Choreography: Stephanie Ballard
Photo: Rodney S Braun
"The School of Contemporary Dancers' teaching staff is comprised of three full-time master core faculty and a diversity of esteemed guest instructors. The quality of the core teaching staff and guests is unparalleled in the discipline."
Canadian Heritage Assessor
Faculty
The core faculty
members for the Program are:
(please click on highlighted names for full
biography)
Odette Heyn-Penner • Co-Director
Professional Program Co-Founder
Faye Thomson • Co-Director
Professional Program Co-Founder
Rachel Browne • School
Founder
Stephanie Ballard • Artist-in-Residence/Archivist
Gaile Petursson-Hiley • Artistic
Associate
Claude de Moissac • Accompanist
Shirley Grierson • Accompanist
David
Schneider • Accompanist
Guest Faculty
The Program has continued to feature several national and international renowned guests each year.
Over the years, the Program has drawn extensively on acclaimed artists from the Winnipeg professional community as guest teachers and in artistic collaborations. These artists have included: Jolene Bailie, Paula Blair, Kristin Haight, Randy Joynt, Karen Kuzak, Brent Lott, Casimiro Nhussi, Natasha Torres-Garner and B. Pat Burns (Voice).
Out-of-Province guests have included: Peggy Baker, Serge Bennathan, Peter Bingham, Marc Boivin, Peter Boneham, Heidi Bunting, Susie Burpee, Ginelle Chagnon, Connie Cooke, Lesandra Dodson, Sylvain Emard, Bill Evans, Paul André Fortier, Margie Gillis, Don Halquist, Ginette Laurin, Claudia Lavista, Christina Medina, Davida Monk, Sharon Moore, Tedd Robinson, Victor Manuel Ruiz, Julia Sasso, Roger Sinha, Michael Trent, Dan Wild and others.
Core Administrative Staff
Charlene
Kulbaba • Office Manager
Dwight Chmilnisky • Administrative Manager
Board of Directors
Ellen
Oberlander • Co-Chair
Trish Smerchanski
• Co-Chair
Rhonda Smerchanski • Treasurer/Secretary
Fred Penner, C.M. • Member
Rachel Browne, C.M. • Honourary Member
Odette Heyn-Penner • Co-Director of the School
Faye Thomson • Co-Director of the School
Core Faculty Biographies
Odette
Heyn-Penner & Faye Thomson Co-Directors
Technique, Repertory, Composition, Paedagogy
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Odette Heyn-Penner and Faye Thomson have co-directed the Professional Program of The School of Contemporary Dancers for many years. In this capacity as master teachers, they have been among the prime trainers of most members of Winnipeg's contemporary dance community and many artists now dancing with choreographers and companies across the country. They have been invited panelist/presenters for several symposiums, festivals, conferences and roundtables focusing on professional contemporary dance training and the arts in Canada.
Odette Heyn-Penner has performed and choreographed for Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers and continues to perform as an independent with numerous choreographers including Rachel Browne, Brent Lott and Stephanie Ballard. She has also choreographed work for various performances including the Festival of Canadian Modern Dance and the Kuan Du Arts Festival in Taipei, Taiwan. Ms. Heyn-Penner has served as a Guest Company Teacher for Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers for many years and was Assistant Artistic Director during Bill Evans' directorship. Previously, she was Founding Artistic Director of Sundance Children's Dance Theatre, created with the assistance of a Canada Council Explorations Grant in 1979. She has received several grant awards and has served as a juror and assessor for the Manitoba Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. She is currently a member of the board of the Alliance for Arts Education.
Faye Thomson has performed in numerous works including with Stephanie Ballard, Rachel Browne, Tedd Robinson, and with Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers. She has served as a Rehearsal Mistress and ‘Outside Eye' for Stephanie Ballard for several projects. She studied and performed in South Indian Classical Dance for many years under the direction of Menaka Thakkar, including an acclaimed 1984/85 performance tour of India. She holds degrees in Dance and Philosophy. Ms. Thomson has served as a Guest Company Teacher for Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers for many years and was Assistant Artistic Director during Bill Evans' directorship. She has been the recipient of several grant awards and has served as a juror/assessor for the Manitoba Arts Council and for the Canada Council for the Arts. She is currently an appointed member of the board of the Winnipeg Arts Council as well as serving as an elected member of the Manitoba Arts Council Advisory Panel.
Rachel
Browne, C.M. Founder
Repertory
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Rachel Browne founded Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers (WCD) in 1964 and served as the Artistic Director, resident choreographer and teacher for over twenty years. Under her direction, WCD grew to be a nationally recognized repertory company significant in the development of modern dance in Canada. She remains active as a choreographer, teacher and performer. Her work has influenced generations of dancers whom she has trained and directed.
Rachel has received numerous awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Winnipeg Arts Council. Foundation awards include the 1995 Jean A. Chalmers Award for Creativity in Dance, the 2000 Canada Council Jacqueline Lemieux Prize and the 2001 Manitoba Arts Council Great-West Life Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1997 she was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada. Rachel Browne's biography, DANCING TOWARD THE LIGHT, by Carol Anderson, was published in 1999.
Rachel's current activities include creating works for her ongoing project, Older Women Dance . EDGELIT, featuring six senior dance artists, premiered at WCD's 35th Anniversary Festival in 1999 and was produced in Toronto by Danceworks in 2000. Other creations include FLOWERING (2005), MEIN RUHE PLATZ (2006), performed to klezmer music, and VARIATIONS ON SERENITY, to music by Canadian composer Ann Southam, which opened WCD's 42 nd season in 2006. FLOWERING, performed with Odette Heyn-Penner, was presented at the Older and Reckless series in Toronto in 2007. CEREMONIES, Rachel's newest piece, performed to Ann Southam's ‘Seastill', premiered in 2007. CEREMONIES was commissioned by three WCD dancers for an independent project entitled Transformations .
Stephanie
Ballard Artist-In-Residence/Archivist
Repertory, Performance Technique, Dance Legacy
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Stephanie Ballard is an acclaimed choreographer, personal coach and educator. She is a recipient of Canada's most prestigious awards for choreography including the Clifford E. Lee Award, the Jean A. Chalmers Award and the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize. Formerly an apprentice, company member, apprentice director and associate artistic director of Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers, she continues a close affiliation with the company as a guest choreographer and Legacy Advisor. Her work with the Margie Gillis Dance Foundation included thirteen years of extensive touring of Asia, the U.S., Canada and Europe. She has a Masters Degree in Therapeutic Counseling and has been active with Learning Through the Arts and Artists-in-the-Schools. She is a founding Director of Mouvement/Winnipeg Dance Projects and continues to create new work on a regular basis. Her "Landscape Dancing" continues to be performed throughout Winnipeg and at the Canada Dance Festival biannually. Ms. Ballard's ten-year Legacy Project was the seed for establishing The Winnipeg Dance Preservation Initiative with Margaret Piasecki in 2006. Ms. Ballard is a member of the Society for Canadian Dance Studies and is an Honorary Advisor to Dance Collection Danse.
Gaile
Petursson-Hiley Artistic Associate
Technique, Repertory
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Independent Winnipeg choreographer, Gaile Petursson-Hiley, has contributed to the Canadian dance community for the past 30 years as a dance artist, dance educator and dance creator. She was a featured dancer with Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers, Stephanie Ballard and Dancers and Pacific Ballet Theatre and has performed throughout North America, Europe and Australia. Gaile is an Artistic Director of Mouvement, Winnipeg Dance Projects. Mouvement premiered Gaile Petursson-Hiley's highly successful work “Faeries” in July 2006. It was reviewed as a “magical debut for Mouvement/Winnipeg Dance Projects”. Gaile's newest project, “Bronte”, will be presented by the Company in 2008. As Co-founder and Co-Director of Dance Collective from 1989-1994, Gaile created over twenty original works for the repertoire of the Company. Three works commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra were premiered in the DuMaurier New Music Festival 1992 and 1993. Gaile has been awarded grants from Canada Council, Manitoba Arts Council and Winnipeg Arts Council for study, creation and production. In 1994, Gaile received the prestigious Manitoba Arts Council Major Arts Award for the creation of “Waltz”, a collaboration with composer Holly Harris and visual artist, Susan Chafe. She celebrated her 20th Anniversary as a choreographer in 2002 with the World Premiere of “Cherry Blossom Pink” in Winnipeg. As a dance educator, Gaile has toured throughout Manitoba with the Manitoba Artists-in-the-Schools Program. Artistic Associate of The School of Contemporary Dancers Professional Program, Gaile is an outstanding Master teacher with a strong commitment to the nurturing of a new generation of artists.