Allen’s Thank You Thursday #26
fFIDA
Instead of Throwback Thursday, I’ve decided to say “Thank-You Thursday”, to those who have had a deep influence in my life, but most likely are completely unaware of their impact.
#34 - I’d like to say THANK YOU to Michael Menegon, Co-Founder and Co- Artistic Director of fFIDA, for taking a huge career risk with me, in supporting our local, national and international Independent Dance Artists festival. Our goal: to excel and elevate our community in difficult times 1990-2000.
Forty years ago, the Independent Dance Artists (IDA) were poorly funded (if at all), had very few venues, mostly self-produced, completely underpaid (if at all), generally treated like scabs and not recognized for their value and importance. Few were able to make an affordable living strictly from dance. Karen initiated a cottage industry nightshirt biz designing and touring to craft shows and I was a Mitzvah teacher. We worked with various companies as a means of generating just enough funds to produce our own shows (another TY Th).
During our struggles, in 1990, Michael Menegon and I met and decided to create a platform to support and honour our community (TY #9). There was considerable backlash within the community and presenters, but we were determined that all Independent Dance Artists (IDA’s) in all dance forms and practices to be considered equal. We wanted to be as inclusive as possible without discrimination, judgement, bias or influence.
Most IDA’s were spending large budgets on self-producing their own shows, knowing they were unlikely to come close to breaking even. DanceWorks had a limited capacity to present our community and the incredible Pavlychenko Studios (Nadia (founder) and later her sister Larissa and her husband, visual artist Graham Coughtry), with limited tech but enormous hearts and broad minds, supported us IDA’s with three-four shows a year.
We initially designed a festival to honour IDA’s in Ontario (FIDO), but as our vision expanded, we decided to open it internationally, as we felt the desire to bring like-minded artists from around the world to our amazing city of TO. The festival became the: fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists (fFIDA-I pronounced it feeda).
The festival submissions were initially a “first come, first server” model (later becoming lottery to ensure fairness). fFIDA was one of the first Canadian dance festivals to invite all forms and practices of dance to be included as part of its foundation.
The first year, 1991, the festival was only six days in August and housed at the Winchester Street Theatre. IDA’s arrived from Europe, across Canada and the USA. We created 10 rotating programs of three choreographers each, each program was one hour (with transitions-therefore 18-minute pieces max) and had the opportunity to perform three times. The festival began on a Tuesday and by Thursday we were selling out 50% of the shows and by Sunday, all shows had huge lineups, turning hundreds away. fFIDA was born.
That first year, wanting to recognize differing approaches to dance we also invited “Site-Specific” works. The Off-Site took place throughout the city. One of the groups, with Darcey Callison and Laura Taler, was situated at the Necropolis (just at the base of the street from the Winch). We scheduled the program between our Mainstage shows, and I was asked to assist audience members to get there and, in character (the precursor to Maurycy: the tour guide, was created). Another IDA from France, Herve Anglerot, when not performing in the Mainstage, would improvise on/over/around unsuspecting cars, as they drove past the audience lineups.
Michael and I also believed deeply in supporting local businesses, designers-including: Bob Wilcox, Deborah Torr and Larry Rossignol; artists and our first ever, independent and Toronto produced dance journal, stepTEXT, the vison of Lisa Cochrane, Kathleen Smith and the late Tedd Fox. In fact, our first ever program was published in the 1st issue of stepTEXT (Issues can be found in the York U library).
When Michael and I met with Gregory Nixon, Founder and Director of the Theatre fringe, Toronto to ask advice about the potential of creating the world’s first Dance Fringe Festival, he recommended strongly that we bring the best technical team available and all will run smoothly. Gregory said they were worth their weight in gold…he was right! Our technical team, led by Patrick Matheson for over 10 years, was truly the foundation of our festival including such luminaries as: Penny Olorenshaw, Jeff Morris, Janelle Rainville, Sharon DiGennova SM’s; Darren Laberee House tech; Arun Srinivasan, Bonnie Beecher Lighting Directors; Blake Martin Sound Engineer; Julie-Anne Saroyan ASM; running crew, box office, volunteers among many others, were the engine that moved us forward. I wish I had the space to name all the thousands of choreographers, dancers, performers, composers and designers which were the soul that elevated the festival and community. Karen's career blossomed through fFIDA. Career connections created long lasting connections and touring.
Michael and I thought fFIDA ‘91 might be a one-off, but with the success of the first year, we realized that if we maintained the festival at just six days, it would be forced, by limited funding, to stay that way. So, we made the decision to challenge our funders (and doubters), and expanded to 10 days in 1992, with 16 Programs and 48 choreographers from around the world. Within a few years, presenters where coming to the festival from all over the world and our media coverage was Xtraordinary.
fFIDA became Canada’s largest international dance festival with over 300 dance artists from around the world presenting/performing each summer. In 1995, we moved from the Winchester Street Theatre to Buddies in Bad Times Theatre to support the thousands of audience members that were attracted annually. Independents started touring the world and we helped spawn: Human Lingo Danseries, Homeworks, Series 808 and Dusk Dances (Sylvie Bouchard Founder and AD). Unfortunately, most of the programs and media are unavailable from the 1990’s online, but many of these are archived and can be accessed through the Kaeja private collection and most importantly Dance Collection Danse: dcd.ca.
In 1992, as a way of supporting our emerging dance community, Michael and I created the “Late Night” series. It began in Joanna Powell and Ian MacKay’s loft, moved to the Downtown JCC in 1993 and finally, once we settled into Buddies in 1995, integrated into the entire festival programming. The Late Night supported five IDA’s, presenting 10-minute works. It began at 11pm and became one of the most popular events.
By 1997, the “Off-Site” and Mainstage programs were overlapping to such an extent, that we felt, these conflicts may be affecting the Mainstage audience size, which averaged 5,000/festival since 1995.
In 1998, with Board approval, I expanded fFIDA to just over three weeks with the opening thirteen days being “off-site” works and the following 10 days for Mainstage only in theatre. We had well over 10,000 audience attendance overall.
“Participants this year (2000) came not just from across North America but from as far away as Japan and the Ukraine. The Toronto model has spawned similar though smaller events in the United States, Mexico and Portugal. fFIDA has offered a launch pad for budding dance careers and a chance for audiences to sample the rich variety of the contemporary dance mosaic.”
“Since that first festival in 1991, "Feeda" has tripled in length and, depending on the year, overflowed into parks, graveyards, railroad stations and any number of unusual venues, including an aerial performance under the arches of a lofty viaduct, in what is now the two-week run up to a concentrated schedule of 16 mainstage programmes plus three rotating late-night shows at Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. All told, by the close of this year's festival, more than 90 choreographers had offered up their creative visions on the altar of art.” Michael Crabb, Dance International Magazine 2000.
During the year 2000, Kaeja d’Dance had just premiered Resistance, opening the new millennia for the Fleck Theatre, Harbourfront and we were about to tour the piece through North America for the next six years. Karen’s and my family were growing and it was time to spend more quality time with them, especially during the summers which fFIDA had taken all my invaluable time from June - August. I celebrated fFIDA’s 10th Anniversary and said my farewells, knowing that fFIDA was in Xceptional shape, cared for and that the community was transformed forever. I stepped down as Co-AD.
TY to Michael and our Independent Dance Community for being so incredibly vibrant and resilient. The IDA’s will continue to create innovative ways to move forward and elevate each other.