Guelph Dance Workshops in Schools

A Unique Experience

This week, Guelph Dance’s Co-Artistic Director Janet Johnson held 2 full-day workshops at Westwood Public School and Willow Road Public School. The students attended the workshops with smiles and laughter. For most, this was a once in a lifetime experience. All eyes were on Janet and all ears were tuned into Sam Cino's incredible drumbeats.

Children arrived curious and wide-eyed. Clear that Janet had many years experience with children and dance, she had their attention immediately. Janet began by introducing herself to the students and telling them her favourite animal … an elephant? Or was it a loon? The children replied with their favourites. Within minutes the drums were thumping and Janet had the children moving. She had the group running to warm up, dancing as a group, playing games and allowing them to use their creative minds through dance. I sat quietly in the background with my camera, hoping the children wouldn’t be distracted by me or my flash. Fortunately, I went unnoticed, other than the odd child smiling at me at the beginning or end of the class. For example:

In today's workshops we handed out feedback forms to all the children who attended Janet's classes. Every child wrote about how much fun they had! 
The following are some of our favourite feedback form quotes:

Do you like dance and why?
“Yes, because it inspires me!” – Nicole, age 11.

Did you experience something new about yourself today?

“Yes, that you can be very creative and don’t worry about what others say!” – Nicole, age 11.

“Yes. I felt free.” – Mikayla, age 11.

“I was more energetic today” – Jay, age 10.

“I didn’t really like dance until today!” – Jordan, age 11.

“I experienced to not give up when it’s hard.” – Fiza, age 10.

“Yes, that you can express yourself in more ways.” – Lily, age 10.

“Yes, that I have a passion to dance.” Niramay, age 9.

What did you learn today?

“I learned a lot of dance moves and I can’t wait to show my mom and dad and my brothers and sisters.” – Fiza, age 10.

“I learned today that you’re not wrong or right, just be yourself and be normal!” – Mariam, age 10.

“I can express myself by dancing.” Rachel, age 9.

Other comments:

“It was AWESOME! I loved it so much, it was the first time I had that much fun in a long time.” – Jovianne, age 10.

“The teacher and drummer were awesome!” – Milkah, age 10.

We cannot stress the importance of exercise and the arts enough in children's lives. These workshops are an incredible way for children to try something new  and to truly allow their creative side to blossom. In many feedback forms children wrote of their surprise regarding how much better they were at dance than they expected. Others who believed they didn't like dance now had a new love for it. 

Please enjoy a short video of one of the exercises enjoyed by a Grade 4 class at Willow Road Public School:

The following are a few photos taken throughout the classes. I hope they capture a glimpse of the happiness these children were omitting in these classes.

Thank you to Janet and Sam for all their hard work and dedication! 

The GCDF becomes Guelph Dance!

Yes, we’ve changed our name from Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival to Guelph Dance! We talk here with Catrina von Radecki and Janet Johnson, co-founders and co-artistic directors of Guelph Dance, to find out the whys and hows, and also the “what’s next”.

Catrina: For several years now when I spoke to people about the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, I’d have to let them know that we weren’t only the 4-day festival, but actually have many other events throughout the year.  We have the camps, the workshops-in-schools, we have productions and co-productions, we do training for youth and adults. What we offer has been building every year! We began to realize that our name no longer reflected our whole organization and the work we currently do. 

Kinesis Dance Somatheatro at the GCDF 2012. Photo by Jamie MacDonald.

Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival is also a mouthful, and therefore many people already shorten the name and refer to us as the “Guelph Dance Festival”.  Guelph Dance was then chosen as an umbrella brand for the whole organization’s activities, and our individual activities are now labeled by sub-brands:  Guelph Dance Camps, Guelph Dance In Schools, Guelph Dance Productions, Guelph Dance Training and, of course, the Guelph Dance Festival. We can now talk clearly about either our whole organization or the individual programs. The public will now clearly see that, for instance, the Arts Explosion Camps, are put on by the same people who run the festival! We hope that this new name change will enable the public to clearly link all we do back to our organization and see this programming as a whole rather than disparate parts. 

As it is also our 15th anniversary, we felt the time was ripe for our name to catch up to the program development we’ve made over the past 15 years.

Janet: I don't think the new name change will inherently change the festival.  The name for me opens up possibilities and avenues, and creates a greater sense of inclusion and celebration of all the great dance creations and endeavours going on in our community.  I hope the new name adds clarity and thus more interaction with our public.

Catrina: I’m fairly confident that the rebranding transition will be smooth. As I mentioned earlier, people do already call us Guelph Dance Festival, and I think by adding our slogan—15 years—the public will realize that this is not a new organization in town. They will quickly relate this new name to what used to be the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival.  I also think people will really appreciate that it’s easier to say!

Kaeja d'Dance at the GCDF 2012. Photo by Jamie MacDonald.

Janet: I’m excited about where we’ll be going next.  Just trying to keep a pulse on the direction will be dictated by what’s brewing in the Guelph Dance scene as well as by the greater Guelph community and Canadian dance population.  I love being part of something that is as fluid and malleable as Guelph Dance.  It gives us the ability to morph and respond as our community dictates.  It’s an exciting time, a new time, a time to reflect and react, a time to create new ways to view, partake and be moved by dance.

Catrina: Along with the rebranding, we’ve made many internal organizational changes.  These developments will increase our capacity to grow and flourish within each of the separate components that we offer, as well as to better fulfill our overall mandate (see our website for our mandate).

Our focus can now expand to include more artist creation support, artists’ residencies and commissioning, and co-productions with the Guelph Fab 5.  We’re extremely excited to offer more support to our burgeoning local dance community.  That was after all, our initial dream—that artists could live, and dance professionally outside a major metropolitan area.  Dancers are living in Guelph and have a very receptive audience to share their works with.  Now that dancers are living here and have an audience and places to train, we want to attract more artists and continue to build more audiences, and we want to support innovative, cutting-edge, new creations to inspire our community and beyond.

Guelph Dance Arts Explosion Camps for students 4-19

Janet: In relation to what’s cooking in the Guelph Dance scene, I see more local dancer-driven direction: the creation and celebration thereof.  I see more collaborations between fantastic local dance artists and the bevy of stellar other artists in the community.  I see more community engagement and activism coming our way through the medium of dance.

I see presenting heftier, more challenging works from across the nation (and periodically from abroad) in the future.  Our audience is so developed, intelligent and open, we want to keep them stimulated and challenged.  I see more facility for new audience members to become involved, either through the viewing of dance or through hands-on training (workshops and camps, etc.)

I see Guelph Dance as a continuing means to build community, strengthen our connection to our creative selves, and provide rich artistic experiences. 

Mark your calendars for our Guelph Dance launch New Year's Eve Party (details to follow)! Check our brand new website for details on upcoming Guelph Dance events and the Guelph Dance Festival lineup announcement on April 2, 2013. And join us here on the blog as we share our stories every week through to next July!