My last post was about an opportunity to take a teacher training course in belly dancing, which led me to spend much of the weekend thinking about belly dancing. I’ve a friend who took a belly dancing class a couple of years ago, and she told me that she had no idea her hips had so many muscles! I know that learning dance of any sort is challenging, but I imagine belly dancing to be especially so, as most of us (in the western world, at least) don’t use our hip/belly muscles on a daily basis. I’ve been checking out opportunities to learn belly dancing across the country - -there are lots of them! I’ve found some details about a belly dance open house happening in Winnipeg tomorrow. It’s lead by Shifra Tobiasch and her dancers, and they also teach recurring courses on belly dancing, seems like a great opportunity to learn! Here is the website for details:

http://masterbellydance.com/whatsnew.php

I don’t normally blog two days in a row, but wanted to post information about this event right away, as it begins tomorrow!

Hadia, a very respected belly dance master is holding a teacher training seminar for four days in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia! Hadia has been teaching for 38 years, and will share the secrets of her success and teaching methods with you. The classes will start Friday evening and continue through to Monday. Everything takes place at the 8 Starr Street Studio

For details check out Hadia’s site here: http://www.hadia.com/index.php?id=11#ns

I’ve never been to the Yukon, but would really like to make it out there for a visit one day, I hear it’s absolutely beautiful. The northern parts of Canada are not areas I know much about, unfortunately. However, I just found a link to a website all about square dance festivals and events happening in the Yukon and in Alaska, it seems there’s a vibrant square dance community out there! Whitehorse hosts large square dance parties on the first and third Thursday of every month, so those square dancers in Whitehorse have just over a week to get themselves ready for the fun!

Check out this website for the details!

http://www.alaska.net/~charley/dances.htm#WHITEHORSE

I can’t believe it’s already the end of August, how did summer happen so quickly?! At least there’s still a couple of weeks to take advantage of summer fun before it’s back to school for so many of us. For those of you living in Alberta, near the village of Hill Springs, I’ve found an event that sounds super. It’s called The Great Canadian Barn Dance, and it runs every week from Spring through Fall, then again at Christmas.

Among the many events offered at the Great Canadian Barn Dance is the dinner and dancing combination. For one reasonable price you get a home cooked dinner (featuring Alberta Tirp-A beef) and a live stage show. Following the performance, there are free dance lessons in the upstairs dance hall, and then everyone takes to the stage and floor to participate in the Great Canadian Barn Dance! Check out the website for more details and those of you in Alberta, be sure to report back and let us know how it was!

http://gcbd.ca/dinner-and-barn-dance/

One thing that definitely caught my eye happening today and tomorrow is DanceSport BC’s City Centre Summer Dance event.  Held in Robson Square, in downtown Vancouver, the weekend-long event will host a variety of different ballroom dance related events, all outdoors – how cool an idea is that?!  Check out their website for some more information and if you’re on the west coast, be sure to check it out!
 

http://www.dancesportbc.com/2009/09/robson-square/

 

I’m a sucker for a good musical. There’s something about show tunes and great dance numbers that just draws me right in, and always has. I’m always in awe of talented dance artists, but watching actors in musicals who must dance, sing and act all at once I find kind of astonishing. I therefore was very happy to find a musical theatre workshop happening in Biggar, Saskatchewan with the excellent name of Biggar on Broadway. The focus of the event is to provide kids who live in rural areas (Biggar, Wilkie, Unity, Rosetown and Lloydminster) with performance and coaching opportunities, and the whole thing sounds like a lot of fun. Check out this link for more details:

http://www.dancesask.com/biggar_on_broadway

Living in Toronto, my view point on dance is often somewhat Toronto-centric, and I’m spoiled by the many amazing dance performing groups there are here in this city. Surfing the web, though, I easily stumble upon information on a ton of great dance that’s happening from coast to coast here in Canada. I just stumbled across a listing for a fun sounding dance event that just ended in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Called Summerdance, it’s a big, annual dance extravaganza held annually on the lawn of the Fluvarium, which is a conservation area along Rennie's River and Quidi Vidi Lake, in the heart of St. John's. Here’s a link for more details:
http://pippypark.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99:summerfest-and-summerdance-2009&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50

As an employee of Canada’s National Ballet School, I spend a lot of time reading about dance – one of the perks of my job. Lately, I’ve been flipping through the most recent issue of Dance Ontario’s annual Directory. Dance Ontario is a provincial artists’ service organization, which means its goal is to help dance artists out, through providing management training, advice and industry information and promotion of its members’ services and events. If you live in Ontario and are a dancer, you absolutely must check out Dance Ontario’s website, it’s essential!
www.danceontario.ca

And, for those of you who don’t live in Ontario, no stress, there are organizations similar to Dance Ontario all across the country. They do everything they can to support, promote and produce their dancers. They’re a great resource for information on special dance events and performances. Check out the links below to take you to the dance organization in your province!

www.thedancecentre.ca (Vancouver, BC)
www.dancevictoria.ca (Victoria, BC)
www.abdancealliance.ab.ca (Alberta Dance Alliance)
www.dancesask.com (Dance Saskatchewan)
www.dancemanitoba.org (Dance Manitoba)
www.diagramme.org (Quebec)
www.dancens.ca (Dance Nova Scotia)

When I tell people that I work at Canada’s National Ballet School, the first question nearly everyone asks me is “did you used to be a dancer?” I think most people assume that to pursue a career working (and not performing) in dance, you have to have danced yourself. The answer is no, I never took ballet, never really danced when I was little, but this doesn’t mean I love it any less than someone who has danced their whole lives. One the many things I value about the years I’ve spent working in dance is the opportunities I’ve had to fall so completely in love with the art form. When I began working in dance, I knew next to nothing about it. I’d been to see The National Ballet of Canada perform a few times and seen a bit of modern dance, but it wasn’t really a big part of my life. Being surrounded by people who lived, ate, breathed and dreamt dance plunged me right into the wonderful world of dance, head first! I definitely didn’t know what to expect, and was worried that I didn’t know enough to “get” dance. But, fast forward a few years and I’m now someone who sees dance as often as she can. From ballet to modern, Nederlands Dans Theatre to Toronto Dance Theatre, some of my most memorable and enjoyable evenings (and afternoons!) have been spent watching artists do their thing on stage. Whether I love, hate, “get” or “don’t get” the performance, I never leave without an experience that I will always remember.

As a result of working in dance, I met a bunch of other like-minded folks, who work in it, love it, but aren’t performers themselves. We banded together and started watching So You Think You Can Dance together on TV on a regular basis – we’ve even attended the live concert performances when they stop in Toronto. So, you can only imagine how thrilled we were when last year, CTV debuted So You Think You Can Dance Canada. Finally a chance for our own, local, talented dancers to shine and get the recognition they deserve. We’ve got amazing dancers here in Canada, from coast to coast, style to style, and I love that SYTYCDC lets everyone get a look at them.

This week marked another great week for dance in Canada when CTV aired the start of So You Think You Can Dance Canada season two. CTV’s got a great website where you can read blogs from the judges and get updates on shows you’ve missed, as well as see photos of all the amazing dancers! Check it out at
www.dance.ctv.ca