Jeanne Renaud - Dance Collection Danse

BY AMY BOWRING
Moving Mountains
A History of Dance and Movement at
the Banff School of Fine Arts, 1933-1967
Combine the need for escape from the
rigours of daily survival, the need for
artistic stimulation, an immigrant
population used to cultural enrichment,
the worst economic depression,
an unprecedented environmental
drought, a university extension program
and a team of visionary educators.
These are the disparate
elements that collided and
sparked the idea for Alberta’s
Banff Centre for the Arts
(known as Banff School of
Fine Arts from 1934-1989).
Formed in 1933, the Centre
has grown from its humble
beginnings as part of the
University of Alberta’s
Extension Program to an internationally
renowned centre for creative
expression, superb training and artis-
tic rejuvenation. Among its coveted
divisions is the dance program formed
in 1947 by Gweneth Lloyd, co-founder
and artistic director of the Winnipeg
Ballet (named Royal Winnipeg Ballet
in 1953). However, the roots of movement
at Banff actually extend a little
deeper dating back to the inclusion of
pantomimic movement and Eurhythmics
classes taught within the drama
“I just remember [Gweneth and Betty] always being
elegant … being very proper and being very disciplined;
people that you looked up to … they cared
so much about the profession that it rubbed off on
the students.”
– Anna-Marie Holmes (Banff artist c. 1960/61)
department since the Centre’s inception.
And of course, there have been
major contributors to the dance pro-
Betty Farrally and Gweneth Lloyd with Banff students, c. 1955
gram following Lloyd such as Betty
Farrally, Arnold Spohr, Eva von
Gencsy, Brian Macdonald and Annette
av Paul, among others.
When one looks at the Banff
Centre’s inspiring campus nestled in
the Rocky Mountains, the obvious
question is “How?” How did such a
glorious centre for art and learning
come into existence? It began with the
University of Alberta’s
Extension Program, which
was designed to bring the
university to the people
through lectures and presentations.
By the early 1930s,
the university’s Extension
Program, then led by Ned
Corbett, had gained a reputation
for its innovation using a
team of dynamic lecturers as well as
radio programming to reach Alberta’s
citizens. Word eventually reached the
No. 62, Fall 2006 23