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Dance Performances (7)

  • Ballet Festival
    Ballet Festival
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    Roger Blais 1949 11 min
    From the Canada Carries On series, this is a look at Canada's first national Ballet Festival. Amateur companies from Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Hamilton and Vancouver perform at Toronto's Royal Alexander Theatre. An Ottawa company dances Les Sylphides. The Winnipeg Ballet appears in Visages by Walter Kaufman and the Volkoff Ballet of Toronto in Red Ear of Corn by John Weinzweig, both new Canadian works.
  • Canadians Can Dance
    Canadians Can Dance
    John Howe 1966 22 min
    From a festival of folk dances at the 1966 Canadian National Exhibition, an exciting selection of Canada's best amateur groups. The dances range from the seductive Hawaiian to the familiar Cossack. From all the major language groups of Canada, here is evidence that traditional cultures are expressed and maintained through the art of the dance. A film without words.
  • Feux Follets
    Feux Follets
    Jean-Claude Labrecque 1966 9 min
    Les Feux Follets (Will-o'-the-Wisps) was founded as an amateur dance group in Montréal. It grew into a professional company. In this film the group performs two dances that demonstrate the dancers' virtuosity: the first, an interpretation by the non-Indigenous troupe of a First Nations dance described as a "Plains betrothal dance"; the second, a more frenetic exhibition of go-go dancing.

  • Men / Ininiwag
    Men / Ininiwag
    Angelina McLeod 2019 15 min
    The men of Shoal Lake 40 tell the story of life in the community from their perspective, in the lead-up to their annual powwow. Lorne Redsky works the outdated pump house; there is no money to fix basic systems and bottled water is required for everyday use. As Lorne focuses his energy on the monumental task of getting clean water to the powwow, community member Kavin Redsky prepares his regalia for dancing, a deeply personal process connected to his healing journey. The two men embody the powerful gifts of community, traditional culture, and medicines, which have given the people of Shoal Lake 40 the resilience to continue the fight for Freedom Road
  • Masko Nimiwin (The Bear's Dance)
    Masko Nimiwin (The Bear's Dance)
    Marie-Christine Petiquay 2009 6 min
    The spectacular annual powwow at Manawan. Gilles Moar once saw a bear dancing, and this inspired him to pass his culture on to his daughter and the young in his community.

    Since 2004, the travelling studios of Wapikoni Mobile have enabled Quebec First Nations youth to express themselves through videos and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2008 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile DVD.
  • Shadow on the Prairie (A Canadian Ballet)
    Shadow on the Prairie (A Canadian Ballet)
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    Roger Blais 1953 14 min
    This is a screen presentation of a Canadian ballet created for and identified with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company. The theme centres around the settlement of the Canadian West and concerns the fate of a young wife who comes to the prairies with her pioneer husband to begin a new life. Ingeniously designed stage sets suggest a covered wagon and a rude homesteader's dwelling.
  • Dancers of the Grass
    Dancers of the Grass
    Melanie Jackson 2009 2 min
    This short film presents a stunning display of a stop-motion animation as it vividly depicts the majesty of the hoop dance, a tradition symbolizing the unity of all nations.