Culture

Fancy footwork: Dance takes centre stage at Hart House

siddiq22 — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 15:01:50 +0000

Fancy footwork: Dance takes centre stage at Hart House

siddiq22 Wed, 04/26/2023 - 11:01

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This spring, Hart House is home to all kinds of dance – from championship events to performances and classes to learn a wide variety of genres (supplied image)

Megan Mueller

Topic

Our Community

Dance

Arts

Culture

Fitness

Hart House

Hart House Theatre

Student Life

From a popular dance festival to hosting the qualifying round for Canada's national breakdancing championship, the University of Toronto's Hart House is centre stage for dance this spring.

U of T will welcome some of the best breakdancers (known as "breakers") in Canada on April 29 when Hart House Theatre hosts the Ontario Open – the qualifying rounds of the Canada DanceSport (CDS) National Championships, which will be held in Vancouver in June. The winner of that series will progress to the World Dance Sport Federation's World Breaking Championship, taking place in Belgium in September.

The event comes as the status of breaking (also called "b-boying" and "b-girling") is steadily rising – the sport will even be included in the summer Olympics for the first time next year when the Games are held in Paris.

Geoff Reyes, lead organizer of the
Ontario Open breaking championship at
Hart House (supplied image)

Geoff Reyes, a graduate of U of T's civil engineering program in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, has been involved in the Canadian breaking scene for many years – the former Varsity athlete and dance instructor, who is the breaking sports director for CDS and the president of Breaking Canada, is the lead organizer of the Ontario Open at Hart House.

For Reyes, the founder of Ontario-based breaking groups How Hip Hop Helps and You Be ILL, returning to Hart House will be like a homecoming.

“During my time at U of T, Hart House meant community and gathering. I taught breaking with the U of T Dance Club and hip hop dance at the Fitness Centre," Reyes recalls. "My dance group, as well as my students, performed at the Hart House U of T Festival of Dance."

Hosting the Ontario Open is just one of many ways Hart House has supported and showcased the art form of dance over the years.

“There’s a substantial dance community at U of T, and Hart House Theatre is a key part of this,” says Doug Floyd, Hart House Theatre's director of theatre and performance art.

The theatre often hosts and collaborates with dance groups of all genres, including student-led ensembles such as the Silhouettes Dance Company – one of the largest U of T dance troupes on campus – who will perform at Hart House Theatre later this year. Another student-run dance group, the Only Human Dance Collective, often rents the Hart House Theatre to run classes for students of all experience levels.

The University of Toronto Dance Team – which won three consecutive dance competitions in March against 28 teams across Canada, are another campus group taking to the Hart House Theatre stage to wrap up their season, presenting some of their best dance pieces in a performance on April 29.

Such collaborations are key to Hart House's ongoing commitment to programming dance, says Michelle Brownrigg, Hart House Theatre's senior director and chief program officer.

“Community and academic partnerships are so important,” she says. “For example, we have several collaborative workshops with U of T's Institute for Dance Studies, with most recent support to their keynote on disability and dance earlier this year."

Kiki Ballroom Alliance (supplied image)

Some of those partnerships include the one with Breaking Canada, rehearsal space for vogue dance group Kiki Ballroom Alliance and initiatives with Dance Immersion that focus on the African dance diaspora in tap and jazz dance – a connection that was fostered by Seika Boye, director of the Institute for Dance Studies.

Hart House Theatre's longstanding association with dance is highlighted each year through the annual Hart House U of T Festival of Dance – one of the largest university dance festivals in the country, the showcase offers a wide variety of performances across genres, including jazz, ballet, ballroom, modern, hip hop, musical theatre, Irish, Latin, belly dancing and k-pop. This year's event ran from March 31 to April 1 and included 60 different dance numbers.

“Some dance groups have their own large shows, but some don’t – so the festival is even more important for those smaller companies," Floyd explains.

“With such an abundance of dance groups associated with U of T, participation in the festival is a great opportunity for dance groups to interact, collaborate and promote their own work and ventures.”

Breaking Canada holds a class on breakdance at the Hart House Fitness Centre (supplied image)

Dancers don't have to be onstage to enjoy some fancy footwork at Hart House, which offers several popular classes at the Fitness Centre, including Zumba, cardio dance party, Afro cardio dance, Bollywood and k-pop.

Those who get inspired by the breakdancing competition can take a new breaking class this spring. Breaking Canada, in partnership with Canadian Women & Sport, will be offering B Thee Rise, a national b-girl initiative where participants will learn the fundamentals of breaking with guidance from leading b-girls.

“Whether you’re a novice to breaking or looking to improve your abilities, this program is inclusive, safe and most of all, fun,” says Vanessa Treasure, director of fitness, wellness and recreation at the Fitness Centre.

With its focus on experiential learning through the arts and active living, Hart House's longstanding pas de deux with dance offers something for everyone on campus – from showing off skills in the spotlight to learning new moves for the first time.

Joe's Basketball Diaries Episode 4: Community

lanthierj — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 21:56:31 +0000

Joe's Basketball Diaries Episode 4: Community lanthierj Wed, 01/04/2023 - 16:56

Topic

City & Culture

Joe's Basketball Diaries

Equal access. Immigration. Connection. Public spaces. These themes are at the centre of the latest episode of Joe’s Basketball Diaries, hosted by Joseph Wong, the University of Toronto’s vice-president, international.

In a wide-ranging conversation in the Hart House gym, athletes, authors, journalists and coaches join Wong to explore the intersection of sport and community, the challenges the city faces around infrastructure and society’s responsibility when it comes to access and resources. They also discuss the Toronto Raptors’ arrival in the NBA in 1995 and the lasting impact of Eastern Commerce Collegiate Institute, the public high school and basketball player pipeline that closed in 2015 and is where many of Wong’s guests developed their love of the game.

“It’s Eastern for life, it’s a community and it goes far beyond basketball,” says Sami Hill, a Team Canada athlete. “It made me who I am a basketball player today, but also as a person.”

This episode features:

Kareem Griffin, executive director, Canletes Basketball
Sami Hill, Team Canada athlete and former Eastern Commerce Saints player
Perry King, journalist and author
Fitriya Mohamed, co-founder of the Muslim Women’s Summer Basketball League
Alex Wong, author, podcast producer and co-host of The Raptors Show with Will Lou

Watch Joe’s Basketball Diaries Ep. 4

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture launches new gallery with inaugural installation 'New Circadia'

noreen.rasbach — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 15:00:18 +0000

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture launches new gallery with inaugural installation 'New Circadia'

noreen.rasbach Wed, 11/06/2019 - 10:00

Cutline

The new Architecture and Design Gallery's inaugural exhibition, New Circadia, transforms the 7,500-square-foot space into a darkened, cave-like environment designed specifically to coddle the body and calm the mind

Stephen Kupferman

Topic

City & Culture

Culture

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture

Sleep

Subheadline

'We are interested in using architecture to convey the idea that idling and resting isn't unproductive. It's essential'

Most art and design exhibitions demand rapt attention from visitors. Nobody would visit a gallery expecting to lay back and let their mind wander in a darkened space, where every detail has been tweaked to encourage states of rest and repose.

And yet, that type of relaxation is precisely what will be asked of visitors at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design's new Architecture and Design Gallery when it opens to the public on Thursday.

The gallery's inaugural exhibition, New Circadia, transforms the new, 7,500-square-foot space into a darkened, cave-like environment designed specifically to coddle the body and calm the mind. The installation, curated by Richard Sommer, dean of the Daniels Faculty, in partnership with Natalie Fizer and Emily Stevenson of Pillow Culture, a New York–based interdisciplinary design studio, will open to the public on Friday until April 30.

If the idea of an architecture school designing an environment intended to put visitors to sleep sounds counterintuitive, that’s mostly by design. New Circadia's curators see it as a kind of antidote to the effects of normal architectural practice.

“Architecture is inextricably bound up in the urbanization of the planet,” Sommer says. “In fact, the very culture of the profession of architecture has been built on adopting mindsets and technologies that mechanize the body, facilitate long work hours and encourage a 24/7 lifestyle. Architecture marks time as much as it shapes space. We are interested in using architecture to convey the idea that idling and resting isn't unproductive. It's essential.”

The project was inspired by the Mammoth Cave Experiment, a 1938 study in which University of Chicago professor Nathaniel Klietman and his student, Bruce Richardson, sequestered themselves underground in Kentucky's Mammoth Cave. There, in a primordial space, shut away from daylight and daily fluctuations in temperature, they tried to investigate what happens when the human body deviates from a 24-hour cycle of sleep and wakefulness.

New Circadia won't require its visitors to be quite so intrepid. The installation will be split into three distinct zones. The "Transitory Zone" will be a vestibule-like area lit with CoeLux technology –artificial skylights that create the impression of perpetual daylight. Visitors to the gallery will remove their shoes and coats, and then drape their bodies with pillow-like "spelunking gear."

Once visitors are suitably outfitted, they'll enter the "Dark Zone," a dimly lit area filled with curving structures intended to resemble the uneven surfaces found in the interior of natural caves. But unlike the surfaces in a natural cave, New Circadia's "rocks" and floors will be covered with thick, soft felt. There will be subtle, cycling lights and sounds. All of this will help create what the curators refer to as a “loungescape.” Visitors will be encouraged to make use of the Dark Zone's soft surfaces for self-directed rest and meditation.

The third zone, called "Oneiroi," is a project by Assistant Professor Petros Babasikas and artist Chrissou Voulgari. Visitors will be invited to record descriptions of their dreams or listen to dreams recorded by previous visitors.

At various times throughout New Circadia's six-month run, the Daniels Faculty will host speakers, musicians, and other types of experimental performers in the space. The precise dates and times of these special events will be announced on the Daniels Faculty's website in coming weeks.

The launch of New Circadia will mark the grand opening of the Daniels Faculty's Architecture and Design Gallery, a reclaimed space on the lower level of the faculty's new home in the Daniels Building, at One Spadina Crescent. The area that is now the gallery was originally a coal storage area within the 19^th-century Knox Theological Seminary’s cloister. (The former seminary building – later the Connaught Laboratory – has been fully renovated, and it now forms the southern half of the Daniels Building.)

The coal bin was excavated and remediated. With financial support from the estate of James Drewry Stewart and the federal government’s Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, the area where the bin was located was ultimately transformed into a usable room. The new gallery is now the only large exhibition space in Toronto devoted entirely to architecture and design.

New Circadia will run from Nov. 8 to April 30. There will be a public launch event on Nov. 7, for which free tickets are still available. For gallery hours, see the Daniels Faculty's website. Support for New Circadia exhibition was provided by the Lorne M. Gertner Fund.

U of T's Munk School teams with TIFF for eighth annual speaker series

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 18:38:36 +0000

U of T's Munk School teams with TIFF for eighth annual speaker series

noreen.rasbach Fri, 09/06/2019 - 14:38

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Made in Bangladesh, a film by Rubaiyat Hossain, will be part of the TIFF Speaker Series that pairs scholars from the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and filmmakers (courtesy of TIFF)

Adrienne Harry

Topic

City & Culture

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Cities

Culture

Faculty of Arts & Science

Film

For the eighth year, the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) are partnering to present the TIFF Speaker Series. The series pairs Munk School scholars and filmmakers for a post-screening discussion about select TIFF films, aimed at deepening understanding of the issues each film explores.

This year’s film selections include Rubaiyat Hossain’s Made in Bangladesh, a film about a garment factory worker who is inspired to start a union with her colleagues after her friend dies on the job. Professor Rachel Silvey, the Richard Charles Lee director of the Asian Institute, will join Hossain for a discussion after Saturday's screening.

On Sunday, Professor Joseph Wong joins Alexander Nanau to discuss Collective, a documentary about the consequences of a fire in a Romanian music club in October of 2015. The fire left 64 dead and more than 100 injured. Over the course of one year, the film follows an investigative journalist and a young minister of health, who, triggered by the fate of the victims, are each struggling with the corruption of state institutions.

Incitement, a film by Yaron Zilberman (photo courtesy of TIFF)

Associate Professor Ron Levi joins filmmaker Yaron Zilberman on Monday to discuss the film Incitement. This TIFF selection tells the story of the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin through the perspective of his killer, a promising law student turned delusional ultranationalist.

Also on Monday, TIFF welcomes Julie Moreau, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s department of political science and Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, who will discuss the film Comets with filmmaker Tamar Shavguildze. Set in Georgia, the film follows Nana and Irina, two women whose teenage romance made life so unbearable that one flees the country. The couple reunites in their mid-50s to relive the love of their youth.

Love Child, a film by Eva Mulvad (photo courtesy of TIFF)

Professor Randall Hansen sits with filmmaker Eva Mulvad on Tuesday to discuss the film Love Child, which focuses on a refugee family from Iran and the challenges they face seeking asylum in Turkey.

To close the series, Professor Janice Stein will sit with Maryam Touzani on Friday to discuss Touzani’s film, Adam. Set in Casablanca, Adam explores friendship, motherhood and grief in this story about a young pregnant woman and the widow who takes her in after she is rendered homeless.

The 2019 Toronto International Film Festival runs to Sept.15. Follow @munkschool on Twitter for live updates from Tuesday's screening of Love Child and Friday's screening of Adam.

K-pop, fandom and the BTS boys: U of T researcher brings ‘Korean Wave’ into classroom

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 17:32:07 +0000

K-pop, fandom and the BTS boys: U of T researcher brings ‘Korean Wave’ into classroom

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 08/29/2019 - 13:32

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BTS perform onstage during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas earlier this year (photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for dcp)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

South Korea

If you’ve tuned into a late night show, listened to the radio or logged onto Twitter lately, it’s likely you’ve heard of Korean boyband BTS, or at least come across the name.

The K-pop darlings have performed on Saturday Night Live, sold out New York City’s 40,000-seat Citi Field and topped the Billboard charts – all while inspiring a devoted, global and cross-cultural fan base.

So it’s no wonder that Michelle Cho, an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s department of East Asian studies in the Faculty of Arts & Science, is captivating students with her courses on Korean film, media and popular culture.

“The really unique thing about East Asian studies is that it’s interdisciplinary by design,” says Cho. “You have students coming from all across the arts and sciences. My courses attract students who have an interest in Asian pop culture.”

It’s not only students who are interested. North Americans in general have demonstrated a growing interest in Korean pop culture in recent years, part of the global “Korean Wave.”

In her courses exploring fandom and transmedia – storytelling across multiple platforms – Cho allows her students to bring their own expertise as fans to the classroom, which she says has been useful as a researcher of fandom culture.

At its most basic level, the term “fandom” is used to describe a subculture or community formed around a collective love of something in the pop culture sphere. Whether it’s a sports team, TV show, book series, movie franchise or band, fandom is a shared love of something that builds community – often online – and becomes a significant part of a person’s identity.

Michelle Cho is an assistant professor in U of T’s department of East Asian studies (photo courtesy of Michelle Cho)

Cho’s research addresses a phenomenon that’s becoming more engrained in our modern lives.

“You see fandom culture becoming much more important in the way that people define themselves in a media landscape that can seem very fragmented,” says Cho. “In a way, everybody has their niche little worlds online, or on media platforms.”

It’s the idea of finding likeminded people online that makes way for fandoms to blossom.

“We have this sort of infinite seeming choice of what kind of media we consume. I think it makes a lot of sense that the communities that form around those choices become much more significant,” Cho says.

“Fandom helps people to find a form of collective identity that seems more open and expansive than the kinds of group identities that are ready-made like national identity or generational identity.”

While the stereotypes of fans haven’t changed much since the days of Beatlemania – think hysterical young women and geeky young men – Cho says K-pop fans are more diverse than you might think. And she says it’s even more surprising that they tend to be self-reflexive in a way that contradicts what’s been understood historically about fandom.

“Reflexive awareness is thought to make you less emotionally invested and more neutral,” says Cho. “So self-critical consumers of popular culture should be a completely different group than the fangirls and teens swooning at concerts, right? But they're not. They're the same group.

“I’m really interested in looking at how self-reflexivity makes fans more invested in their love object.”

Cho also looks at the types of media technologies that enable K-pop fans to communicate with others in their community, as well as feel a sense of intimacy with their idols – even if that intimacy doesn’t really exist.

Take, for instance, V Live.

It’s a popular app – and one that the members of BTS use regularly – that mimics Apple’s FaceTime or other livestreaming apps that create a kind of digital intimacy between users.

Except unlike FaceTime, there’s no back-and-forth conversation. It’s a way for K-pop stars to open their lives up to their fans in a way that makes them seem ordinary and approachable, even if they’re not.

The tactic is used outside the world of K-pop as well.

Cho says you can even see U.S. politicians following suit by using their social media channels to create a sense of intimacy with followers.

U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one high-profile example. The young Democratic congresswoman – known for her progressive views – made headlines during her first months in Washington for talking directly to her 3.2 million followers on Instagram Live while assembling IKEA furniture, making chili and drinking wine.

It’s that direct-to-camera intimacy – feeling like you’re chatting with a friend – that Cho says K-pop stars have become known for when it comes to fan interaction.

As for whether we have K-pop stars like BTS to thank for Korea’s increased visibility in the North American zeitgeist, Cho says they certainly play a part.

“I think that the rising interest in Korean language, culture and history – and just Korean studies in general – is coming from the increased visibility of Korean pop culture,” said Cho. “When I was growing up in the U.S., and even in college, a lot of people didn't actually know that Korea was a separate country from Japan or China, which is hard to believe now.

“But that just says something about Korea’s visibility. And the fact that it's in people's consciousness, whether or not they have anything to do with Asia or know any Koreans. It has a lot to do with media representation.”

While Cho’s research into K-pop fandom will continue, this year she’s returning to her research roots by teaching a course on Korean cinema, as well as a first-year foundation seminar that explores how media producers and fans engage with media worlds in East Asia.

New book by U of T author looks at the corporate philanthropy of MˑAˑC Cosmetics and how it was done right

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 13:56:37 +0000

New book by U of T author looks at the corporate philanthropy of MˑAˑC Cosmetics and how it was done right

noreen.rasbach Fri, 08/09/2019 - 09:56

Cutline

"Generally, I've been interested in the commodification of social causes, mostly because I find it objectionable," says Andrea Benoit, academic review officer in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

HIV

LGBTQ

A new book from University of Toronto Press uncovers the origins of MˑAˑC Cosmetics’ corporate philanthropy around HIV/AIDS awareness and fundraising in the early 1990s.

Viva MˑAˑC: AIDS, Fashion, and the Philanthropic Practices of MˑAˑC Cosmetics traces the history of the MˑAˑC AIDS Fund, a charity established in 1994 to support people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.

The book is written by Andrea Benoit, academic review officer in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science and adjunct assistant professor of media studies in the Faculty of Information & Media Studies at Western University. Benoit received her bachelor's and master's degrees from U of T in English before completing her PhD in media studies at Western.

Jovana Jankovic spoke with Benoit about MˑAˑC’s corporate philanthropy, why it was unique and the historical conditions out of which it emerged.

MˑAˑC has always catered to a wider variety of customers – such as the LGBTQ community and people of colour – than other brands. How do you think this is related to the brand’s genesis in Toronto, such a diverse city?

MˑAˑC started its philanthropy in the early 1990s within a sort of perfect storm. The founders and its employees wanted to help their friends and the people around them as the AIDS epidemic was unfolding in Toronto. There was some activism already in place, along with a slightly more progressive political moment.

At the same time, we had the revitalization of the creative industries in the 1980s – in music and in the fashion scene. Toronto really felt like it might be a fashion capital, along the same lines as New York, and everybody was excited about it. There was lots of expansive thinking in that time. Creative people weren’t necessarily concerned with making a lot of money, although certainly one has to make a livelihood.

You write in your book that taking a stand like MˑAˑC did to spotlight AIDS was “defiant.” What do you think it takes for brands to take such a risk?

Well, “cause marketing” is, first of all, marketing. So, for cause marketing to be successful, it has to benefit the company. As a result, a lot of corporations probably aren't interested in being too risky. And, of course, the consumer base and the cause have to overlap in order for it to work.

There’s a tendency to play it safe – unless you’re a big company, in which case we see something like Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty.” There was a certain amount of risk in that but, at the same time, that brand was so stale that they could take that chance. And they touched a social nerve – and did it in a really interesting and imaginative way that changed that conversation.

However, what MˑAˑC did had nothing to do with marketing. They weren’t interested in that kind of promotional activity. They just did what they felt was right, and they did it according to their own logic, their own sets of practices. They didn't really care what people thought.

There's no question that the brand and the AIDS advocacy have become mutually beneficial since then, and they would say there's nothing wrong with that. But they have maintained their position that the MˑAˑC AIDS Fund is not a promotional activity writ large, and they still don't really advertise it all that much.

How did you get interested in corporate philanthropy as a research area? And could you talk to us about some contemporary examples?

Generally, I've been interested in the commodification of social causes, mostly because I find it objectionable. The intersection of social justice with consumer culture is pretty disingenuous, especially since capitalism itself is founded so clearly on social inequity and exploitation.

But corporations rely on consumers thinking that they’re doing good things. So as an intellectual inquiry, I wanted to try to understand these things better. When I started to explore this topic, I couldn't find anything good to say about it – which can be distressing and discouraging, to think that everything's terrible. But when I started to investigate MˑAˑC, I realized that something very different was happening. Their story didn't follow along the same patterns I was seeing with other corporations. So that was the basis of this project.

Gillette, for instance, is actually doing something pretty controversial and risking a pretty solid consumer base by talking about issues like “toxic masculinity” that are uncomfortable for people. They’re trying to change this conversation in a substantial way.

Whether it will be successful or not remains to be seen. That’s why advertising history is so interesting, because you can’t always assess the impact in the moment.

Pride month just took place and here in Toronto we have one of the biggest Pride celebrations in the world. What does Pride mean to you and how do you celebrate?

I've always considered myself an ally. And I'm thrilled that my book came out during Pride month at the Glad Day Bookshop, the oldest independent LGBTQ bookstore in Toronto.

It's interesting to see how Pride has become so all-encompassing. I used to live in the [Church-Wellesley] village, and Pride really did start as something very small and very determined. I think it’s important for younger people to understand the history of Pride – it's not just a month of partying. It comes from a long history of people living and working and dying to achieve equality and safety in their lives and on the streets. That gets missed when you go to the mall and every store has rainbows and Pride t-shirts.

So, I'm hopeful that my book offers a little bit of information about people who were trying to do something at a time when it was risky, when their friends were dying, when people were very antagonistic and aggressively against advocacy for LGBTQ folks and terrified of AIDS. I'm glad that my book might help people understand that history a little bit. History is important.

‘Making room for new possibilities’: How U of T alumnus Lee MacDougall made the leap from science to theatre

noreen.rasbach — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 22:06:51 +0000

‘Making room for new possibilities’: How U of T alumnus Lee MacDougall made the leap from science to theatre

noreen.rasbach Tue, 07/30/2019 - 18:06

Cutline

“I made a huge switch from science to the arts, and have never regretted it," said U of T alumnus Lee MacDougall, who has had a theatre career that has taken him across Canada and the U.S., including on Broadway (photo by Tim Leyes)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Theatre

Victoria College

Letting go of a long-held dream is never easy.

When seasoned theatre actor, writer and director Lee MacDougall started his undergraduate career in the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto, he had dreams of becoming a doctor.

But things don’t always happen as planned.

“I realized that I wasn’t enjoying science as much as I had in high school,” said MacDougall. “It dawned on me that I didn’t know what I was going to do, but it wasn’t going to be in science or medicine.”

With his interest in the sciences starting to wane, something that had been a side project started making its way to centre stage – theatre.

“I was rehearsing a show very early in my time at U of T and the director took me aside and said, ‘You’re very good at this. You should consider doing this professionally,’” said MacDougall. “I laughed at the time, but never forgot that someone saw that in me before I had any training.”

And while MacDougall did go on to study theatre at Ryerson University after completing his bachelor’s degree in science, he credits U of T as the first place he tried his hand at writing for the stage.

Alongside a group of fellow Victoria College students, MacDougall put on an original comedy review called Don’t Worry, Mom, based around four original monologues that the group wrote and performed to their fictional mothers, peppered with sketches that MacDougall says were a little dark and funny.

“It was thrilling to see my own work up on stage for the first time and it inspired me to begin writing plays by myself a few years later,” he said.

“I made a huge switch from science to the arts, and have never regretted it. My artistic life morphed as the years went by and I loved every new skill that I learned and added to my repertoire.”

With a theatre career that has taken him across Canada and the U.S., including multiple seasons at the Stratford Festival and the Shaw Festival, MacDougall recently returned to Canada after a stint on Broadway in Come From Away, the longest-running Canadian musical in Broadway history.

“Being a part of the original cast of Come From Away was definitely one of the high points of my theatre career,” he said.

The show tells a Canadian story about an American tragedy: the true story of the thousands of passengers that found themselves stranded in Gander, N.L. in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11 and the generosity of the Newfoundlanders who made them feel like family.

“Every night we would have people waiting for us at the stage door with tears in their eyes, wanting to tell us that they lost their husband, wife, or co-worker in the Twin Towers and how moving and positive they found our story,” he said. “I’m sure it’s an experience that won’t happen again in my lifetime.”

And while theatre wasn’t the plan when MacDougall started his undergraduate career at U of T, he says being open to change was part of the university experience.

“I learned to let go of things I had dreamed of since public school and learned I had the power to say: This isn’t me as an adult,” said MacDougall. “Letting go of old dreams and making room for new possibilities – like theatre – was probably the most important development during my years at U of T.”

For those who are still unsure about what their future path might look like, MacDougall says to allow yourself the space to figure it out.

“You don’t have to know what you are going to do. You may change your mind several times.

“Be brave, and let yourself be free to make those changes.”

Exhibit by U of T Scarborough's first Indigenous artist-in-residence focuses on ceremony and its impact

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 21:07:08 +0000

Exhibit by U of T Scarborough's first Indigenous artist-in-residence focuses on ceremony and its impact

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 06/19/2019 - 17:07

Cutline

Animikiik’otcii Maakaai is the first to complete U of T Scarborough’s Indigenous Artist-in-Residence Program (photo by @hellomynameisalan)

Topic

To experience the exhibit by the University of Toronto Scarborough’s first Indigenous artist-in-residence, participants had to both look and listen.

“It adds another layer of expression,” says Animikiik’otcii Maakaai, who debuted her first solo exhibit, Tako-Pinehsiiwan, at U of T Scarborough’s Gallery 1265.

“Oral tradition is so important in Anishinaabe culture, it’s how we learn, it’s how we pass down knowledge. It’s really vital to the storytelling that I’m trying to do through my drawings.”

The exhibit includes five drawings – four oil pastel and one chalk – suspended by ribbons hung from the ceiling, a trail of cedarwood branches carefully placed below them. Playing throughout the exhibit is a recording of Maakaai narrating a story about the impact of ceremony, a crucial part of Indigenous tradition and culture.

She says she was inspired to write the story after attending a women’s healing ceremony in Toronto a few years ago, calling it a “very pivotal time” in her life.

“Even though it was a very quick moment in time, it was very important and held a lot of meaning for me and I’ve held onto it for years now,” she says.

“Holding on to that story I can see how it has helped me through life and those changes I was trying to make at the time.”

Maakaai is the first to finish U of T Scarborough’s Indigenous Artist-in-Residence Program, a collaboration between the Doris McCarthy Gallery, the department of arts, culture and media and 7th Generation Image Makers (7th Gen), an art and mural program run by Native Child and Family Services of Toronto.

The program gives young Indigenous artists studio space, a stipend and access to campus resources to support them as they create an exhibit between September and June. It also includes the opportunity to audit courses (taking a course without getting a grade) once per semester.

Maakaai was born and raised in Toronto. On her father’s side, she has family ties to Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, also known as Big Trout Lake First Nation, while her mother’s family is from Wales. Her dialect is Oji-Cree.

She says she has always been creative, but only started seriously creating artwork in 2016.

“It’s just something I’ve always been passionate about. I love creating, sharing my inner world and way of communicating and meeting people,” she says. “It’s about honouring those things that feel true and real to me that make up my reality, and in that way, I stay connected to my culture.”

This was Maakaai’s first experience with post-secondary education.

“I’m glad I got to get a taste of post-secondary without the pressures of performing, getting grades and that kind of stress,” she says. “I was really able to sit and enjoy my classes and have my work come from a more personal point of view.”

The first class she took, a studio foundations course, got her thinking about using different materials to construct her exhibit. She tried several different mediums, including digital and paint, and even considered sculpture. Eventually, Maakaai went with a medium she had never used before – most of the drawings were made with oil pastels.

“It’s very colourful,” she says. “The textures are very nice and although it was a totally new medium for me, I was really excited to use it.”

The idea for the residency came after Reagan Kennedy, the arts program co-ordinator at 7th Generation Image Makers, began looking for a place to display the final pieces from another art program. She connected with the Doris McCarthy Gallery’s director and curator, Ann MacDonald, and Erin Peck, the exhibitions and outreach co-ordinator.

MacDonald and Peck offered to exhibit the works in the Doris McCarthy Gallery vitrines. When the exhibit ended, they began thinking about other ways the gallery and campus could support 7th Gen and young Indigenous artists.

“Being in these big institutions, which are colonial spaces, can provide a lot of challenges for a number of people, including Indigenous people,” Kennedy says.

“We wanted to provide a way where this residency could support someone in attending post-secondary, having access to an art studio and really have the time to develop a body of work to exhibit.”

New book by U of T researcher explores 'A Queer History of Modeling'

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 07 May 2019 18:20:12 +0000

New book by U of T researcher explores 'A Queer History of Modeling'

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 05/07/2019 - 14:20

Cutline

U of T Mississauga historian Elspeth Brown's new book, Work! A Queer History of Modeling, traces the rise of modelling from early 20th century, with a focus on the models and the “culture-makers” behind the images (photo by George Platt Lynes)

Blake Eligh

Topic

City & Culture

Culture

Faculty of Arts & Science

Women and Gender Studies

In a new book that analyzes the history of the commercial modelling industry, University of Toronto historian Elspeth Brown turns a lens on the unexplored work of queer models and photographers in the twentieth century.

The book, titled Work! A Queer History of Modeling, begins and ends with the story of African-American model Tracey Norman, who became famous in the 1960s as the first Black model featured on Clairol’s Nice ‘n Easy hair colour packaging. Norman was shunned by the industry when she was outed as a transgender woman, but decades later was invited by Clairol to once again be the advertising face of the hair colour giant – a result of changing times and evolving corporate interests.

Brown, an associate professor of historical studies at U of T Mississauga, explores Norman’s story and more as she traces the rise of modelling from early 20th century ‘live models’ and Ziegfeld Girls through to the queer culture influence on 1930s glamour, and the Asian and African American models who broke the industry’s colour barrier in the 1960s and 1970s. In doing so, Brown draws upon her varied interests in the history of capitalism and labour, sexuality and race, and image-making to show, from a new angle, the queer history behind mainstream American visual culture.

“Modelling is a part of 20th-century culture that hasn’t been understood as labour history,” Brown says. “Art historians might not look at commercial culture and women and gender studies scholars aren’t looking at modelling. [But] models play a really critical role in producing the commercial longings that we have.

“It’s an emotion – an effect – that travels in relationship to the magazine page to make us want and buy things. Who does that physical labour?”

Brown (left) turned to personal papers and oral histories, as well as trade publication archives. “The research was challenging because many of the models are not well known or are no longer household names,” she says. “The point of the model is to show up in front of the camera lens with the commodity. The star of the ad is the clothing item, or the refrigerator or the wig or whatever is for sale.”

One treasure trove of information was found in the personal papers of American model and actress Ruth Ford at the University of Texas at Austin. Ford modelled for major magazines thanks to the influence of her brother, Charles Henri Ford, who was part of a network of queer photographers with important links to Hollywood and the New York art and publishing scenes. Ford’s archive included letters from her brother detailing fashions she should try and providing introductions to influential photographers like Cecil Beaton and visual artists like Man Ray.

“For an archive rat like myself, it was just amazing,” Brown says.

Brown also turns her spotlight on the culture-makers behind the images. “All of the photographers were queer and they knew each other,” she says. “They were an important network that helped to create a culture of interwar glamour. It’s about performativity – about queer people behind the scenes creating a production of a world that looks straight but isn’t – in a massive ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ culture.”

Brown notes the influence of photographer George Platt Lynes on 1930s glamour. “Lynes made beautiful nude male photographs and influenced Robert Mapplethorpe, but people don’t think about his role as a fashion photographer. He would use the same background and the same props for both his fashion and gay nude male photographs.”

Brown ends her research, which received support from the supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, in the early 1980s with Teri Toye, the industry’s first openly transgender model, whose androgynous look mixed edgy urban and pop esthetics co-created by photographer Steven Meisel and designer Stephen Sprouse.

“It was a good place to stop,” Brown says, noting that the subsequent rise of the “supermodel” introduced major economic and power changes to the industry.

For Convocation Hall, a renovation without disruption

geoff.vendeville — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 05:00:00 +0000

For Convocation Hall, a renovation without disruption

geoff.vendeville Mon, 01/28/2019 - 00:00

Cutline

U of T had to get creative so that the necessary repairs and renovations in Convocation Hall could be done without disrupting classes, convocation and other events (photo by Makeda Marc-Ali)

Topic

Updating a building that is more than a century old is no easy task, but it becomes even more complicated when the building is as busy as Convocation Hall.

It serves as the University of Toronto’s largest classroom, with space for 1,730 students. In the spring and fall, the hall is where U of T graduates go to receive their degrees, and it doubles as a venue for events of all kinds. If the walls could talk, they would tell of citizenship ceremonies, lectures by Jane Goodall and Stephen Hawking, and a Bob Marley concert in 1976.

The university took special steps to address the unique challenges of undertaking repairs and bringing the 113-year-old structure up to code. The greatest difficulty was to do all the work without disturbing classes or last year's spring convocation, the largest in the country with more than 14,000 students and 29 different ceremonies.

“The traditions centred in Convocation Hall have worked for over a century,” says Adrienne De Francesco, executive director of U of T's capital projects group. “We had to find a way to do the renovations without disrupting classes or depriving graduating students of a U of T experience shared between generations.”

A convocation ceremony in 2013 showing the skylight that needed to be repaired (photo by Johnny Guatto)

That meant getting creative. Construction contractors would need to access the skylight, or oculus, check each glass panel and make replacements if necessary. The solution, as directed by the university's capital projects group, was building a steel platform with concrete footings in the basement, 60 feet high and 55 feet across, so that workers could work on the glass in evening, when the hall wasn't in use.

The team, which included the contractor Harbridge + Cross Limited and design engineers Read Jones Christofferson Ltd., had just a five-week window between the end of classes last May and convocation in June to erect the platform, says Michael Cicerani, a senior project manager in U of T's university capital projects group.

Despite the platform’s size, it blends in.

“After last convocation in June, we asked a couple of students who were in here, 'What did you think of the platform?' All of them said, 'What platform?'” Cicerani says.

One of the challenges ahead will be to find tradespeople who have the necessary expertise to assess and repair the old glass in the skylight. “There aren't many people who can do this kind of stuff,” Cicerani says.

Workers build a platform to access the skylight in Convocation Hall. Right, the finished steel structure (photos courtesy of Michael Cicerani)

Before any work could be done in the hall, precautions had to be taken to protect the pipe organ from dust and debris. The Casavant organ is used at every convocation. U of T's Academic and Campus Events put the capital projects group in touch with an organ specialist.

Another complication was that engineers and builders had to refer to dated blueprints for the building, including the same ones used by architectural firm Darling and Pearson in 1905, who modelled the hall after the Sorbonne Theatre in Paris. The construction company had to adjust its plans unexpectedly when they discovered a wall that wasn't in the original plans.

“That's part of the complexity of dealing with buildings that have so much history and that have gone through a lifecycle of their own,” Cicerani says.

In addition to working on the dome, the design called for alterations to the stage to make it more accessible. The contractor worked under a tight timeline, dealing with old and brittle concrete. Ramps were added to either side of the stage and the floor was lowered so that the slope would not be too steep for wheelchair users.

The ramp was used for the first time in the fall convocation ceremonies.

“It just takes one student using it to make all the work worthwhile,” says Cicerani.

Paul Babiak, the head marshal at convocation who has led student processions for almost 15 years, says the ramps help fulfil the goals of convocation. “The goal is equality and by making things more accessible it shows that there's nothing out of the ordinary about being in a wheelchair or needing any other kind of guidance or assistance,” he said.

He commended the designers and contractor for finding a way to keep the hall in service for convocation, keeping the tradition alive. “We're walking through the same space that students have walked through for over 100 years,” he says. “This is a crucial part of the sense of presence we're creating, which connects U of T grads past and present.”