An interactive dance map is part of an ongoing study that aims to get a clearer picture of dance in Canada.
And that’s exactly what Tina Legari, manager of 10 Gates Dancing, hopes will be achieved for dance in Centretown.
The dance map is part of the Canada Dance Mapping Study led by Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council.
Legari says she was intrigued when she first heard about the study.
“The development of a new audience is a priority for all dance organizations, big and small, and any initiatives that raise awareness, such as the dance map, have the potential to contribute to these efforts,” Legari says.
An inventory of dance organizations across Canada was collected in 2012 after the study was proposed in 2010.
The interactive map, released in September 2013, illustrates this inventory and shows approximately 900 dance organizations. Currently, the map shows 11 organizations in Centretown.
Data will be added by the end of February, totally 2,600 organizations across the country.
Legari says she is interested to see how the study may increase audience engagement.
The interactive map allows viewers to click on provinces and zoom in to see geographically where dance is happening. The map also provides information about each organization, such as their website link, phone number and address.
“I had heard about a similar study in the UK, which had generated a lot of interest,” she says.
Ellen Busby, co-chair of the research project, says the research has expanded more than ever expected.
“The initial drive on the study was essentially to get a better understanding of what was happening in the dance field,”she says.
In addition to the dance map, the study also included the survey, ‘Yes, I Dance.’
The study was distributed for two and a half months and answered by 8,000 dancers in Canada.
“We really tried to get a picture of dance that is more wholesome than our narrow view of the professional dance field,” Busby says.
She says what surprised her most was that initial research suggested there were approximately 100 forms of dance practiced in Canada. But information from the survey illustrated there is actually about 180 forms of dance practiced.
For Caroline Lussier, head of dance at Canada Council for the Arts, the biggest surprise from the research was the amount of powwows in Canada.
“The gap (in dance in Canada) is about aboriginal dance. In the inventory we worked really hard to find information to fill that gap,”she says.
Lussier says audiences are surprised by this as well, when the map is presented.
“We always hear a gasp in the audience when we show the powwows on the map,”she says.
Lussier says she hopes the dance map will show communities the dance organizations that they never realized were in their own backyard.
“It’s a tool for us in council, but it’s also very much a tool for the community so that they know each other to create networks and new contacts,”she says.