Dancemakers 50th Anniversary
In the summer of 2024, Dancemakers turns 50.
Through the organization’s storied history, there have been many different structures, leaders, and artists who have contributed to half a century of making dance. Change has remained a constant, and the intensified transformation of the last 3 years has begun yet another life cycle for Dancemakers.
Photo by Henry Chan [Image Description: Ravyn Wngz, wearing a brown head wrap and aqua blue tank top gestures mid speech to Brodie, standing to her right wearing a white t-shirt with his arms crossed in front of him]
Welcome Dancemakers’ Archival Research Project Artists Researchers!
[ID: A collage containing headshots of the 10 archival research project artists. Artists pictured from top left to bottom right: Lucy Rupert, Roxy Menzies, Emily Solstice Tait, Four Scythe, Raymundo Moreno, Katie Adams, Mairéad Filgate, Carol Anderson, & Chris Dupuis & Tamara Jones.]
In a time of crucial and critical looking back, Dancemakers will work with these 10 artist researchers to engage with our archive, which is housed at Dance Collection Danse (DCD) located at 2 Carlton St Unit 1303 in Tkaranto.
Katie Adams-Gossage
Carol Anderson
Chris Dupuis
Mairéad Filgate
Tamara Jones
Roxy Menzies
Raymundo Moreno
Lucy Rupert
Four Scythe
Emily Solstice Tait
It is intended that each artist researcher will create at least one piece of writing, a photo essay, video compilation or multimedia work that will permanently live on Dancemakers' new website (set to launch summer 2024).
Currently, the Dancemakers' website only includes programming from 2006 until the present. In order to share more of Dancemakers' history (from 1974-2006), we are hoping that dancers/researchers will create connections, unearth alternate narratives and reveal these histories in ways that reflect the current contexts and changes for the company. We are open to artist researchers reading against the grain, writing from lived experience and engaging with this archive from a wide range of intersectional perspectives.
Each artist researcher will be given a one-week Writing Residency at Dance Collection Danse (or remotely using DCD's digital archives) with the intention to produce content that will permanently live on Dancemakers' new website (set to launch summer 2024). Dancemakers will provide all technical and webpage updating, done in collaboration with the dancer/researchers.
Spotlighting Artist Researcher Tamara Jones
Tamara's initial impulse to interact with the Dancemakers archive was originally guided by their interest in the history of "community-engaged performance". Since their work has begun, they've narrowed their focus to Dancemakers' 1976 tour that included performances at prisons and youth detainment facilities. Tamara remarks:
"I think it's important to document strategies for community-engaged artistic work that centre explorations of play and leisure as sites of resistance to white supremacist and capitalist ideals of order, production, and perfection. I chose to focus on Dancemakers' 1976 performance series touring prisons across Southern Ontario because it can also provide inroads for conversations about community care and alternatives to the prison industrial complex.
[Image description: A black and white scanned photo of 6 dancers perform with their right legs lifted at a 90 degree angle as their arms stretch outwards and overhead. In front of them, young people seated on some mats watch with their backs to the camera. A caption reads: Freedom of movement. Dancemakers; a Toronto modern dance troupel yesterday performed for 80 teenage inmates at the Oakville Rehabilitation Assessment Centre and got a generally favorable response. But they had to borrow $4,500 to give this performance and visit 17 other such institutions because a private financing and Wintario deal fell through. (Photo by Reg/Innell/Toronto Star via Getty Images]
At the same time, I hope it will open questions about the exchange of labour when artists move through marginalized communities and the limitations of working within the confines of oppressive institutions. By studying this performance series, I hope the outcome will not only serve as a way to look back on Dancemakers' history but also find new ways to activate and build upon our understanding of participatory and community-engaged work as dancers and movement artists."
We are so proud to have Tamara's profound research contextualize the work of the early Dancemakers company. We look forward to sharing their final project with you all!
[Image description: A snowy landscape features a figure crawling on a metal bench wearing a blazer, a skirt and heeled office shoes. A blue glyph is transposed over the figures' pixelated face.]
About Tamara Jones:
Tamara Jones is an artist and writer working from Tkaronto (Toronto) and Yelamu (San Francisco). They create within the disciplines of performance art, experimental video, and sculpture. Get to know some of Tamara's work below.
[Image description: A colourful cartoon landscape depicts a city scape with trees, buildings, cars and abstract shapes.]
"Why Aren’t Arts Workers Unionized?" Feature in The Local by Tamara Jones
[Image Description: In black font on a white background, the text “WHEN DID YOU WAKE UP AND REALIZE IT’S ALL A GAME” is written in capital letters]
Exhibition Essay by Tamara Jones for WHEN DID YOU WAKE UP AND REALIZE IT'S ALL A GAME? by Julianna A.S. at Whippersnapper Gallery