Canadians celebrate International Dance Day

Bul­letin 21/05

Ottawa, April 29, 2005 — Com­mu­ni­ties across the world will host a vari­ety of events in

cel­e­bra­tion of Inter­na­tional Dance Day today, April 29th, 2005.  This occa­sion will mark 23

years since the Inter­na­tional Dance Com­mit­tee of UNESCO’s Inter­na­tional The­atre Institute

estab­lished the date in com­mem­o­ra­tion of the birth­day of bal­let pio­neer Jean-Georges

Noverre.

Each year, in hon­our of this day, UNESCO dis­trib­utes through­out the world a mes­sage from a

renowned dance per­son­al­ity.  This year’s mes­sage was com­posed by Miyako Yoshida, a

promi­nent Japan­ese bal­let dancer and UNESCO’s 2004 ‘Artist for Peace’.  In her message,

Yoshida writes:

Dance is exclu­sive to no one.

It grants joy and ela­tion to all that par­take or spectate.

The lan­guage of dance knows no boundaries.

It reaches beyond class, edu­ca­tion, coun­try and belief.

Its vocab­u­lary is infi­nite, as human emo­tion res­onates through movement.

Dance enriches the soul and uplifts the spirit.

Dance lives within all that live.

Let all the chil­dren dance and peace shall surely follow.

The Inter­na­tional Dance Com­mit­tee insti­tuted Inter­na­tional Dance Day to acknowl­edge all

forms of dance under one umbrella, in recog­ni­tion of the uni­ver­sal lan­guage of this art form

and its power to reach across polit­i­cal, eth­nic and cul­tural gulfs in order to unite people.

Cana­di­ans are cel­e­brat­ing this day across the nation, from Dance Nova Sco­tia chal­leng­ing all

Nova Sco­tia stu­dents to dance for 15 min­utes on Fri­day; to two days of dance presentations

in Mon­treal orga­nized by the Regroupe­ment québé­cois de la danse; to a vari­ety of demonstrations

held through­out the week in Van­cou­ver by The Dance Centre.

 

The Canada dance scene is vibrant with eth­nic and cul­tural influ­ences from the world over.

From April 28-May 10, a salute to this diver­sity will take place at the National Arts Cen­tre in

Ottawa when Alberta Scene takes the stage.  This event is a cel­e­bra­tion of out­stand­ing Alberta

artists, of which one com­po­nent will be dance pro­duc­tions from a vari­ety of cultural

tra­di­tions, includ­ing Abo­rig­i­nal, Span­ish, French, and Ukrain­ian dance.

 

Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts National Direc­tor Jean Malavoy notes “The influ­ence of

Cana­dian dance is preva­lent through­out our soci­ety, and CCA pays spe­cial trib­ute to this

influ­ence every year on April 29th “.  For more infor­ma­tion on Inter­na­tional Dance Day,

please visit the web­site of the Inter­na­tional The­atre Insti­tute at http://iti.unesco.org.

BULLETIN CLARIFICATION REGARDING CCA BULLETIN 20/05

The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) referred to the Cana­dian Stage Com­pany (CanStage) in its

mem­bers’ bul­letin dated Thurs­day April 28, regard­ing Blue Man Group Pro­duc­tions. Approval from

CanStage for inclu­sion in the bul­letin was not sought by the CCA and we regret this oversight.

CanStage and Mirvish Pro­duc­tions, also referred to in bul­letin 20/05, are among the more than 100

mem­bers of the Pro­fes­sional Asso­ci­a­tion of Cana­dian The­atres (PACT), which is a mem­ber organization

of CCA. Mem­bers of PACT engage mem­bers of Cana­dian Actors’ Equity Asso­ci­a­tion (CAEA), also a

CCA mem­ber orga­ni­za­tion, under terms and con­di­tions vol­un­tar­ily nego­ti­ated by PACT and CAEA on

behalf of their mem­bers. Lucy White, Exec­tu­ive Direc­tor of PACT, says “PACT mem­ber theatres –

com­mer­cial and not-for-profit — have vol­un­tar­ily cho­sen to rec­og­nize and bar­gain with CAEA because

that is in the best inter­ests of their theatres.”

GOOD NEWS FOR CANADIAN NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

On April 7, 2005, the Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties Research Coun­cil of Canada (SSHRC) announced

that it will invest $1 mil­lion in a research project that will help Cana­dian non-profit and community

orga­ni­za­tions con­tribute more effec­tively to the eco­nomic and social devel­op­ment of their communities,

as well as gain bet­ter recog­ni­tion for their work and attract the finan­cial sup­port nec­es­sary to expand

and improve it.

This research project will be con­ducted by a team of 58 Cana­dian and inter­na­tional researchers that will

exam­ine, among other issues:  con­tri­bu­tions, gov­er­nance struc­tures, and financ­ing of social economy

enter­prises, as well as ‘social account­ing’.  The goal is to pro­duce “reli­able, research-based knowledge

about com­mu­nity devel­op­ment,” that will pro­vide rec­om­men­da­tions for best prac­tices and cre­ate tools to facil­i­tate the devel­op­ment of Canada’s non-for-profit sector.

This invest­ment will “sup­port the fed­eral government’s efforts to pro­mote the growth of the social

econ­omy,” and will be of inter­est to more than ten thou­sand Cana­dian orga­ni­za­tions that will be able to

imple­ment the rec­om­men­da­tions and use the devel­oped tools to “fully con­tribute to the pros­per­ity of their com­mu­ni­ties and their cit­i­zens’ qual­ity of life.”

For more infor­ma­tion visit: http://www.sshrc.ca/web/whatsnew/press_releases/2005/fontan_e.asp