FRONT OF HOUSE

Editor's Letter Featured Contributors

This issue of The Dance Current is a first. It’s the first issue to have been completely produced remotely, during a pandemic. It’s also the first issue produced with our new publisher, Spenser McRae. After two years of exceptional work with The Dance Current, former publisher Crystal Melville has started the next phase of her career.

What I can’t help feeling during all of these changes is how lucky we are to be able to keep delivering The Dance Current. I don’t know about you, but my online shopping habits have definitely spiked since the outbreak of COVID-19, and the small joy I experience when there’s something in my mailbox seems to last longer than usual these days. That’s what I hope The Dance Current can do for you – bring any amount of joy, starting from the delivery to your mailbox.

Since this issue has been produced during a time we are sure to remember forever, we wanted the content to reflect how the dance community is persisting. What we found is that there is a mixture of grief and hope. Dance artists are dealing with disruptions to their normal lives but are also finding ways to support each other.

To start, we profiled Faye and Bryant Lopez, Argentine tango dancers, and Tatiana Lerebours, apprentice with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal. These profiles show how the pandemic has affected both well-established and emerging careers. Teachers offer thoughts on how their practices have changed; choreographer Kathleen Rea reflects on what the dance community has lost; and the world champion hoop dancer Lisa Odjig shares what has been inspiring her.

For our photo essay – the cover story – we asked the dancers/photographers Alvin Collantes, Mika Manning and Marlowe Porter to find inspiration in their homes and capture what their movement looks like, out of studio. I find it quite striking. But just because the pandemic has taken over our world, it doesn’t mean that other conversations have stopped.

Our feature profile, written by Philip Szporer, showcases Andrew Nemr, artistic and executive director of Vancouver Tap Dance Society, who believes that keeping tap alive means acknowledging its joyful, but also painful, history. Our feature, written by Kendra Guidolin, digs into the stigma of pole dancing, and our “In Conversation” feature, written by Stephen Low, checks in with three Queer dance artists about their work.

Whether you are reading this on your couch, on your porch or on the floor (why do dancers always end up on the floor?), I hope you enjoy the following pages.

Until the next delivery,