DANCE COLLECTION DANSE

School of Contemporary Dancers 2003 graduating students
Kevin Côté, Emma Doran, Zach Schnitzer, Allison Wersch and
Brooke Noble in Stephanie Ballard’s Prairie Song (1980)
Photo: Rodney Braun
States in 1976, Ballard became Spohr’s go-to dinner date
and loyal friend. These personal relationships fostered
an important network and planted roots that became
integral to Ballard’s identity as an artist. She felt a strong
spiritual connection to the city and, almost immediately,
began identifying herself as being “from Winnipeg”.
The year 1977 marks a significant turning point in
Ballard’s career. In 1976, Montreal-based choreographer
Linda Rabin began assembling dancers for a new
project and needed mature artists for what she knew
was going to be an experimental process. Rabin had first
worked with Ballard when setting Domino on WCD in
1974 and remembered her trusting and open approach
to creation. Although Ballard was suffering from
rheumatoid arthritis and had actually decided to stop
dancing, she was assured by Rabin that only minimal
exertion would be required. Already sensing the significance
of the project, Ballard joined Rabin in Montreal.
Since its first presentation, The White Goddess has been
regarded as an event of mythic proportion. Based on Robert
Graves’s book of the same name, the work pays homage
to female consciousness and honours the concept of a
great goddess, or feminine deity. Nestled in the zeitgeist
of second-wave feminism, and more ceremony than
dance, the work had a profound impact on many of those
who experienced it. Ballard remembers that Toronto
Dance Theatre co-founder Peter Randazzo was intensely
affected by its performance at the 1977 Dance in Canada
Association (DICA) Conference and was reduced to tears.
For Ballard, the choreographic process of creating
The White Goddess was transformative. Aside
from the introduction to the unique artistic climate
in Montreal and the formation of important friendships
with artists Margie Gillis and Candace Loubert,
Ballard was inspired by Rabin’s creation methods
and instilled with a tremendous respect and curiosity
for artistic process. She returned to Winnipeg
consumed with her own creative energy.
The spark of Ballard’s choreographic notions was
well timed. By then, Browne had initiated a series of
choreographic workshops for the company, and dancer
Joost Pelt had spearheaded a Dance Discovery workshop
performance series. Ballard also received a grant
that provided her with a year’s worth of living expenses
and the opportunity to study the choreographic process
by observing the work of David Earle, Lynne Taylor-
Corbett and Norman Morris, among others. The late
1970s saw the birth of her first choreographies, including
Mahler Duet (1977), Sympathetic Magic (1979) and
her first full-length choreography, In Passing (1978).
In 1979 Ballard was appointed artistic director and
manager of WCD’s apprentice program. This afforded
her more opportunities to flex her choreographic
muscles, and soon WCD’s repertoire contained three
of Ballard’s choreographies: Construction Company,
Snow Goose and her signature piece, Prairie Song.
Ballard has said that Prairie Song was created out of
a “need and desire to explore the mysteries of isolation.”
Having experienced nearly a decade of prairie
winters, Ballard was inspired by the stories of her
friends’ ancestors – many of whom had lived on the
Prairies for generations. Filled with a respect for one’s
ability to survive in such a rough and remote environment
in the pioneer age, Ballard created a work that
touches on the solitude, and almost madness, of five
individuals who are seemingly disconnected from
each other. In an indication of the company’s faith in
Ballard’s merit as a choreographer, WCD was represented
by Prairie Song at the prestigious Canadian Dance
Spectacular at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre in 1980.
Prairie Song was followed by an ambitious rendition of
A Christmas Carol (1981), which attempted to shed light on
the social conditions surrounding the novel, and Time Out
(1982) – an exploration of the relationship between Zelda
and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ballard was also commissioned to
choreograph and perform for Mother Theresa during her
1982 visit to Winnipeg – an experience that Ballard
remembers as one of the most rewarding of her career.
At the end of 1982, journalist/dance critic Robert
Enright wrote in Dance in Canada magazine that the
choreographic trinity of Browne as artistic director,
Ballard as associate artistic director, and Tedd Robinson
as resident choreographer at WCD, was a “potent force”.
However, the promising partnership was not meant to
be. Although Browne was a mentor and friend to many,
some company and board members were reportedly
dissatisfied with her leadership, and in a now notorious
coup, Browne was ultimately asked to resign as director.
34 Dance Collection Danse