Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you today. I'm honoured by the invitation and I am heartened by your interest in the art form to which my colleagues and I are so dedicated.
I am the artistic director of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, and like so many others you've already heard from already I share a passion and concern for the art form of dance. My purpose here is to provide you with some background information on the school, and to tell you about the issues that are specific to those of us who are training the next generation of dancers.
The school provides excellent training at international standards and prepares young dance artists for careers performing, creating, teaching, and directing. The school provides a quality educational experience that can serve them in any future career and prepare them for life. Through the training of new dance artists, the school plays a significant role in the development of contemporary dance in Canada and contributes to the articulation of a distinctive Canadian dance aesthetic.
The School of Toronto Dance Theatre serves all of Canada. Dancers in our program come from across the country and around the world. The 55 dancers currently in our program come from L'Acadie; Aizawl, India; Anjou; Ajax, Ayr, and Belleville in Ontario; and Bogota, Colombia. The recent winner of our tuition prize this year is from Burnaby, B .C. They come from Calgary and they come from Cancun, Mexico. We have a first nations dancer from Chilliwack. They come from Corner Brook to Cranbrook. They're from Edmonton; Freeport, Bahamas; Kingston, Kitchener, and London, Ontario; Madrid, Spain; Manilla, the Philippines; Moncton, New Brunswick; and Montreal. We have wonderful dancers from Oakville, Ontario. One of our dancers from Oakville just won our teaching prize by gaining 100% in her course work. They are unbelievable dancers.
Oakville, Orangeville, Oshawa, Ottawa.... There is a great program in Ottawa at the performing arts high school and that's a feeder school for us. They do fantastic work. They're from Penticton, Port Alberni, and Port Credit. They're from Prince George, Quebec City, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They're from St. Catharines—our valedictorian this year is from St. Catharines—Saint-Hyacinthe; Saint John and St. John's; Sydney, Nova Scotia; Toronto; Utsunomiya, Japan; Varennes, Quebec; and Whitby, Ontario.
It's a real cultural melting pot in our school. These young people are learning at this age who they are, they're learning who they are as Canadians, and they're learning to tell their stories as Canadians. They're learning from people from around the world to tell their stories and learn from their stories as well.
A few of our dancers are going to India this summer with one of their fellow classmates. One is from Varennes and one is from Quebec City, and they're going to Mizoram, India, to teach, perform, and travel with their classmate. That classmate from India is going to join another classmate from London, Ontario, to enter the master’s program at the London Contemporary Dance School in England. It's a very prestigious program.
They will speak and tell their stories all over the world of what it is to be a Canadian. These students have made connections that will last them a lifetime, and they have opportunities to contribute to the Canadian artistic continuum. As you can see, we have a very strong pan-Canadian and diverse community in our school of which we are very proud.
We want to maintain that strength and search even further for talented students. Outreach to communities where there are dedicated teachers, like those Peggy spoke about, and gifted pre-professional dancers would provide incentive and encouragement to young dancers who might be drawn to a career in dance. A strong and vigorous professional field that provides inspiration to young dancers is absolutely critical. In order for our best dancers to remain in Canada once trained, the professional field must be robust and healthy. Support to the professional community is absolutely essential.
In addition to its own remit, the School of Toronto Dance Theatre is part of a like-minded consortium of five contemporary dance schools across the country. We are a very lean, organized institution staffed by very dedicated people. In terms of collaboration, I like to think of us as a very good news story. We work hard, and given limited resources, we have developed an extremely cooperative working relationship. We are engaged in developing young artists who are defining and expressing various aspects of Canadian culture, reflecting the society in which we live by telling Canadian stories.
One way in which we do this is to present our schools, individually and in collaboration, at the Canada Dance Festival here in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre theatre, where they are each able to express their artistic point of view in the national context, representing their regional signature and expressing their diversity.
This is a mammoth endeavour, but it's critical in helping our dancers to build a cross-generational network for the future, to meet directors and artists for future projects and potential employment, and to attend performances by companies and artists from around the country. Given the project’s importance and impacts, more support to this consortium of training programs for this undertaking would be extremely beneficial.
We understand that our job as trainers does not end with dance training. We help our students acquire the necessary transferable skills to enable them to forge many careers. These skills include commitment, compassion—all the things that Greg spoke of already—discipline, creative thinking, collaboration, being able to take direction and to lead, to learn how to learn. All of these will stand them in good stead in their careers and in their lives.
We're also keenly aware of a need for a broad education to complement the rigour and intensity of physical training. The members of our consortium are all colleges, CEGEPs, or have affiliations with university programs. Just to be clear, they are not grant-generating organizations—that would be the purview of the provinces—but we're affiliated with higher education.
These educational links provide a far-reaching foundation for these dancers. We also offer career planning and are assisted in this work by the Dancer Transition Resource Centre.
A witness in the earlier panel, Alexis Andrew, who is head of the research and evaluation section of the Canada Council, is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. A previous speaker you met via teleconferencing, Dr. Coralee McLaren, is an excellent example of the success of career transition planning provided by the DTRC. Dr. McLaren is also a graduate of the school. Both are a testament to the value of transferable skills learned in a dance training program.
Although the professional training program at the school is our priority, we also work very hard within our local community. The school provides classes for recreational dancers of all ages. These allow us to reach out to the general public, providing health benefits like Peggy has spoken of, artistic fulfillment, and joy in movement. Our young dancers program is focused on developing creative movement with children and young people, including those with mixed abilities, making dance more accessible and broadening its scope.
In closing, we're very grateful for the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canada arts training fund, and with their help we have built excellent training programs that develop young artists.
Thank you.