CDA | ACD
Minus One / Les Grands Ballets Canadiens / Photo: John Hall

National Council

The Canadian Dance Assembly (CDA) is governed by a National Council of up to 15 members.  The Council is currently composed of the Chairs of the seven Standing Councils, who are elected by, and represent, their Council members.  The National Council additionally appoints up to seven Members at Large, to help balance sectoral, geographic and cultural diversity, and to ensure a good balance of skills, gender and generations.

The organization currently has one position open on the National Council for an individual to join as a Member at Large.  Interested individuals should contact the CDA office at or 416-515-8444.

EXECUTIVE

President

Jay Rankin
Executive Director, Ballet BC

Jay is an acknowledged leader in the Canadian professional arts community with over thirty five years of experience in progressively challenging positions – thirty of them devoted to dance.  Based in Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Winnipeg, and currently in Vancouver as Executive Director of the Ballet BC, Jay is a manager with a history of leading companies to new levels of success financially and organizationally.  His expertise extends to strategic planning, programming, human resources, touring, board development, financial management, marketing and PR, government relations, design and production.  Leadership, integrity and responsible team building are the watch words of his management style. 

Vice-President

Gilles Savary
Dance Companies Standing Council Chair
General Manager, Fortier Danse-Création Inc.

A manager who rose from the community and co-operative milieu, Gilles has been working in dance for more than twenty years. He was from 1987 to 1991, interim General Manager of O Vertigo before becoming the company’s tour manager, and since Executive Manager for Fortier Danse-Création.  His commitment to dance has enabled him to sit on various Boards of dance organizations such as Diagramme Gestion culturelle (1992-1995), Circuit-Est centre choréographique (since 2001), Le Regroupement québécois de la danse (1995-1999), L’Agora de la danse (1998-2005),  La Danse sur les routes du Québec (2000-2006) and Canadian Dance Assembly (since 2008).  He has been a member of several advisory committees for the Canada Council and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

Vice-President

Barbara Clausen
Dance Presenters Standing Council Chair
Producer, DanceHouse

Barb Clausen has been working in the arts community in Vancouver since 1980.  Originally trained as a visual artist, she later studied dance and has worked as a dance teacher, administrator, and programmer.  Barb was one of the founders and spent four years as the first Executive Director of the Dance Centre, and worked for three years as an Officer at the Canada Council in Ottawa.  In 1993 Barb founded New Works, which she led until May 2010.  Barb is currently, in partnership with Jim Smith, Producer of DanceHouse, Vancouver’s large-scale contemporary dance series presented at the Vancouver Playhouse.

Treasurer

Jennifer Wan
Senior Associate, Lannick Associates

Jennifer is currently a Senior Recruiter at Lannick Recruitment, where she sources candidates to staff finance and accounting roles for client across the GTA. She began dancing at Jazz Be Nimble at an early age, training in jazz, tap and acro. She went on to complete her Bachelor of Business Administration at Schulich School of Business, York University in 2005. During her undergraduate studies, she was recruited as an associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), where she completed her CA designation in 2006. She gained work experience in both the Assurance and Tax practice at PwC, where her client base was primarily focused in the Financial Services and Entertainment and Media industries. Since 2005, she began to take hip hop and tap classes and rediscovered her love for dance. Today, she creatively couples her professional financial expertise with her love for dance by assisting several dance companies around the city such as Aurora Live Inc, BDX studio, Gadfly, DTRC and now the Canadian Dance Assembly. She has performed at various fundraising and local events with GeoMetriX Dance Company and in a piece choreographed by Apolonia Velasquez of Gadfly.

Secretary

Randy Joynt
Executive Director, Artspace Inc.

Randy Joynt founded Winnipeg’s TRIP dance company with partner Karen Kuzak in 1997. Until they wound up the company in 2010, his role in the organization included performing, teaching, producing and administrating. He holds a BA (Theatre/Dance) from the University of Winnipeg and is a graduate of the School of Contemporary Dancers Senior Professional Program. For the past twenty years he enjoyed a career as a dancer with dance companies in Winnipeg, Ottawa and Montreal while developing into a nationally recognized teacher of contemporary dance technique. He is a former member of the Manitoba Arts Council’s advisory committee, has been a contributor to the Dance Current, and has taught grant writing workshops for Arts and Cultural Industries Manitoba and the Dancer Transition Resource Centre. Recently, Randy has also taken on the position of Executive Director at Artspace, a Winnipeg arts service organization and cultural institution and joined the Board of the Winnipeg Arts Council.

ELECTED CHAIRS  

Ballet Companies Standing Council Chair

Jeff Herd
Executive Director, Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet


Jeff Herd has nearly 40 years of experience producing and managing stage productions and companies across Canada, the United States and Europe. In 1973 Herd joined Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet as production stage manager, a position he held until 1980. In the 1980’s Herd travelled throughout Canada working in the field of design and production at a variety of organizations including the Alberta Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, the Expo 1986 World Festival and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. From 1987 to 1989, he was production manager at The National Ballet of Canada, and then from 1991 to 1997 Herd’s career led him back to the RWB where he fulfilled the role of Production Manager. In 1997 Herd accepted the position of company manager for Cirque du Soleil’s largest and most well-known production O based at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Herd’s work at Cirque du Soleil led to an opportunity in Belgium in 2007 as general director at Dragone, a creations and productions company. Now back in Winnipeg with his wife and two young children, Jeff Herd is bringing his diverse experience and training to the position of Executive Director at Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet. He is the current chair of CDA’s ballet companies standing council.

Freelancers and Consultants Standing Council Chair

Chrystine Chambers
Program Manager, The CanDance Network

Chrystine Chambers is a Halifax-based arts administrator who currently holds positions with Live Art Dance Productions and the CanDance Network. After completing an Honours B.A in Drama at the University of Toronto, Chrystine went on to complete a post-graduate diploma in Arts Administration and Cultural Management at Humber College. Previous work engagements include Strategic Arts Management, The Second City Toronto, The St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts and Soulpepper Theatre. Chrystine spent two terms on the Board of Directors of the Bad Dog Theatre in Toronto and has spent the past year on the CDA Advocacy Committee. A trained dancer, actor and improviser and now an arts administrator, Chrystine hopes to bring passion and creativity to the world of policy and cultural management.

Service and Support Standing Council Chair

Dianne Milligan
Executive Director, Dance Nova Scotia

After a few short years as a struggling actor and choreographer, Dianne Milligan discovered she was better at balancing books then at balancés. She began her administrative career as Registrar for Halifax Dance and was company manager for Nova Dance Theatre. Dianne has been Executive Director of Dance Nova Scotia since 1984, taking over from the formidable Gunter Buchta. She has been active on the Board of several provincial and national organizations including Dance in Canada, the Association of Cultural Executives and the Cultural Federations of Nova Scotia (President), as well as on regional and provincial arts advisory committees and juries. She has authored and co-authored articles on dance, most recently "Dance in Action: Six Nova Scotia Stories" for the Banff Centre Press book Right to Dance edited by Naomi Jackson. Dianne is currently Chair of the Halifax-based Legacy Centre for the Performing Arts Association.

Independent Artists Standing Council Chair

Louis Laberge-Côté

Originally from Quebec City, Louis Laberge-Côté started studying dance, music, and theatre at a very young age. A graduate from both LʼÉcole de Danse de Québec and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, he joined Toronto Dance Theatre in 1999, and he danced with the company for 8 seasons, under artistic direction of Christopher House. “One of Toronto Dance
Theatre most admired company members” (The Globe and Mail), “the hardest working man in dance” (EYE Weekly) also enjoyed an exceptionally active career as a freelance artist, working with some of Canadaʼs most renowned dance artists including Peggy Baker, Serge Bennathan, Peter Chin, Guillaume Côté, Robert Glumbeck, Danny Grossman, Maxine Heppner, Sasha Ivanochko, Yvonne Ng, Holly Small, and Michael Trent. In 2009, he moved to Germany to join Kevin OʼDay - Ballett Nationaltheater Mannheim as a soloist dancer where he performed the works of Artistic Directors Kevin OʼDay and Dominique Dumais and taught contemporary dance to the company on a regular basis. His work has garnered him 3 Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for Outstanding Performance and NOW Magazine named him “Torontoʼs Dance Most Valuable Player” in 2006. An award-winning choreographer, his work has been described as a “triumph... with tremendous depth and subtext” (Classical 96.3FM) and a “wonderfully sophisticated jewel” (Die Rheinpfalz). He was the Chair of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists - Ontario Chapter from 2005 to 2007.

Research & Writing / Training & Education Standing Council Chair

Lys Stevens
Special Projects, Studio 303

Lys Stevens is a Montréal-based dance researcher, writer and administrator who holds a masters in dance studies from UQAM on breaking as a street and stage dance form. Since 1999 she has worked for the contemporary dance and interdisciplinary arts centre Studio 303 in various capacities, as curator, board member and Associate Director. She currently works at the Regroupement québécois de la danse in professional development. She is also a guest writer at the Dance Current. 

APPOINTED DIRECTORS

Alain Dancyger
Executive Director, Les Grands Ballet Canadiens

A native of Limoges, France, Alain Dancyger studied violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London from 1977 to 1978. He then prepared his Masters in Music at Juilliard School in New York. In 1987 he obtained a Masters in Business Administration from the École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales (E.S.S.E.C) in Paris.  Mr. Dancyger held different management and marketing positions for the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF) in Paris and New York. He settled in Québec in 1991 to work at the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts first as Assistant Director. He was promoted Director in 1993 and held that position until 1996, when he was appointed Executive Director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal. Since 1998, he has sat on the Regroupement Québécois de la Danse (RQD) board, on the Canadian Arts Summit, on the DIA/DSA Advisory Board of Concordia University, on the Montréal Holocaust Memorial Centre Museum « Wise Committee », and on the Canadian Dance Assembly (CDA) Advocacy Committee. He was also elected Chair of the CDA Ballet Companies Standing Council. He acts regularly as a guest lecturer in the HEC Arts Manager Program

Andrea Gunnlaugson-Furlan
BC Program Officer, Dancer Transition Resource Centre - BC Office


Growing up in Manitoba, Andrea trained professionally with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and graduated Winnipeg’s School of Contemporary Dancers before moving to Vancouver in 1993. Over a 20 year professional career, she has had the honor of working with some of the most prominent BC and Canadian choreographers and dance companies. She was appointed Regional Program Officer of the DTRC-BC in 2004, is proudly a member of the DTRC, CADA BC and the CDA among other arts societies. Andrea is a founding member of Made in BC-Dance on Tour, CADA BC, and ‘the 605 Collective’ and she currently sits on the Actsafe Advisory Committee.

HONORARY DIRECTOR

Michael Trent
Artistic Director, Dancemakers

Michael Trent is the Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer of Toronto’s Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation, one of Canada’s leading contemporary dance companies and a centre for research and development in new dance practices. The organization’s creations, presenting and professional development projects are contemporary, cross-disciplinary and collaborative in nature. In a career spanning over twenty years, Trent has garnered national recognition as a choreographer, dancer and teacher. He is the co-recipient of the 2004 K.M. Hunter Award and was nominated for a 2006 Dora Award for best performance in Louise Bédard’s Ce qu’il en reste. Trent’s repertoire of over 20 works has been seen in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax and Vancouver. Prior to coming to Dancemakers, he was the founding Artistic Director of the empty collective, a crucible for collaborative projects involving two or more media.  A highly sought-after performer, Trent has worked with some of Canada’s most respected creators including Louise Bédard, Sarah Chase, Sylvain Émard, Christopher House, Sasha Ivanochko, Laurence Lemieux, Jean- Pierre Perreault, Dominique Porte and Julia Sasso and was a member of The Toronto Dance Theatre for eight seasons.

Canadian Dance Assembly
55 Mill Street, Suite 312
Case Goods Building #74
Toronto, ON M5A 3C4
Canada
Tel: 1.416.515.8444
Fax: 1.416.515.9444