Study groups and roundtables: they’re talking about dance

This fall has seen a number of initiatives aimed at facilitating discussion about dance. The Toronto Dance Theatre is presenting a series of lecture discussions entitled “Contemporary Dance 101: Enrich your viewing experience”. The first installment will take place on November 9th at 7pm at the Winchester Street Theatre in Toronto. The session will be hosted by Bridget Cauthery, Ph.D in Dance Studies, and will provide an overview of key concepts and dance artists from the past century (www.tdt.org). Another initiative is the Toronto Thinking Out Loud Study Group presented by The Dancemakers Centre for Creation and The Dance Current. The monthly meetings facilitated by Jacob Zimmer and Megan Andrews aim to deepen thinking about dance (www.readingwritingdancing.blogspot.com). In Montréal, the Department of Dance at the Université du Québec à Montréal is hosting Tribune 840, a series of round-table discussions looking at issues surrounding creation and interpretation in dance. The second in their series is entitled “Quelle préparation pour une danse de création?” and will be hosted on November 4th with panelists Lucie Boissinot, Sylvain Lafortune, Nina Dipla, Johanna Bienaise and Sarah Dell’Ava (www.danse.uqam.ca).