Contact Information:
For more information please contact:
Shelby Thoms - Artistic Director
Chrissy Baxter - Executive Director
p. 647-618-3240
e. SimcoeContemporaryDancers [at] gmail.com
For mailing address please inquire by phone or email.
Mandate, Mission and Values
Simcoe Contemporary
Dancers is a not-for-profit professional company by and for the region of
Simcoe County that exists to encourage and showcase the development of local
professional contemporary dance. We come together to raise the visibility of
contemporary dance, create awareness, build educational opportunities, and
reach out to our public to share our love of our art form.
As residents of our
community, we are invested in growing and developing local talent and local
opportunities for professional development. Our goal is to raise visibility and participation in contemporary dance
by: Creating and performing contemporary
dance works; providing workshops/classes at an intermediate to advanced level
of training; and providing public access to dance through
performances/community involvement.
We value
and encourage inter-disciplinary partnerships with individual artists and other
local arts organizations.
The
nature of our artists and activities provides a safe, positive, neutral
environment for people to come together to take part in a shared experience. We
facilitate opportunities to converge and collaborate as a community in a
non-competitive atmosphere – providing a platform to be expressive, creatively
engaged and challenged.
The local focus of
our organization allows members of the community to enjoy a professional level
of dance in their own backyard. Our events bring community together to a shared
experience of movement, which transcends language, as we animate spaces with
choreographies that tell our stories and experiences.
We are ambassadors
for our art form within our community and ambassadors for our community within
our art form.
Our Story
Simcoe Contemporary Dancers (SCD) was created by
Sarah Lochhead in the Spring of 2009 with support from a City of Barrie Cultural
Grant. Auditions were held in May 2009 and our inaugural project “Get Out and
Dance” (a site specific project) animated
the waterfront and streets of downtown Barrie throughout the summer. With Lochhead’s
leadership and vision the activities of the company evolved beyond Barrie’s
borders to neighbouring municipalities and provincial performance
opportunities.
2009 saw the development of weekly professional
classes in Barrie providing an opportunity for local dancers to train together
and establish a sense of community, as well as specialty workshops in the
private studio sector. We acquired
donated repertoire from choreographers which led to further public performances
in unconventional spaces such as the Bayfield Mall and theatre venues like the Georgian
Theatre (for the Barrie Arts Awards).
2010 focused on choreography. Nikki Russell’s work “Loss” was
performed as part of Dance in Dundas Square in Toronto. That spring works by
Lochhead were performed as part of Corpus dance company’s provincial mall tour.
We held a *Summer Creation Period acquiring repertoire by Susan Kendal and Meaghan
Giusti. This project fostered a period of artistic change and the tradition of
holding annual auditions began. We gave workshops in high schools and expanded our
weekly class opportunities to include an Orillia location. Our public
performances included being part of the first national Culture Days initiative.
In 2011, we worked with notable Canadian modern
dancer Trish Armstrong. With solos
by Armstrong, Lochhead and the direction of Nancy Pottage, we produced our
first full length production –“Woven.” That summer SCD offered its first summer
intensive called *My Moves - Choreographic Intensive, to assist in developing skills of regional youth choreographers.
Performance highlights included the Grand Opening Gala for the Mady Centre for
the Performing Arts, and collaborating with BRAVADO!. An additional weekday
evening class was added in Barrie by request of our class participants. (SCD now offers four weekly class opportunities:
3 in Barrie – central, north and south and 1 in Orillia)
In late 2011 and into 2012 we began a guest workshop
series bringing up artists such as Lucy Rupert, and Brittany Duggan to Barrie
to increase access to professional development. Performance highlights of 2012
included: SCD apprentices at the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival’s Youth
Moves Series; a Culture Days performance at the MacLaren Art Centre; the
patient holiday party at the Royal Victory Hospital and participation in Across
Ocean’s Choreographic Marathon in Toronto. As of February 28, 2012 we
incorporated as a not-for-profit organization. With the support of a City of
Barrie operating project grant, we have navigated both artistic and
administrative transitions, while maintaining our artistic activity and organizational
integrity.
In 2013, we garnered support from the OAC for “Departure” at the Mady Centre for the Performing Arts. The opening preview was sold out! Throughout 2013, we continued our performances in the community expanding our reach and continuing a performance partnership at the MacLaren Art Centre for both Winterfest and Culture Days. Our workshop series expanded to include a “Welcome Home” component, which brings artist who grew up in Barrie and area back home to share their experiences and skills. Since this “Welcome Home” series we have seen multiple artists come home to Simcoe County to share their art with SCD and community members including Dora Award winning choreographer, Mairead Filgate as well has many former apprentices including Eliza Pinney, Reagan McQuoid, and Aliyah Beckles-Gaines.
2014 focused on the development of our other-worldly performance spectacular at the Mady Centre (Oct. 2015) “Cumulonimbus and the Fable Keepers” by local choreographer Susan Kendal. We celebrated our fifth anniversary with a gala event. We also partnered with Across Oceans and The David Busby Street Centre to bring the award-winning community arts project KRIMA! to Barrie.
2015 saw choral collaborations with BRAVADO! and King Edward Choir. With support from the County of Simcoe we embarked on a Library Tour expanding our performance reach to Collingwood, Innisfil, Severn and Penetanguishene. In addition to Culture Days activities, we presented Cumulonimbus and the Fable Keepers at the Mady Centre for the Performing Arts. We expanded our holiday performances to include outreach in Innisfil and Thornbury. These holiday performances were also the first year we included a community workshop aspect into our holiday performances. We offered a small workshop class for members of the community to create their own holiday dance and connect with company members before an impromptu performance of the work they helped create.
In 2016, we performed as part of Dance Ontario Dance Weekend at Harbourfront Centre in Jan. 2016. We took on organizing and presenting Celebration of Dance – a community performance involving studios and schools to raise money for local charities. We also performed at the inaugural Huronia Arts Festival at Lakehead University’s Orillia campus and this fall we held our first gala incorporating a performance element with the goal of attracting corporate sponsors to diversify revenue. The Lucky 7 Gala event was a great success and saw community members and company members come together to celebrate the successes of SCD so far.
Fast forward to 2017, eight years into our journey, we applied for and received funding to present Dusk Dances Barrie for the first time at Lampman Lane Park in Barrie! We brought a series of 4 professional touring dance works to be performed at the park as well as creating and facilitating a choreographic process with community members ages ranging from 6 to 30+. We also presented our fourth full-length performance, “Trajectory”, at the Mady Centre for the Performing Arts. This mixed bill performance expanded the boundaries of what contemporary dance is and can be. SCD Company members with Meagan O’Shea brought down the house during our successful four-day run. At Trajectory, SCD also presented two world premier choreographic works, one by Dora Award winning choreographer and Barrie Native, Mairead Filgate and senior company member Shelby Thoms.
Following Trajectory, SCD jumped right into our annual holiday shows! We presented a new work that was created collaboratively by new apprentices and company members as well as a selection of works from our current repertoire. The end of our 2017/18 season saw the creation of three new works by our senior and choreographic apprentices. These works are to become part of our 2018/2019 repertoire to be performed throughout Simcoe County.
*project funded with support from a City of Barrie
Culture Grant
