Come December 17th Toronto’s 509 Collective will no longer be running morning technique classes. “There are several reasons for the Collective’s end,” says Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre’s (CCDT) Managing Director Michael deConinck Smith. “The most fundamental is that not enough dancers are able or willing to bear even the subsidized class cost.” As well, a lack of availability of senior teachers and loss of class schedule posting in The Dance Current all “served to confirm that the community as a whole was no longer able or willing to collectively keep the classes going.” The class was formed in 1991 as The Teachers’ Collective by Patricia Fraser, Patricia Miner and Sylvain Brochu to provide a daily, affordable morning class for independent modern dancers in Toronto. In 2004, in an effort to help with some of the administrative load and expenses associated with the classes, CCDT took over the operation under the 509 Collective. Dancers with class cards are encouraged to use these by the closing date as there will be no refunds.
Comments:
Editor’s Note: The Dance Current made the decision to stop running the 509 Class Schedule as of June 2010 in part because of changes in our layout and in part because we were not able to offer this same free exposure to other similar initiatives across Canada. The original Toronto Teachers’ Collective schedule ran in The Dance Current from the magazine’s inception in 1998 as a service to the Toronto dance community, when the magazine was focussed solely on the local Toronto scene.
~ November 22, 2010
Editor’s Note: The collectively was saved by Kenny Pearle shortly after this announcement. The collective is now called GMD — Great Moving Dancers/Good Morning Dance and runs Tuesdays and Thursdays at 509 Parliament.
~ January 15, 2010
Tagged: Contemporary, Modern, Training, Uncategorized, ON , Toronto
