of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.13 among his students. He organized successful recit- The Morenoffs returned to Montreal in 1931 als and, following the war, brought the Royal Acade- as the Great Depression set in. They opened a dance my of Dance ballet syllabus back to the city. His small studio and library in a triplex in Montreal’s east end company featuring his own choreography appeared that would remain a fixture on the Montreal dance widely following the war, including a highly success- scene until their deaths in the early 1990s (Carmen ful performance at the third Canadian Ballet Festi- in 1990; and Maurice in 1993). The couple success- val held in Montreal in 1950.16 Crevier’s Les Ballets- fully trained the first generation of French Canadian Québec folded in 1952, after which he briefly joined male dancers including Fernand Nault, Roland Lor- the new National Ballet of Canada in Toronto before rain, Marc Beaudet, and Michel Boudot.14 leaving the dance world all together while relocating Their contemporary Gérard Crevier was born to Venice, Florida.17 in Longueuil, Quebec in 1912 to a French Canadi- Montreal dance’s third seminal figure Ludmilla (Ot- an father and Irish mother. Crevier fell in love with zup-Gorny) Chiriaeff arrived in Montreal as an immi- dance at the age of ten after seeing Anna Pavlova dance grant from war-torn Europe in 1952. Chiriaeff was born at the Orpheum Theatre. Pavlova inspired the young to Russian parents in Riga in 1924, and grew up in Ber- boy to enroll in Ezzak Ruvenoff’s dance school, where lin studying with former dancers from the Bolshoi.