91��ɫ’s Department of Dance is spearheading an innovative health initiative that sends students into the community to lead weekly dance activity classes for older adults at partner institutions in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

The program, supported by the Government of Ontario’s Healthy Communities Fund, focuses on the positive and preventative effects that dance can have for seniors. Drawing on the specialized training the student instructors bring to the project, injury prevention and health promotion are at the core of the program. It features carefully designed movement exercises that build strength, encourage flexibility and full range of motion, proper alignment and coordination, and cardiovascular conditioning.

“The benefits of dance and music for physical and mental health cannot be overestimated,” says Department of Dance���ʰ��Ǵڱ�����ǰ� Mary Jane Warner (right), the project manager. “Blending fitness and recreation through dance with the opportunity for creative expression is powerful motivation. Fitness strategies like this can help seniors stay active, in their homes and out of hospital beds.”

According to the Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care, the number of seniors in Ontario is expected to double in the next 16 years. In 2009, 18 local hospitals reported that community services such as recreational and exercise classes, along with facilities for the elderly, are hugely insufficient to meet their referral and discharge needs.

91��ɫ’s Dance Department launched the project last fall with one-hour weekly dance classes held in the community. Over the course of eight to 10 weeks, more than 190 seniors at 10 facilities across the GTA took part. Three additional locations and five more classes were added last month to accommodate the growing demand from enthusiastic participants.

Current community partners include North 91��ɫ’s Bernard Betel Centre, Black Creek Community Health Centre, Downsview Services to Seniors, Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women at two locations in North 91��ɫ and one in Woodbridge, North 91��ɫ Seniors Centre, Toronto Heliconian Club, St. Clair West Service for Seniors, three Unison Health and Community Services in North 91��ɫ, and Vaughan Community Health Centre. Feedback from the seniors and student-teachers – as well as the institutions hosting the sessions – is overwhelmingly positive.

“It’s incredibly satisfying when you hear how much these classes mean to the participants. You really feel like you’re making a difference in people’s lives,” says project coordinator and research associate April Nakaima. “One woman, a diabetic, was congratulated by her doctor for the drop in her blood sugar; she credited the class for this good outcome. Several other women credited the class with helping them lose inches from their waistlines. Another participant says she found the dance class more beneficial in combating her depression than other programs. Getting responses like this after just eight weeks has been both astounding and deeply gratifying.”

Nakaima, a former research coordinator at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, serves as adviser and guest lecturer to the program. She brings extensive expertise and experience to the project, having previously developed a highly successful dance program for older adults living in government-assisted housing.

The participants are incredibly diverse, and so the project delivery must be too, Nakaima says. “One of the most fascinating aspects is accommodating such a wide range of fitness, mobility, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Some classes are done with people mostly seated. A couple of groups need translators. We even take music requests from the participants.”

Rhea Bowman, one of 16 student teachers, leads seniors in a dance class

Sixteen student teachers from 91��ɫ’s Dance Department are taking part in the program, earning course credit for their third-year pedagogy class. With a range of teaching experience under their belts and a targeted orientation program, they bring a solid foundation to their training to lead the dance activity classes. The pedagogy classes prepare them to teach in dance studio settings, recreation and community centres, and the public school system. The course covers teaching participants of all ages and abilities, with a strong emphasis on creative movement as a form appropriate for everyone, including the elderly. There are also courses in kinesiology, conditioning, somatics and injury prevention that prepare the students to work safely with participants.

Some students are planning to teach dance in community settings or within the school system. Others bring a particular interest in dance therapy or rehabilitation, looking to serve clients with special needs, such as the elderly or people recovering from illness or injury.

‘The experience has been amazing,” says fourth-year dance major Rhea Bowman, who is teaching her second group of predominately Spanish-speaking participants at the Black Creek Community Health Centre. “We dance to Spanish, soca and calypso music, and some of the ladies have taught me more intricate Spanish dance steps. They are teaching me Spanish words too!

“I feel very passionate about fitness for older adults after seeing how beneficial this dance class is for them,” says Bowman. “I would love to continue to do this work after the year is done.”

Bowman’s classmate, Candace Calarco, who is teaching at the Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women located near 91��ɫ’s Keele campus, is equally enthusiastic. “So far, this placement has been a totally positive and exciting experience,” she says. “Working with seniors has really expanded my knowledge about movement and the human body, and how to teach a group with a wide range of physical abilities.”

The student teachers come together each week to share their experiences and strategies on solving the challenges they encounter in the course of their teaching. Input is also invited from the participating seniors and community partners. This ongoing feedback loop strengthens the experience for everyone involved.

“The student teachers from 91��ɫ’s Dance Department are professional, knowledgeable instructors who address the physical exercise needs of our clients while taking their medical conditions into consideration,” says Rukhsana Naheed Cheema, the seniors coordinator at the Elspeth Heyworth satellite location in Vaughan’s Blue Willow Activity Centre. “The pleasant personalities of these skilled instructors add to the seniors’ love for the program. It has not only improved their health, but their mood and spirits as well. They hope it can go on forever.”

Plans are in the works to create a dedicated course to keep the program running in the future.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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India’s President Pratibha Devisingh Patil presented the award to Pada at a ceremony in New Delhi. Founder and artistic director of , as well as founder and director of Sampradaya Dance Academy, Pada says, “It’s quite an honour to be one out of 15 chosen from about 24 million people of Indian origin who live around the world. I think it’s not too often they’ve given this to an artist or a woman.”

Right: Lata Pada performing in a production of Kshetram – Dancing the Divine

It is the recognition by India for her contributions to the arts in Canada that really tickles her. “That is the one that gives me so much joy,” she says. “For the 46 years I’ve lived here, I’ve been demystifying the arts of India so they can share the stage with others around the world.”

It’s a passion Pada doesn’t ever see coming to an end. In fact, she was in India when the word came she was nominated and then chosen for the award, meeting with costume designers and dancers for her next production, Taj, which she calls “a true India-Canada collaboration.” The world premiere of Taj was commissioned by (June 10 to 19) and tells the human story behind India’s Taj Mahal. Taj will run June 10 to 12 at the Fleck Theatre, Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.

“It’s quite different from anything the company has done in the past because it’s more theatre based,” says Pada, responsible for the concept and artistic direction behind Taj.

Award-winning Canadian playwright John Murrell has been commissioned to write the script for Taj, which will be a 90-minute contemporary dance-theatre piece directed by Tom Diamond, choreographed by India’s Kathak artist Kumudini Lakhia and featuring Canadian actress Lisa Ray and Bollywood star Kabir Bedi. 91��ɫ theatre Professor Phillip Silver will do the set and lighting design, Jacques Collin the visual design, Praveen D. Rao the music and Rashmi Varma costume design.

Pada, who is also a member of the Faculty of Fine Arts Advisory Council , also collaborates with 91��ɫ through Sampradaya Dance Creations for Dance Intense, an annual choreographic residency that provides opportunity for professional development for emerging artists practicing in South Asian dance.

Left: Lata Pada

Her advocacy work, however, can’t be ignored. Her award is also for “the advocacy role I took in pushing for an inquiry and for keeping this terrible, heinous tragedy uppermost in the minds of Canadians,” she says. And hard as it is – Pada lost her first husband and two daughters in the Air India bombing – it has given her a place to focus her rage. “It happened 25 years ago, but there is still so much to learn. It was an awakening for Canada.” The plan was devised on Canadian soil by Canadians, against Canadians.

Pada was determined to have government agencies, which were “incompetent, negligent or culturally insensitive” in the lead up the tragedy “take ownership of what went wrong.” It’s not over yet. Aviation security problems and terrorist threats are still issues today, and it remains to be seen how many of the 64 recommendations made in the final report in June 2010 by the , headed up by retired judge John Major, will be adopted, she says.

Art of course, is an area that Pada has turned to in dealing with the tragedy, and she continues to do so. Her 2003 dance-theatre production, Revealed by Fire, portrayed her dark journey through grief and subsequent emergence to reclaim her life (see YFile, Nov. 11, 2003). It also had a 91��ɫ connection, involving 91��ɫ playwright Judith Rudakoff in the Department of Theatre, Faculty of Fine Arts.

This dancer, choreographer and advocate has also received the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Toronto Sanskriti Sangha, the 2006 Best Teacher Award from the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana, the 2003 Professional Woman of the Year Award from the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce, the 2000 New Pioneers Award and the 1995 Mississauga Arts Award.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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91��ɫ dance Professor first began conducting research after she personally experienced a series of injuries. Now she has become a leading expert in dance science, with numerous articles and publications dedicated to injury prevention, conditioning for dancers, motor learning and motor control, and the psychological aspects of dance injuries.

For three decades, Krasnow has been refining her research into C-I Training  (conditioning-with-imagery), a body training system she developed which incorporates conditioning exercises for muscular strength, endurance and flexibility, as well as visualization and imagery work for neuromuscular re-patterning (or movement re-education), alignment work and mind-body connectedness.

She has presented and delivered this system internationally, trains and certifies C-I Training instructors and since 1999 has created and distributed instructional videos for purchase. Through this work, she has helped thousands of dancers with injury prevention, appropriate warm-up procedures and improved training practices.

Left: Co-authors Jordana Deveau (left) and Donna Krasnow sign books at the launch

Krasnow’s latest publication, co-authored with dancer, choreographer and certified C-I Training instructor Jordana Deveau, presents her established C-I Training system in book form. was launched recently at Toronto’s 509 Dance Studio, home of the Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre.

“While the videos and C-I Training classes are ideal for practice and training, many people asked for a more in-depth explanation of the science and the underlying principles on which I built the system,” says Krasnow. “The book is an ideal resource for any performer who is looking for a deeper and richer understanding of how to use C-I Training in her own practice or with dance students.”

The training section of the book includes over 300 photos of dancers executing the C-I Training exercises, with detailed explanations of the posture and movement as well as coaching suggestions on how to optimize the exercise. Details of common postural problems and muscle imbalances, and diagrams of skeletal and muscular systems, are also included to help readers spot potential areas of improvement in themselves or their students.

Right: From left, research collaborators University of Toronto Professor Lynda Mainwaring, Donna Krasnow, chair of 91��ɫ Department of Dance Claire Wootten and Keith Thompson, president of Thompson Educational Publishing

Theories in motor control suggest that voluntary movement (like reaching for a book) is controlled by conscious areas of the brain, while involuntary movement (heartbeats, reflexes etc.) is of the non-conscious domain. Dynamic body alignment, a primary injury prevention consideration, is predominately involuntary and making improvements to one’s alignment is a gradual process that relies not only on muscle conditioning but also on retraining one’s non-conscious motor patterns. Krasnow’s approach was one of the earlier systems to blend both the conditioning and the imagery simultaneously in a holistic approach for maximum benefit and more rapid change.

An example of the holistic treatment for a dancer with a pelvis in anterior tilt, sometimes called swayback: “The conditioning approach would be to stretch the hip flexors and low back extensor muscles and strengthen the abdominals,” says Krasnow. “To add imagery to that could be to encourage the dancer to think of her pelvis as a bowl of water. Currently the water would be spilling out of the front, so she needs to imagine shifting the bowl to stop that spillage. Working with this image can enhance the exercises and speed her re-alignment.”

Right: 91��ɫ alumna Meredith Thompson (BFA Spec. Hon. '00, BEd '00) illustrates proper CI-Training technique. Photo by Gary Ray Rush.

She has a standard response for performers in her dance sciences classes at 91��ɫ who doubt the power of working with images. “There are many of you who have been stretching and strengthening for years. Let me ask you, has this corrected your alignment? You can have your body in the proper condition with good muscle balance, but if your brain doesn’t know how to recruit and release the muscles, you are no closer to your goal.”

Krasnow joined the Department of Dance in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 1987. She teaches modern dance based in Limón technique, composition/choreography, conditioning for dancers, dance kinesiology, prevention of dance injuries, motor learning for dance and repertory. She received 91��ɫ’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2002 in recognition of her outstanding contributions in the classroom and studio.

She holds a master’s of science degree with a focus in motor control from the University of Oregon, where she was the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Research Award, and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Wolverhampton in Birmingham, England.

Her doctoral studies involve research into how dancers’ bodies move when doing a grande battement devant, a high forward kick, in three situations: at the ballet barre, free-standing and travelling through space. Using EMG (testing the electrical activity of muscles) and kinematic (bio mechanical study of motion) data, she hopes to prove that muscle use and movement biomechanics for that one particular move are surprisingly different in each situation. Krasnow hopes these insights will spark important changes in dance class structure and rehabilitation for lower leg injuries.

Krasnow’s articles have been published in Medical Problems of Performing Artists; Journal of Dance Medicine & Science; Impulse: the International Journal of Dance Science, Medicine, and Education; Journal of Dance Education; Bulletin of Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences; Médecine des Arts; and Dance Research Journal.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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More than 300 dance artists, scholars, educators and students, representing more than 25 countries, came together to explore the  's 2010 theme, “In Time Together: Viewing and Reviewing Contemporary Dance Practice”.

The conference took place primarily at the and the Kimmel Center at New 91��ɫ's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education & Human Development.

Professor Mary Jane Warner, chair of the Department of Dance and secretary of the WDA Americas division, moderated two sessions at the conference: Innovation & Exchange in Chinese Dance and a session titled Diversified Bodies & Contemporary Pedagogy, which featured 91��ɫ alumnus and contract faculty member Zihao Li (BEd & MA ’03) speaking on “How Today’s Technology Shapes our Way of Teaching Dance”.

Left: Mary Jane Warner

“The alliance provides a venue for linking with colleagues with similar interests around the world,” said Warner. “Participants learn about new research, share ideas and make connections with others in many parts of the world. The Department of Dance was well represented and our faculty and graduate students were excellent ambassadors.”

Also part of the sessions, 91��ɫ doctoral candidate in dance studies, Evadne Kelly, presented her paper “The Affective Experience of Time During Performance” as part of the Temporality & Contemporary Practices session.

Performance plays a central role to the WDA's global assemblies and the 2010 conference featured six concert programs in addition to its paper and panel presentations, master classes and workshops. 91��ɫ dance artists were front and centre throughout the program.

Professor Susan Cash (BFA Spec. Hons. ’78, MA ’07) presented Tree Woman, a solo that premiered last season on campus (see YFile, Jan. 21), choreographed for and performed by her faculty colleague . Delving into the notion of innate roots and the instinctive pull of ancestral influence, the work blends the dancer's Japanese heritage and the choreographer’s own Mohawk cultural inheritance and adopted Chinese traditions.

Kitano also performed in a work she conceived, and that she co-choreographed and performed with Li, titled Beyond. The piece explores the moment of death and depicts the sorrowful human destiny en route to leaving this world. Kitano and Li were accompanied by video projections by fine arts cultural studies Professor Don Sinclair (BA Hons. ’86, BA Spec. Hons. ’90, MA ’02) and student dancers they met while teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s 2010 Summer Dance Institute and Intercontinental Festival the week prior to the WDA.

Professor William Mackwood, who also attended the WDA designed the lighting for Cash and Kitano as well as lighting for a piece by Professor Holly Small (BFA ’77) that was shown as part of the final program.

Right: Holly Small

Contract faculty member Sashar Zarif (MA ’07) performed his self-choreographed solo Dancing Freedom, which also featured his own costume and sound designs. A quarry through the memories of revolution, war and displacement, Zarif's work questions the notion of freedom through this creation. He asks: “Should we achieve freedom internally before seeking it externally? Should you ask for an open palm with a fist?”

In 2006, 91��ɫ hosted the global assembly’s North American debut to great acclaim in the Faculty of Fine Art’s new Accolade performance facilities. In 2008, the assembly took place in Brisbane, Australia, and this year returned to North America for its first presentation in the United States.

The WDA is an international service organization that provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, and information expertise and resources in all areas of dance. The organization promotes an awareness of, access to and understanding of dance as an art, a ritual and traditional expression, and as a leisure activity in diverse communities throughout the world. Its global assemblies promote international exchanges and encourage dialogue among all people in dance.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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If you are lucky enough, you might get a chance to see the dynamic circle dance that the (UNESCO) has called "a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage" – the samba de roda. It is here in Salvador and its surrounding countryside that 91��ɫ dance Professor Danielle Robinson (right) engages with the music, dance and culture of samba de roda, the history of which is rooted in rural Brazil and its plantation past. Robinson is drawn to the improvisational character of samba de roda "as a way of moving, thinking, adapting and living."

In this practice, "the music and dance are held together by shared syncopated rhythms, a collective history of colonization and an overall ethos of joy," said Robinson. "People switch between dancing, playing, singing and clapping as the spirit moves them. No one can just watch, everyone eventually ends up in the circle, which is a powerful, inclusive community space."

��Dz����Բ��Dz�’s -funded research aims to emphasize samba de roda’s improvisational character and the consequent diversity of movements. Throughout her research, Robinson seeks to understand how participants imagine and embody their relationships with the "roots" of samba, how they distinguish themselves from other movement and dance practitioners and how increasing cultural tourism is changing the practice profoundly, thanks to the recognition from UNESCO.

All of the original materials, including music recordings, music scores, interview transcriptions and translations, video documentation and still images, will eventually be held in the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections in order to promote further research. A parallel collection will also be placed at the Federal University of Bahia in the new Brazilian Popular Culture Research Centre (Centro de Estudos das Tradições Orais Brasileiras) that is currently being planned.

Robinson adds that the people she is working with in Salvador da Bahia want to collaborate and contribute, not be treated as passive research subjects. For this reason, the culminating book, with its numerous forms of writing by lifelong sambadores, includes interviews, song lyrics and essays, as well as writings by local Brazilian researchers.

Although ��Dz����Բ��Dz�’s research aims to speak to ethnographers, especially those working in dance and music of the African diaspora, Robinson also hopes "to offer another model of decolonizing research to other scholars working cross-culturally."

Throughout her academic career, Robinson has focused on experiences of identity, industry and appropriation as lived by participants in popular African diasporic dance practices like samba de roda. In particular, she is interested in "community-based dancing and its ability to construct, navigate and contest social divides and stereotypes." Growing up in the southern United States just after segregation ended, she is especially invested in understanding race relations and their manifestations in expressive culture.

Before joining 91��ɫ’s Dance Department in 2005, Robinson taught at the Federal University of Bahia  in Salvador, Brazil, as well as at the University of California, Riverside and the University of Texas, Austin. Her articles have been published in Dance Theatre Journal, Dance Research Journal, Dance Chronicle and Dance Research. At 91��ɫ, she is cross-appointed to the 91��ɫ & Ryerson Joint Graduate Program in Communication & Culture. She is a Fellow of 91��ɫ’s Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean, the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples and Winters College. Her varied research and teaching experiences have led to what she considers one of the high points of her career so far. In 2009, she received the Faculty of Fine Arts Dean’s Junior Teaching Award.

By Jacquelin Chatterpaul, Faculty of Fine Arts research officer aide

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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In his lecture, “Asian Identity: Becoming Canadian”, Choy will review his personal insights into life as an in-between citizen, living as a hyphenated Chinese-Canadian for most of his life. Choy – born in Canada in 1939 – will explore how he feels now that he has "become a Canadian." No more hyphens. He will expose the prejudices and racism that still prevent many people from feeling that they belong in Canada as full-fledged citizens. The irony is that these prejudices and racist attitudes are found from both inside and outside one's ethnicity and colour, Choy says.

The event, which will be held May 25, from 7 to 9:30pm in the McLean Performance Studio, 244 Accolade East Building, Keele campus, will be chaired by Vivienne Poy, Canadian senator and patron of Asian Heritage Month in Canada.

Right: Wayson Choy. Photo by Raymond Lum.

Choy, a member of the Order of Canada, has appeared as a subject in Wayson Choy: Unfolding the Butterfly, a full-length documentary film by Michael Glassbourg, and is featured on the co-produced China-Canada documentary . His latest book is  and he is currently working on his third novel and fifth book. His other publications include , and , which was called one of the 100 most important books in Canadian history by the . His work has been translated into Hungarian, French, German and Dutch.

He is a professor emeritus of Humber College, where he is currently a faculty member for the Humber School for Writers Summer Program. In 2002, he was made companion of Fronteir College in recognition of his outstanding services for furthering literacy awareness.

The discussant for the Asian Heritage Month Lecture will be English Professor from 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

The lecture will be paired with a performance of OrienTik/Portrait, which features the intricate and mesmerizing choreography of former 91��ɫ student Alvin Erasga Tolentino and fellow dancer and 91��ɫ grad Andrea Nann (BFA Spec. Hons. '88). The pair will be joined by taiko drummer Jordy Riley and classical pianist Alison Nishihara.

Their performance will explore an Asian identity that is diverse in culture, creating a bridge between the identities of Canadians and the rest of the world. In OrientiTik/Portrait, sound and movements integrate and weave together in an enriching layer of moments in time. It highlights the experience, mediums and high artistry of each artist. Their aim is to capture the resonance and transparency with the meeting of two performing mediums.

The event is presented by the 91��ɫ Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) as a part of the 2010 Asian Heritage Month Festival with support from the following groups: 91��ɫ, the Office of the Vice-President Academic & Provost, the Faculty of Fine Arts, the Graduate Program in Dance, the Asian Heritage Month Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture (Central Ontario) Inc. (partially funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage), the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and community partner the .

Light refreshments will follow the event. Due to space restrictions, RSVPs are required. Contact YCAR at ycar@yorku.ca or call 416-736-5821. For more information, visit the YCAR Web site.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Her book, , traces the conception and growth of the National Ballet School (NBS), one of the world’s foremost training institutions for aspiring young dancers and teachers.

Right: Norma Sue Fisher-Stitt

The Ballet Class is organized following the structure of an actual ballet class, with chapter subtitles named after traditional ballet exercises such as the �����é and rond de jambe, building up to the grand allegro.

Each chapter starts with a definition of the ballet term as a metaphor for the topic at hand. Thus adage, a term embracing slow, controlled movements that build strength and coordination, introduces “The Delicate Balance of Growth”, a chapter outlining the school’s growing pains in the early years and the push and pull between academic and artistic demands. Pirouettes – dazzling spins that require great balance and focus to execute – aptly heralds the chapter titled “The Challenges of Boys and Deficits”, about two perennial problems: a dearth of male dancers and a dearth of dollars.

Interviews and direct quotes from conversations and letters by National Ballet School luminaries pepper the book. Featured personalities include Celia Franca, the visionary founder of the National Ballet of Canada and co-founder of the school; the formidable Betty Oliphant, the school’s co-founder and first artistic director, and Mavis Staines, the current artistic director; independent modern dance icon and National Ballet School instructor Peggy Baker; former NBC principal dancers Nadia Potts and Vanessa Harwood; and Grant Strate, the founding chair of the Department of Dance in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Fine Arts.

Readers can put faces to many of the names thanks to the book’s rich collection of archival photos from performances, classes and landmark events in the life of the school.

Fisher-Stitt herself was a student at the National Ballet School from grade 7 to 12, during the tenure of Betty Oliphant. She subsequently joined the National Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet, touring throughout North America and Europe before leaving the company in 1975 to pursue advanced studies in dance at 91��ɫ, where she earned her BA and MFA, followed by a doctorate in dance education at Temple University, Philadelphia. She has been a full-time member of the faculty in 91��ɫ’s Department of Dance since 1992.

Above: National Ballet School student Norma Sue Fisher-Stitt performing with fellow student James Kudelka. (Kudelka went on to become a renowned choreographer and served as the artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada from 1996 to 2005. He is now the school's resident choreographer.) Photo courtesy of Norma Sue Fisher-Stitt.

In addition to drawing on her own experience and those whom she interviewed, Fisher-Stitt collected material for The Ballet Class from the National Archives in Ottawa, the archives of the National Ballet of Canada and the National Ballet School and Dance Collection Danse. Her research and the publication were made possible with the support of the Social Science & Humanities Research Council of Canada and the National Ballet School.

The book was launched April 24 as part of the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the National Ballet School. The event was attended by 400 of its alumni from across North America and overseas. The launch party took place in the original home of the National Ballet School – the Old Quaker Meeting House, now known as Currie Hall, at 111 Maitland Street in Toronto.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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