The discussion surrounding dance and youth is wide-ranging. It is part of a larger concern about maintaining a sense of vitality and connection to the experience of living art for young people. In order to further the connections of this visceral art, the means to deepen and extend work with young people need support. Communication and training, resources for creation, production and administrative assistance are crucial to this. Cultivation of the love of dance in young people, and encouragement for creators and educators who have a special commitment to and empathy for work with young people are essential.
Many challenges lie in considering how best to support the development of youth dance. New initiatives have been created through a number of funding agencies and foundations across Canada. Activity occurs in a continuum from grassroots to long-term involvement by artists who bring experience and expertise to their initiatives. Yet, much remains to discover.
Issues and Challenges
The predominantly important issue for youth dance is artistic quality. Again and again the importance of artistic merit is reiterated through discussion with artists, presenters and programmers. In a survey of dance professionals in the province of Quebec, researcher Lorraine Hebert notes a 'fear of forced or artificial development in this sector if the goals, measures and criteria focus on purposes other than artistic ones'. (1) This concern is echoed nationally. Dance for young people must have artistic integrity, and must be of high quality.
Validating dance for youth continues to be critical to its development. In part, validation can come through recognition that this dance for young people is a specialized field, that it is not for all dance artists and creators. Validation can also come through recognition that youth dance is as resource-hungry as any other dance expression. Funding must be on a par with other sectors within the industry in order to ensure quality in the creation, production, specialized promotion and marketing of dance for youth.
Dance for young people
Both through research and initiatives such as the login:danc/se (2) sessions hosted by the Dance Section of the Canada Council for the Arts in June, 2000 it has become clear that 'dance and youth' in effect means dance with, by and for young people. Each of these areas has its own unique considerations. They also overlap constantly. Because spontaneity in motion is synonymous with youth culture, definitions slide from moment to moment!
Within the term 'youth' are a number of very different categories of consideration. The scope of ages embraced within the broad definition of 'youth' represents the different phases of childhood, teenage years and early adulthood. Young people are very different audiences at different ages, with specific needs and interests.
Much youth dance takes place in educational settings. Therefore, ongoing programmes of multi-faceted entry points to the educational system are a priority for dance and youth. Creating links from the dance profession to the educational system is essential. Dance practitioners and educators must understand one another, through shared language and shared educational and artistic goals. Education is a provincial jurisdiction in Canada, rather than a national one, so there is a diverse presence for dance in schools across the country. In several provinces dance has entered the educational curriculum at various levels, from the primary grades through to high school. Educational systems are absorbing ongoing financial cutbacks, with ensuing cutbacks in training and the hiring of specialized resource teachers. Meanwhile, teachers in Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia are expected to teach dance as outlined in the curriculum guides. Ensuring that there is a basic level of skill and understanding for the teaching of dance in schools is both a pressing issue and an ongoing challenge.
Innovative ways of 'placing' dance in educational settings are a prime focus for the development of dance for young people. This may be achieved through performances in schools or theatres, or through professional workshops or in-service training, inspiring confidence and understanding both in students and in teachers who work within the system. As an example, Toronto-based Allen and Karen Kaeja are at the forefront of bringing dance into schools. Through years of working in educational settings they have evolved a system of 'structured innovations'. This allows them to maintain the integrity of their foundation in Contact Improvisation and to reach a level of communication that is satisfying to both teachers and students. They also teach in professional training institutions, such as The National Ballet School and School of Toronto Dance Theatre and have recently published Express Dance, a guide for teachers, written with educator Carol Oriold.
The range of dance activity extends beyond school into other community or educational settings, participatory or creative dance and dance training for young people in community and privately owned schools. Dance performances presented for young people can include 'family' shows, lecture-demonstrations, or guided animateur productions. Specific performances for young audiences, presented in schools or theatres, may comprise existing repertoire, adapted or explained for presentation and/or choreographic pieces geared to a particular age band. Broadly, these categories include children from three to five years, six to 12 years, 12 to 18 years, and 18 to early 20s.
Programmers, who present work for high-school age students, feel that they are entirely capable of watching work which is made for adults (as do the young people themselves). They need some connection, some point of entry, explanation perhaps - but they do not need condescension! To cite one example, noted Quebec choreographer Paul-Andre Fortier's Jeux de fous, a creation for youth, challenges and provokes its audiences through hard-hitting imagery. Following presentation, he participates in discussion, providing a forum for exploration of responses to his work. Decisions, which respect what is appropriate to a young audience whilst maintaining the integrity of artists' work, are a key to artistic quality and honesty - for which young audiences have sensitive antennae.
Very young children respond to performances in very different ways. Magic is essential! Conceptually and thematically, works of dance appropriate for younger audiences are likely to be entirely different to those created for older children.
Certain companies tour extensively in schools. Quebec's Sursaut targets its work exclusively to young audiences. The Young Company, a Halifax-based ensemble of young performers, directed by choreographer Leica Hardy, is another example. They create a theatrical experience in schools by touring in a lean, self-contained way, with a portable set, sound system and lights.
The activity of bringing dance to children in schools is a valuable one. In order for it to be more lasting than a morning's diversion, communication between artists and educators needs encouragement. This has many different facets, including artists' knowledge and research about what is suitable for their audiences. The preparation of study guides for use by teachers is central. Process-based tools, which engage educators and artists alike, are important to a long-lasting impact.
In Ontario, Mississauga Bharatanatyam dance artist Lata Pada looks to the inspiration of value-based stories. In South Asian lore, she says, there are many fables, which use animal characters to tell their moral tales. She finds that children in junior grades, from about six to 12 years, relate to these stories well, to both the movement and the inherent values. 'Children,' she reflects, 'think about these things more than we think they do.' (3)
Dance by young people
Evidence shows that the 'habit' of attending live performance is seeded in childhood. Dance activity with and for young people may have the effect of cultivating future audiences. Currently, however, artists' and producers' interest and focus is more usually on providing a meaningful experience in the moment than on trying to prepare children for future attendance at dance events.
There is a large and important overlap with the idea of animateurs and dance for and with young people. Older teenagers, provided with some clues, can very often watch work created for adult audiences. Very young children - and usually, their parents and teachers - need guidance into a performance. Many dance professionals engaged with work for youth in fact act as their own animateurs. Those who work with the leanest of means, would love to have the financial resources to work with an animateur, for they know the meaningful experience it provides.
Developing animateurs with vision and skill is an area of some priority. Many young people are studying dance. Why not broaden their training, skills and artistic aims to reflect a shifting perception of the artist's role in society, whilst creating a new breed of dancer/animateurs? Work by young creators finds understanding with young audiences. Nurturing young creators is another important issue.
Dance with young people
Youth dance includes advocacy for young people and companies of young dancers. Seasoned choreographers Bill James, of Toronto, and Judith Marcuse, of Vancouver, are championing the voice of youth through dance. Bill James has created work with teenagers who live on the street, whilst Marcuse has devised work around the issue of teen suicide. These artists cross lines into larger social concerns, articulating a sense of urgency about finding ways of embedding dance in Canada's value system and on the country's political and social agenda.
Rosa John, artistic director of Kehewin Native Dance, Alberta, sees dance as an essential need in her community. She identifies the work which she does with young people, in participatory dance and theatre activity, as a means of cultural and actual survival. Through the self-expression they discover in dance, young people find an alternative to self-destructive activity. In their work within the community they are not practicing art for art's sake, she notes, but art for survival's sake. Chinook Winds, the company of young dancers which rose out of the Aboriginal Dance Program at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Banff, Alberta, is building communication among diverse aboriginal cultures. At the same time, shared artistic practice builds achievement, skill and pride among its young members.
Youth companies generally do not perceive themselves as 'training' entities. Rather, they believe that the young company members are dance artists, and that their companies have professional-status validity. Characteristically they offer their young members a comprehensive programme which encompasses technical study, body conditioning, composition, improvisation and perhaps dance history, as well as performance skills and opportunities. Their aim is to create the best art possible for the audiences they want to reach. They perform for children and for mixed audiences. Many have fallen through the cracks in federal funding for dance for the duration of their existences: some have existed for more than 20 years. They are a strong voice. They want the value of their experience to be weighted at the funding table. Few adult companies, they note, actually have presenting youth work as a primary focus.
Programming youth dance
Whilst the art of dance in Canada continues to grow in sophistication, audience numbers are, overall, static or in decline. The development of youth dance seems vital to the continuing health of dance. Outreach work with young people is one key to nurturing wider understanding of dance, and presentation of work for young audiences is another.
Currently there is quite a large network of presenters in Canada with the will to programme work for youth. As one example, Duncan Low, executive director of the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, has taken a strong position in promoting and presenting work for youth in dance as well as in other disciplines. He consults on programming decisions with a youth panel which he started within the cultural centre. Theatre for young audiences is highly developed in Canada: members of the Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) network have expressed an interest in presenting dance for young audiences.
Whilst the will to present work for young audiences is manifest, the development of works of dance for young people of high artistic merit remains a priority. Presenters want work of vision, freshness and artistic worth. Choreographers begin to look at youth dance as a new artistic frontier. New creators will emerge with the desire to meet the specific challenges of creating work for the youth sector. Responding to new perspectives, some funding bodies are investigating or have started new programmes to fund creation for young people. Artistic quality remains the highest priority.
Children's festivals remain an important focus for seeing dance for young audiences. The cities of Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver all host annual, international children's festivals. An example of an innovative partnership which involves childrens' festivals, the Vancouver International Children's Festival (partly supported by the International Co-Production Fund, a programme of the Dance Section of the Canada Council for the Arts), is pairing Vancouver choreographer Joe Laughlin with Mophatong, Moving into Dance, an acclaimed South African company, for the upcoming creation of a new work for children.
Technical facilities at festival venues can be a challenge to dancers and to production values. This remains part of the overall special nature of creating for young people. There is always a question of box-office, too. Because ticket prices cannot be too high, in order to allow affordability for both children and their parents and teachers, revenues for family and children's shows are generally relatively low. For dance artists in the youth market there is a difficult question of reimbursement. Often there is a discrepancy between the fees that companies receive for performing for young audiences or adult audiences. This is an issue, one which perhaps needs a shift in perception about the value of performing and creating for young people.
The current picture
Currently 'youth' is a focus for certain foundations and programmes, together with a changing sensibility of the place of the artist as an engaged member of society. The Ontario Arts Council, a provincial agency, has embarked on a series of meetings and consultations to discuss dance and the larger community. The Quebec-based Bronfman Foundation and the Ontario-based Laidlaw Foundation, both private philanthropic organisations, are presently investigating implementing programmes, which will support arts, including dance, in community and educational settings. Another Ontario-based foundation, The McConnell Foundation, started ArtSmarts, a national programme, in 1998. In a number of settings, right across the country from British Columbia to Newfoundland, ArtSmarts assists ongoing arts education projects with the broad aim of 'breaking down barriers.' Heritage Canada, a federal agency, has taken a concerted interest, and undertaken research toward making a contribution toward youth and creation.
Since its inception in 1995, the Toronto-based Royal Conservatory of Music's curriculum-related Learning through the Arts programme has become nationally recognised. Projects team artists from three disciplines - music, visual art and dance - collaborate during a residency, the work being integrated fully into curriculum activity. Participation on a Learning through the Arts programme is dependent on the agreement of an entire school - staff, teachers, children and parents - to participate. This is one example of a kind of underpinning of agreement amongst artists, educators and young people, which is critical if dance initiatives are to have ongoing effects.
Whilst certain funding opportunities are in place, the circumstances of youth dance work in the present ecology define some special needs. In a sense this part of the sector needs opportunities to 'catch up' with other areas of dance which historically have been more strongly active. Areas for support and investment include specialized creation and adaptation, special programming and circumstances for animateurs, and promotion and marketing for the particular audience/age groups within the broad category of youth.
These are long-term investments, and future results are very difficult to predict. But young people are always provocative, fascinating, curious, free to move and fresh to dance. What a challenge! What an audience!
Carol Anderson, author of Dancing Toward the Light: Rachel Browne, 1999; Chasing the Tale of Contemporary Dance, Volumes I and II, 1999, 2002, and contributing editor for This Passion: for the love of dance, 1998. A dancer for 20 years, she was a founding member and later artistic director of Toronto-based company Dancemakers, and continues to teach and choreograph.
Research on dance and youth has been undertaken by the Dance Section of the Canada Council for the Arts. For further information check out: www.canadacouncil.ca or email carol.anderson2@simpatico.ca
References
1. Hebert, Lorraine, La Danse en direction des jeunes publics, un secteur en effervescence au Quebec - discussion paper prepared for the Dance Section of the Canada Council for the Arts, May 2000
2. login danc/se, hosted by the Dance Section of the Canada Council for the Arts, Ottawa, June 2000. Including presenters, dance artists and companies login:danc/se was a strategic step in initiating conversation amongst interested parties, but not designed to guide the direction that youth dance initiatives should take. Not all the companies mentioned above are clients of the Canada Council for the Arts: they may obtain funding through other sources. But many of the companies referred to took part in login:danc/se
3. Pada, Lata, in an interview in Toronto with Carol Anderson: research for discussion paper Dance and Youth prepared for the Dance Section of the Canada Council for the Arts, May 2000.