summer 2022
RUFI OSWALDO
From dancesport to contemporary
MOCEAN DANCE
Thriving on the East Coast
CURRENTLY IN DANCE
Introducing our new summer podcast
Display until October 5, 2022 / $11.95
contents
Volume 25 Issue 3 summer 2022
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27
DEPARTMENTS
CURRENTS
FEATURES
4
Masthead
W H AT’S O N ?
NOW + TH EN
6
Digital Reads
7
Editor’s Letter
8
Contributors
9
Event Previews
Little Red River Traditional Pow-Wow 11
The annual celebration welcomes everyone to witness First Nations traditions by ryan bradshaw F IRST P E RS O N
13
Photo courtesy of Mocean Dance; Image by Francesca Chudnoff; Mensah / Photo by Mikka Gia
33
Queering the Studio
Rufi Oswaldo In Many Arenas 16
From dancesport to contemporary by cristina paolozzi
PH OTO ESSAY
27
Worth a Thousand Words
Multidisciplinary dance artists share visual expressions by francesca chudnoff, sarah koekkoek, michaela gerussi, lauren runions and naishi wang EDUCATION TA L K
H ISTO RICA L MOM E N TS
An excerpt from our new summer podcast, Currently in Dance hosted by esie mensah
Tkaronto’s Caribana Weekend
First launched in 1967, North America’s biggest Caribbean festival brings $438 million to the Canadian economy every year. But organizers and participants often lose money by indigo dowdie
FEATUR E PROFI LE
Waves of Change
Disrupting Dance Education by samantha ketsa
14 ON THE COVER
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Twenty years ago, Mocean Dance dreamed of establishing a company so dancers could build careers in Atlantic Canada by donna ball
B O DY
15
Ask The Chiropractor
Dr. Stephen Gray answers your questions
33
Inside a Changing Institution
POSTSCRIPTS CH ECK IT OUT
The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Dance Studies
39
Only recently has hip hop entered the world of academia by valérie herdes LOV E L ETTERS
41 summer 2022
The Man I Am Today
Shameka Blake taught me about her culture, her country, her roots and how she captures all of that within dance by willem sadler POETRY
42 RUFI OSWALDO
lemons
by amanda pye
From dancesport to contemporary
MOCEAN DANCE
Thriving on the East Coast
CURRENTLY IN DANCE
Introducing our new summer podcast
thedancecurrent.com
3
feature profile
Dancesport and contemporary. Art and academia. Queerness and (former) Mormonism. The new artistic director of Dancers' Studio West on how these seemingly contradictory facets of his identity blend beautifully by cristina paolozzi
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the dance current
SUMMER 2022
Oswaldo / Photo by Alvin Collantes
Rufi Oswaldo In Many Arenas
Oswaldo in Davida Monk's On Notice / Photo by Marlowe Porter
“Man is a creature who walks in two worlds and traces upon
the walls of his cave the wonders and the nightmare experiences of his spiritual pilgrimage.” This quote from Australian writer Morris West connects the varied lived experiences of humanity, walking through contrasting identities, constantly searching for the space to exist and to find meaningful expression. Although some might not consider the dance community in Alberta to be tight-knit, there are many opportunities for dancers to form connections and showcase their work. The commitment to these spaces and these expressions has been a working theme for Dancers’ Studio West, and their newly appointed artistic director. Last summer, Dancers’ Studio West’s board of directors announced Rufi Oswaldo as the new artistic director. The previous artistic director, Sasha Ivanochko, has stepped down and is now the artistic director of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Both Dancers’ Studio West and Oswaldo are excited to step into this next chapter, bringing dance and community to Albertans across the province. Since 1980, Dancers’ Studio West has brought contemporary dance performance to Alberta. Oswaldo’s vision is to combine intellectual rigour with deep creative practice by connecting art with conversations about culture and politics, and to make the creative process more accessible. While his upbringing nurtured his passion for dance, it’s the intricate way that he can walk in contradicting spaces as an immigrant, a Queer man and a former Mormon that makes him a unique and compelling artistic director. Born in Guatemala and raised in the United States, Oswaldo has lived in Canada since 2004, currently calling Calgary home. He is also a member of the 2S/LGBTQIA+ community and draws heavily from these intersections of his identity to represent his values and interests in the dance community. Parts of his dance journey are thanks to more traditional dance activities he experienced during his upbringing in the United States. “My story is quite complex,” he says. After emigrating from Guatemala, Oswaldo grew up in Utah, a predominantly Mormon state. His family was, and still is, Mormon. “Growing up, part of the appeal [of dance] was that, in specifically Utah, it was used as a wholesome activity.” The energy of the art form also fuelled him. He began competing in Latin dancesport – competitive ballroom dancing – which not only engaged him from a movement perspective but was also a socially acceptable activity where he could thrive and express himself. “What hooked me was the vivacious energy,” he says. “I have ADHD and I’m neurodivergent. And the physicality – I was finally able to express myself in a way that felt genuine to myself. But then, on top of that, there was this culture that was saying, ‘This is a good activity for young people to be doing.’ ” He notes that while dancesport allowed him to expand what he knew about dance into other pathways, his identity as a Queer person and a
person of colour was fundamentally at odds with the heteronormative dancesport community in Utah. “You were obliged to dance with women and perform hyper-masculinity,” he says. Oswaldo says that another area of friction for him was the limited creativity he could exercise in short dancesport routines. Usually, the one-and-a-half-minute dancesport routines are performed several times a year and always with the same partner. Although he still found satisfaction in the specificity of dancesport, he ultimately felt confined to the same movements, and ultimately the same stories and vocabulary. Although Oswaldo critically examines the role that dancesport has played in his life, it still informs much of what he does, and he has learned to take important notes from his beginnings, while pivoting to contemporary dance. At the University of Calgary, Oswaldo found the creativity he felt was lacking in his dancesport days. In 2015, he received his BA in dance with distinction, then completed his master’s in dance at York University where he’s now working on his PhD researching same-sex partner dance. Stereotypically, many assume that the expressive motion of dance and the intellectual focus of academic institutions are two separate entities. Oswaldo says that both use the body in different ways and that these two competing ideas are ultimately linked. “Dance is a form that employs the body, this means of expression, and you can’t really separate a lot of things within the body,” says Oswaldo. “The body is messy, and we think with our bodies. And so this idea that academia and art are at odds with each other is a very prevalent idea. But my mind and my soul occupy the same space.” Oswaldo says that he is often at these intersections of identity, always navigating different areas of expression and finding a way to bring them all together. However, this is exactly where his strengths thedancecurrent.com
17
now + then
Photo courtesy of Mocean Dance
Waves of Change Twenty years ago, Mocean Dance dreamed of establishing a company so dancers could build careers in Atlantic Canada by donna ball This article is published through our Regional Reporter Program. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts through the Digital Now initiative.
thedancecurrent.com
21
Sarah Prosper and Sara Coffin in their work Utawtiwow Kijinaq - Our Mother’s Road / Photo Kevin MacCormack
waves of change
22
the dance current
SUMMER 2022
poetry
lemons by amanda pye
my lips have cracks lemon can no longer touch my mouth, let alone my hands god forbid the hands would touch the mouth my mouth doesn’t touch anything other than food but not lemons this sour taste stings my eyes, and I can’t breathe the strings behind my ears loosen more every day, and my chin falls deeper and deeper into the bottom this sting of pattern hesitation of fate I no longer eat lemons when I see you hold one, it makes me want to cry I’m not mad sad is the wrong word, but this curious bold feeling makes my eyes fill with tears, and I just want to taste it one more time back to skin the rind bitter to taste seeking has never felt more familiar my hands rush to cover up the leaks so I can save water save one more drop, pump, squeeze, spritz, to scrub away the burn
Amanda Pye enjoys moving her body around, creating and embodying characters, writing about things and filming movement.