Carmelina Martin

“The vision and goals of Pulse are to grow a supportive and interconnected dance community that fosters collaboration, growth and understanding of diversity and complexity,” said conference founder and artistic director Carmelina Martin, an alumna of York’s dance program (BFA ‘90) and a teacher in the Peel District School Board. “The dialogue between the dance community, teachers and students that happens here will help shape the future of dance in this province. I would like to imagine a future where every child grows up dancing.”

The conference has its roots from Martin’s work with the Council of Ontario Dance and Drama Educators (CODE), where she was commissioned with the task of providing support for Ontario dance teachers delivering dance curriculum, expanding dance programs in under-serviced areas of Ontario, and forging lasting relationships between dance educators and the professional dance community.

From the outset, York’s Department of Dance has been a strong supporter and collaborator in Pulse. Professor Mary-Elizabeth Manley, a specialist in dance for children, has been actively involved in the conference since its 2006 launch, serving as liaison for York’s dance program.  Professor Claire Wootten, Chair of the Department of Dance, is opening this year’s edition of the Pulse conference, which draws on the expertise of over 30 professional dance artists, including many York alumni, for workshops and performances.

Brazilian-Canadian dance artist Newton Moraes leads a workshop at the 2010 Pulse conference, held at York University

The workshops include dance technique, repertoire, composition, and diverse cultural and world dance styles ranging from flamenco, Chinese and Afro-Caribbean dance to contact improvisation, belly dancing, hip hop and hula. Many of the participating students and teachers, especially those from rural Ontario, will have a chance to experience dance styles they may have never seen before. The workshops are open to all the conference participants, with teachers learning alongside their students to model a foundation for life-long learning in dance.

To further expose students and educators to the broad spectrum of dance in Ontario, Pulse will showcase the premiere of acclaimed Brazilian-Canadian choreographer Newton Moraes’ new work, Saudades do Brasil, a kinetic expression of love and longing for Brazil and its peoples.

“Having witnessed the transformation of the students who participated in the last Pulse experience, I can say with confidence that this conference transforms, engages and leaves the students with a wealth of experience that is invaluable, and currently not widely available in our province,” said York dance graduate and Pulse instructor Allen Kaeja (MA ‘09).

A highlight of the conference is the Dance-for-Camera film festival curated by Kaeja, who is known internationally for his dance work for film and his award-winning choreography.

Hip hop workshop led by Mariano Abarca at the 2010 Pulse conference

The opening night of the conference features the Free Flow symposium, moderated by York alumna Kate Cornell (MA ’98, PhD ’08), with presenters Jennifer Bolt (MA ‘01),  Zihao Li (MA, BEd ‘03), Blake Martin (BFA ‘91, MA ‘07), Marc Richard (BEd ‘88), Allen Kaeja and York Dance Professor Mary Fogarty. The symposium focuses on the transition from elementary to high school to post-secondary education. The young students participating in the conference will get a sense of that transition first hand, staying in student residences and experiencing York’s Keele campus.

“The Pulse conference began as a means of building dance in schools,” said Martin. “Dance has been part of the curriculum in the Ontario public school system for over a decade now, but appropriate teaching spaces, financial access, expertise, knowledge and opportunity are all issues of equity that need to be addressed as a province-wide concern, in order for dance education to flourish in Ontario.”

Hailed as “a charismatic arts educator with an infectious passion for dance”, Martin was named Teacher of the Year as the recipient of a Premier’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2011 in recognition of her passion, commitment and contributions to her art form, her students and professional development in her field.

During their residency, BGL are working with a team of 10 visual arts students to assemble an installation titled Fancy Canada. The installation will be part of Oh, Canada, the largest survey of contemporary Canadian art ever produced outside this country. The show will be on view May 27, 2012 to April 1, 2013 at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Masssachusetts, one of most visited institutions in the United States dedicated to new art. Curated by Denise Markonish, Oh, Canada will feature work by more than 60 Canadian artists spanning multiple generations and working in all media.

Artist's rendering of BGL's installation "Fancy Canada"

“BGL has been on our radar for a potential artist residency for a while, for their innovative collaborative approach to public art as well as the unparalleled energy and ambition they bring to the studio,” said Professor Brandon Vickerd, who organized and oversees the residency. “Fancy Canada is by far the largest and most ambitious project undertaken in the history of the Louis Odette Sculptor-in-Residence program.”

With Fancy Canada, BGL are continuing their playful investigation of security fences, building on two previous projects: Solos, an installation that spoke to collective values, social issues, political events and cultural patterns (Rodman Hall Art Centre, St. Catharines, 2010) and Fancy Fences, which suspended crowd barriers up high in trees (CAFKA (Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area), 2011).

“The steel fence, an urban and modern object of crowd control, offers us great possibility,” said BGL. “We want to use it to realize carousels, arches and mobiles that inspire freedom and creativity. We will transform this object that was intended to reduce delinquency into something that inspires delirium.”

For more than a decade, BGL have been creating sculptures, prints and installations that humorously critique the commercialism of contemporary culture. Having also explored larger themes such as death, truth and the role of art, BGL aims to make the viewer simultaneously fascinated and uncomfortable. Whether simulating and deconstructing the real, or appropriating and juxtaposing recycled materials, BGL sets out to unhinge the limits of the art-viewing process, prompting the viewer to take the time to watch for details and surrender fixed notions of the boundaries between art and life.

BGL was a finalist for the 2006 Sobey Art Award and was included in the Montreal Biennial 2007. Recent solo exhibitions include Cultiver son jardin at the Centre de design à l’UQAM, Montreal and Marshmallow + Cauldron + Fire =, at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver.  Recent group shows include Dorm at The Model, Sligo, Ireland, Manoeuvers at Galerie Toni Tàpies in Barcelona and Caught in the Act: Viewer as Performer, at the National Gallery of Canada.

Artist's rendering for BGL's installation "Fancy Canada"

The Louis Odette Sculptor-in-Residence program launched in York’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 2000. The program strives to create a dynamic learning environment which supports the advancement of the art of sculpture, and where students benefit from participation in and observation of professional studio practices. The residency provides the opportunity for upper-level undergraduate visual arts students to develop an enhanced working understanding of sculpture techniques from the perspective of eminent guest artists. Previous guests of the program include Justin Novak and Brendan Lee Satish Tang (2011), James Carl (2006), William Tucker (2005), Claire Brunet (2003) and Liz Magor (2000).

The Louis Odette Sculptor-in-Residence program is made possible with the generous support of the P. & L. Odette Charitable Foundation.

These audio works are “field recordings” produced by students in the Sound for Artists course taught by Professor Marc Couroux in the Department of Visual Arts. Students are given free rein to either capture the sound of an existing space or to conjure one, by editing or “preparing” the environment to create a sound documentary or fiction.

Listen to an Audio Out compilation culled from sound works by (in heard sequence) Marcelino Da Costa, Evelyn Hall, Ana Cristina Cornejo, Jennifer MacDonald, Miles Forrester and Brock Wreford:

“Sound as an art medium is growing exponentially,” said Couroux. “Exposing visual arts students to its possibilities and putting recording equipment into their hands is adding York’s voice to an important international art dialogue.”

While the projects show a great deal of diversity, they all had the same starting point. Couroux asked the class a number of questions – How wide is the field? Where is the frame? – and suggested some possibilities and considerations,  such as  allowing or activating the environment do the work,  creating folds and dips in time, background noise and the artifacts of capture.

As important as the creative process is, the artists also want their works to be heard. In addition to AGYU’s Audio Out broadcast, several sound interventions were presented in the Fine Arts complex on York’s Keele campus this season, including audio installations at the Visual Arts Open House exhibition Psychopomp in March and a dedicated show in the Special Project Gallery last December that made some serious waves in the Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts.

“People are still talking about that show,” said Couroux.  “You could hear it throughout most of the building, including in the painting and drawing studios. Sound art poses a bit of a challenge to visual media. It’s inherently temporal, and how the experience of the work unfolds over time becomes part of how you relate to the work. Sound is also very immersive. It’s harder to avoid than many other types of visual art.

“If we’re causing a disruption, I think it’s a positive one.”

Carol Bishop-Gwyn

Author, journalist and educator Carol Bishop-Gwyn delves into the Canadian social climate with her talk, “Celia Franca and the Concept of a ‘National’ Canadian Ballet Company.” In the optimistic but culturally under-developed Canada of the 1950s, Franca’s role as the founder and first artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada provides an excellent entry point for an analysis of the heightened demand for Canadians to have ‘a voice of their own’ in the art form. Franca’s support of home-grown talent and her insistence on national tours despite the vast distances and paucity of proper facilities and audiences showed a fundamental difference in approach between Franca and her Toronto supporters and other regions of Canada about a model for a ballet company.

Bishop-Gwyn is the author of The Pursuit of Perfection: A Life of Celia Franca, published in December 2011 (see story). Critics have hailed the book as a “wonderfully candid” (Globe and Mail) account that gives “… a much fuller and more sympathetic picture of Celia Franca than we have ever had before” (Macleans). She is now working on a biography, Wilde Women, about three 19th-century women with connections to Oscar Wilde who left colonial Canada to win international acclaim. Bishop-Gwyn has taught courses at York University, Ryerson University and the School of Toronto Dance Theatre in addition to working as a broadcaster and producer for CBC National Radio and as a freelance magazine writer.

Allana Lindgren

Dr. Allana C. Lindgren explores how the National Ballet of Canada presented normative gender identities in “Gender Cues: The National Ballet of Canada’s Marketing of Masculinity and Femininity in the 1950s”. Using Bryan S. Turner’s The Body and Society: Explorations in Social Theory as a starting point, she demonstrates the falseness of the imaged boundary between society and the art form. She argues dancers’ bodies are sites where social issues, including acceptable gender roles, are expressed through corporeality.

Lindgren, a professor of theatre at the University of Victoria, is the author of From Automatism to Modern Dance and co-editor with Kaija Pepper of Renegade Bodies: Canadian Dance in the 1970s. Her articles have appeared in a variety of publications including American Journal of Dance Therapy; Canadian Dance: Visions and Stories; Canadian Theatre Review; The Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society and Theatre Research in Canada.

Samanatha Mehra

In her presentation “Pen Pointe: The Multifaceted Relationship between Toronto Newspaper Critics and the National Ballet of Canada”,  Samantha Mehra looks at the relationship between newspaper coverage and commentary on the National Ballet of Canada and the company’s artists, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. She investigates the nature of the relationships between critics such as John Fraser, Penelope Reed Doob, Michael Crabb and William Littler, their publications, and the National Ballet itself. Based on her research into Toronto’s dance critic ‘culture’, Mehra highlights significant connections between critic and company, pointing towards the multifaceted role of the Toronto dance critic as reviewer, journalist and most importantly, as champion of certain Toronto companies and artists.

Mehra is a dancer, writer and emerging dance scholar and historian who is currently pursuing doctoral studies in dance history at York. She works in development at Dance Collection Danse, writes for The Dance Current, and has presented her scholarly work at international conferences. Her work has also appeared in DCD Magazine, The Canadian Encyclopedia Online and in Oxford University’s Forum for Modern Language Studies.

The fact that all three presenters are alumni of York University’s Graduate Program in Dance is a fitting tribute to dance scholar and educator Professor Emerita Selma Odom, a pioneering force in the field of Canadian dance studies who played a lead role in establishing the program, and for whom the lecture is named.

The Selma Odom Lecture takes place Wednesday, April 25 from 3 to 5pm in the McLean Performance Studio, 244 Accolade East Building on York’s Keele campus. Admission is free. There will be a reception following the talk.

The festival launched April 12 and Right Ascension, a program devoted to short works from Toronto focusing on the experience and representation of space, was part of the programming on the opening weekend. Clint Enns, who is currently pursuing his master’s degree in Cinema and Media Studies, was one of three York filmmakers featured in the program.

“Connecting with Nature” by Clint Enns

His short Connecting with Nature, billed as “an instructional video that lies somewhere between the realms of infomercial and guide to spiritual enlightenment”, casts a new lens on a favourite Canadian pastime: gardening.

“Temps Mort” by Kyath Battie

Kyath Battie, who is working towards her MFA in production, presented Temps Mort, a video that explores the ominous feelings evoked by depopulated architectural spaces. Sound effects extracted from the movie Alien contribute to the science fiction-like ambiance. Battie credits York’s setting as an inspiration: “Temps Mort reflects the fascinating, alien-like nightscapes I experienced wandering around campus last winter,” she said.

“Rock” by Geoffrey Pugen

Also on the program was Rock, a video featuring sumptuous panoramic shots of volcanic rock by alumnus Geoffrey Pugen (MFA ’10), whose work is seen at galleries and film festivals in Canada, the US and across Europe.

Three productions heralded last fall at CineSiege, York’s annual juried student film showcase, were featured April 15 in the Images Festival’s S is for Student program.

Excerpt from Emily Pickering’s “What a Young Girl Should Not Know”

What a Young Girl Should Not Know, winner of Best Alternative Film at CineSiege 2011, is a tender offering of “embroidered lessons in femininity and coming of age” by Emily Pickering (BFA ’11).

Josh Schonblum, currently in his final year of study in York’s film production program, contributed Tell Me if Anything was Ever Done, which won Best Sound at CineSiege 2011.

Children of the Sun, a “psychedelic feast for the eyes” by Nikolas Tsonis (BFA ’11), was a CineSiege 2011 nominee. It unspooled at the Savannah International Animation Festival concurrently with its Images Festival screening.

Image from Nikolas Tsonis' "Children of the Sun"

More productions by York alumni will be featured this weekend.

Fresh from winning the Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker at the Ann Arbor Film Festival last month, recent grad Simone Rapisarda Casanova (MFA ’11) presents his thesis production, El árbol de las fresas (The Strawberry Tree) Friday, April 20 at 7pm in Jackman Hall at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Hailed as “a mesmerizing cinematic poem” (Festival Scope), The Strawberry Tree is an intimate, feature-length documentary about the inhabitants of the remote fishing village of Juan Antonio, Cuba. Rapisarda Casanova shot the film shortly before the village was destroyed in a hurricane. Listen to his interview with CIUT FM’s Daniel Garber about the making of the film.

View a trailer of the film.

Scene from Simone Rapisarda Casanova's feature documentary "The Strawberry Tree"

While the AGO screening marks The Strawberry Tree’s Canadian premiere, it’s already been touring the international festival circuit for several months. In addition to Ann Arbor, it was recently featured at film fests in Turin, Berlin and Miami. Upcoming engagements include the Locarno International Film Festival, Switzerland and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

Rapisarda Casanova credits his time at York as a pivotal period for his professional development. “It was a great opportunity for me to mature as a filmmaker,” he said. “For the first time in several years, I was immersed in a very dynamic and stimulating environment that encouraged me to pursue my experimental film work.”

Also on the Images playbill April 20 at the AGO is Protocol, an experimental short by Lina Rodriguez (BFA ‘05) showing in Sidewalk Stories program at 9pm. Originally shot in Super 8, it offers a glimpse of the imposing Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas in Cartagena, Colombia.

Excerpt from Strange Lines and Distances 16mm to HD. 5.1. Two channel installation (2012) by Josh Bonnetta

As part of the festival’s off-screen programming, Joshua Bonnetta (BFA ‘04) presents Strange Lines and Distances, a two-channel audiovisual installation focusing on Guglielmo Marconi’s first transatlantic radio broadcast. Adding another York connection to the festival, alumna Irene Bindi (MA ’05) has written a monograph to accompany Bonnetta’s installation, which is on view at YYZ Artists’ Outlet to April 21.

Alumna Larissa Fan (MFA ’08) is represented in festival’s grand finale Saturday, April 21 at 8pm.  Her hand-processed, black-and-white ode to the secret world of moon jellyfish, The tide goes in, the tide goes out, screens as part of the closing night gala.

For full details on the program and schedule, visit the Images Festival website.