$2 Spring 1979 Printemps F /, CJ ansG The Crunch Cometh · Dwindling Funds For Ballet .. Performances Only! Wednesday March 28 8:30 p.m. Jewels Thursday March 29 8:30 p.m. Ballo della Regina Dances at a Gathering YORK· Stars and Stripes Friday March 30 8:30 p.m. Jewels Saturday March 31 2:30 p.m. Swan Lake Sonatine Ballo della Regina CITY Who Cares? 8:30 p.m. Interplay Sonatine Chaconne Stars and Stripes Ticket Prices: BALLET March 28, 29, 30, 31 $15, 9, 7, 5 March 31 Matinee $12, 8.50, 6, 4 (Group Discounts Available) Ti ckets available at: Shea's Box Office (716) 847-0050 Shea's Bu f alo Theater 646 Main St. Buffalo, New York Dance in Canada IS SU E NUMBER 19 SPRING 1979 PRINTEMPS Hanging Loose in Havana The Lauretta Thistle at the 1978 C uban Dance Festiva l George Brown The Open Eye UNDERSTANDING DANCE College Grant Strate 'I dance the things that move my life' MARGIE G ILLIS M ich ael C rabb 10th Annual TRAINING TH E DANCER: VII The Arms in Motion Rhonda Ryman The Crunch Cometh DWINDLING FUNDS FOR BALLET Summer IN REVIEW NOTICEBOARD LETTERS TO THE EDITOR School EDITOR: Michael Crabb ASSISTANT EDITOR: Holl y Small BUSINESS MANAGER: Nikki Abraham ADMINISTRATIVE AS SISTANT: Edward Clark of Dance DESIGN: Dreadnaught SPECIAL THANKS TO: Ministry of C ulture a nd Recreation, Ontario The Canada Council Lois Smith BC Cultural Fund COVER: Karen Tessmer a nd Raymond Smith of the National Ballet of Canada in Artistic Director Si r Frederick Ashton's The Two Pigeons, firsr performed by the company, February 28 , 1978. Ph otograph by Andrew Oxen ham. PH OTO CREDITS July 3-August 10, 1979 Tom Taylor, p. 6;Ormsby Ford, p. 7; J ack Udashkin, pp. 9, 10; Andrew Oxenham, p. 2. 0; Ben Holzberg, p. 22; Deni Eagland, p. 27 ; Un ited Artists p. 28. Dance in Canada is published quarterl y in Danse au Canada est publiCe rrimestrielle­ Toronto, Canada by Dance in Canada As­ menr a Toronto, Canada par {'Association de Ballet • Pointe • Modern •Jazz sociation. la Danse au Canada. The publication Dance in Canada is included L'Association de la Da nse au Canada est Pas de Deux • Repertoire • Character with membership in Dance in Canada Associ­ enregistrCe com me orga ni sme beneficiai re. Le ation. numero d'enregistrement est 00441 -22-1 3. Dance in Canada Association is registered as Les dons fairs a !'association seront admis en Faculty Includes charitable organization number 0044 1- deduction. 22-1 3. Donations are tax deductible. Les mem brcs de /' Associa tion de la Danse au The views expressed in the articles in rhis Canada recevront d'offi.ce le revue Danse au Winthrop Corey publication are not necessarily those of Dance Canada. in Canada. The publication is not responsible Les opinions exprimCes clans les articles de Christine Hennessy for the return of unsoli ci ted material unless cette publication ne sont pas obligatoirement accompani ed by a stamped self-addressed ce lles de Danse au Canada. Donald Himes envel ope. · Le redaction n'assume aucune responsabilite Dance in Canada publishes in rhe language of quant au re nvoi de materiel non solicitC, a Earl Kraul origin, English or French. We will be returning moins que cel ui-ci ne soit accompagnC d'une to ou r complete bilingual format whenever enve loppe-reponse affranchie et adressCe. Angela Leigh funds become avai lable. Oanse au Canada pub lie !es articles dans leu r Subscription: $7.50 per year. Single copy langue d'origine, anglais ou fran~ais. 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For further information, contact: Department of Dance, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Downsview, Ontario, Canada M3J 1 P3 Telephone (416) 667-3243 TORONTO DANCE THEATRE 80 Winchester Street GROliING Toronto M4X 1 B2 GROW (416) 967-1365 March 6·8 RO",- .....-,_,. -......, IN RESIDE NCY l CARLTON UNIVERSITY C OTTAWA OWI?,lG lb,_ March9&10 PERFORMANCES WIN DA'N NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE OTTAWA ING DJ\-N ~-l ( March 15, 16 & 1 7 OPENINGS G D1\NCI NEW STUDIOS TORONTO ~l\'.i March 30 & 31 D-~~} PERFORMANCE WITH FESTIVAL NCE SI NGERS CONVOCATION HALL TORONTO ·~·- ,~,CE IS April 13, 14 & 15 EASTER EIS PERFORMANCES NEW STUDIOS TORONTO IS GROWING IS A pril 25·28 T ORONTO SE ASO N ST. LAWRENC E GRO'tvING ::s CENTRE :{ w l,•c TORONTO N DANCE IN CANADA 3 DANSE AU CANADA Hanging Loose in Havana Lauretta Thistle at the 1978 Cuban Dance Festival The biennial dance festival in Cuba (last held in 1978, from cept when Alonso was dancing, there were empty seats. late October to mid-November), is an event worth keeping Various theories were propounded for this - blocks of your eye on. First, it gets you to a warm climate in what is tickets were given out to party members, to factory usually a miserable season for Canada. Second, this is a workers, or labourers, who then did not turn up. festival still trying to find its identity. Press repres_~ntatives from other countries, who had It's an international festival. It's built around the 30- only press cards, would be assigned to seats by ushers, only year-old National Ballet of Cuba, but it does bring in to be 'bumped' by a family of Cubans bearing tickets with guests, and not just from socialist countries. The Cuban numbers for those very seats. company is not wealthy (it is said to be half a million So, if you do go to a future Cuban festival, be prepared dollars in debt, in hard currency), so it does not spend large to hang loose and stay flexible. Don't believe the pro­ sums importing foreign companies, but rather, brings in motional brochure handed you by the travel agency-half soloists, pairs of dancers, choreographers, and some critics the dancers mentioned won't be there. But be prepared: and special friends. the curtain usually goes up on time at 8 .30 p.m. Whether Cuba (for that, read Alicia Alonso) is ready yet Havana sees its own ballet companies perform all year to open the festival freely to tourists is questionable. Better round - about eight times a month - but with all these organization and advance publicity about programmes, visiting artists promised, it is not surprising to see a small and above all, availability of tickets, are prime requisites black market in tickets flourishing near the box offices. before the dance world will flock to Cuba. What the visitor sees (I was there for the first week), is, A group of Quebeckers, booking a tour supposedly built first, a fair sampling of the Cuban repertory. Thus, you around this festival, were told they could get tickets any could watch three performances of an interesting produc­ night they wanted them, as well as special transportation tion of Giselle, and the Carmen created to the Bizet­ to and from their beach resort in Megano, about a Schredrin score.Alonso herself dances in both of these.You 30-minute bus ride from Havana. This arrangement did can see Alonso choreography in Genesis, an elaborate but not function very often. rather distasteful depiction of the reproductive process, I had gone to Cuba with this tour, prepared to buy my amid masses of shimmering plastic streamers; and you can tickets, but within a day realized that it was not going to see Antonio Gades' Blood Wedding, which is hardly ballet, work, and had to seek out emergency routes to getting but a fairly tense drama, (except for a final duel which goes press accreditization, and, incidentally, moving into the on too long) involving Spanish-style movement and mime.