Candace Loubert (1947-2011)

Candace Loubert, co-founder of Les Ateliers de danse moderne de Montréal Inc. (LADMMI), died on October 28th, 2011. Loubert co-founded LADMMI with Linda Rabin, initially under the name of the Linda Rabin Danse Moderne School, where she was the artistic director until 1996. Prior to this, Loubert enjoyed a career as a performer in Europe, as well as dancing for Montréal’s Les Grands Ballets Canadiens for five years, putting to use her extensive training in ballet. She also danced in Linda Rabin’s groundbreaking work The White Goddess (1977) alongside a group of other young dancers including Margie Gillis and Stephanie Ballard. While artistic director of and teacher at LADMMI, Loubert found time to pursue creative research specifically on body work, while also tackling her interest in masks and other diverse visual arts practices. Rabin said of Loubert: [translated] “Candace’s exceptional gift was her extraordinary capacity to nurture and support creativity in an original and profound manner. Through body work and a range of artistic media – painting, drawing, clay sculpting and mask making – she created space for the imagination to flourish. Those who were fortunate enough to experience her teaching knew the depth of her supportive nature, understanding and compassion.”