Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie (CLC) is a professional dance organization that creates and presents works on a local, national and international scale. The company is recognized as one of the most dynamic forces in Canadian dance, due to the scope of its social and artistic vision and the accomplishments of its founders/artistic directors. Our mandate is to foster cultural participation and creative expression in the communities we work with. We focus not only on passing on our own artistic traditions, but nurturing an understanding of world culture. Our projects across Canada, around the world, and in Regent Park not only have a meaningful social impact but provide our community with art of the highest caliber. The Company creates ground-breaking events that bring together artists at the forefront of their fields with local community members, from the grasslands of rural Saskatchewan to the coast of Newfoundland to the Mongolian mountains. CLC's new base in Regent Park is uniquely positioned to affect one of the most diverse communities in Canada through its arts-based activities.

History of Organization

Coleman Lemieux and Compagnie (CLC) was founded in 2000 by husband and wife Bill Coleman and Laurence Lemieux. After seven years in Montreal, CLC relocated to Toronto and established its base in the Citadel, an old Salvation Army building in the heart of Regent Park. The building houses rehearsal and office space for the company. CLC is a dance company unlike others; it is run by two renowned dance artists, but also presents the work of its Resident Choreographer, James Kudelka. The company is known for its series of large-scale events in remote and diverse communities - combining dance, music and visual arts and bringing professional artists and local community members together to collaborate on the creation of the event. They have worked with Aboriginal communities in Saskatchewan, a fishing village in Newfoundland, and the nomadic people of northern Mongolia.  Recently, the company has presented two events in Regent Park, which involved everyone from a lead dancer with the National Ballet of Canada to the construction workers involved in the revitalization, local school children, Aboriginal drummers, and hip-hop dancers.

Accolades and Accomplishments

Artistic highlights:

- Convoy PQ. 17 (2001), performed in Canada and premiered in Russia;

- Varenka, Varenka!, also performed in Canada and Russia, selected as one of the Top Ten Dances of 2003 by the Globe & Mail and Now Magazine;

- The Kudelka/Taylor Project, hailed as one of the most important dance events of 2006 by the Globe and Mail.

- In 2007, CLC appeared as headliners at the 75th Anniversary Season of the Jacob's Pillow Festival.

- CLC's performance of Kudelka's Soudain, l'hiver dernier in 2007 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival garnered them the Bank of Scotland Herald Angels Award.

- The Manitoba Project: From Pointe Shoes to Powwow, a community dance event presented in Winnipeg and at the Long Plain First Nation Powwow;

- Coleman's most recent work, Hymn To The Universe, featuring music by the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra, was in The Star's Top Ten dance events of 2008, and Eye Magazine's top ten music events;

- Interiors was chosen by Now Magazine as one of 2007's dance highlights;

- The 2010/11 season has been the biggest touring season to date, with shows in Brazil, the US and Canada.

Programs

>Off The Beaten Track

Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie was formed in 2000 to facilitate the creation, production and presentation of works by the Company's Co-Artistic Directors, Bill Coleman and Laurence Lemieux. Coleman is a visionary - his creative output has taken many forms over the years. He has presented over fifty original dances for the stage and created many site-specific, community-based events (often under the general title, Off the Beaten Track). Lemieux has choreographed primarily for the stage, creating work that has resonated strongly with presenters. She has also been instrumental in creating key aspects of the Off the Beaten Track events.

There are strong principles that make CLC's diverse activities represent a coherent artistic vision. One of CLC's most basic principles is the Company's conviction that dance, and art in general, should not live in isolation. Dance needs to be taken to and developed with all types of people, in all types of communities. As Coleman states, "The art that we make for remote and diverse communities has the same standards of excellence as the work we create for major dance venues. Much of CLC's formal training in dance is brought into the work we do in the community. Likewise, the Company's community-based work and experiences have helped shape and give meaning to the work we create for the stage. We strongly believe that art and creation can take place in the most surprising places with the most unusual of partners (artistic and community) working together on the shared goal of creation."

Off The Beaten Track

Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie (CLC) has become known not only for its award-winning performances in traditional theatrical venues, but also for a series of path-breaking site-specific events bringing together creators at the forefront of their fields — dance, visual arts, music, video — with diverse communities such as Toronto’s own Regent Park neighbourhood.

CLC works freely both within the art world and in the larger world beyond the proscenium stage, thereby profoundly enriching and cross-fertilizing its activities in both domains. With its “Off the Beaten Track” events, CLC aims to help adapt Canada’s artistic cultures to its local cultures, to establish enduring connections between artists and local communities.

CLC’s “Off the Beaten Track” events involve several levels of artistic activity and community collaboration, but centre around a two-way exchange in which world-class artists present both existing and newly created work while local residents and organizations are recruited to witness and share in the creation, to present their own artistic achievements, and to celebrate their particular regions and cultures. No other organization creates one-of-a-kind events as “mystical, unpretentious, and full of wonder” (Renate Klett, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) as CLC, and no other events can boast such a wide and impressive array of regular and guest contributors. Presenting in places where such work may not have been seen before assures that communities of all kinds have the chance to experience artistry of the highest calibre, and local artists are provided with exposure to a wider audience than is normally available to them. The inclusion of non-artists gets everyone from school kids to homemakers to mayors into the excitement, while providing a forum to examine the broader scope of culture and creativity. Finally, very large and diverse audiences visit the areas of activity, attend the actual performances, and/or participate in outreach activities, thus impacting economic development and local tourism while promoting a greater understanding of each project’s communities and histories.

CLC is “literally … taking dance to places where it has never been before” (Toronto Star).

Funding and Program Partners

Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie’s overall operations are supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, The Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council. Canadian Heritage has supported both events through its Building Communities Through Arts and Heritage program. We have received project support specifically for our work in Regent Park from the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Metcalf Foundation. Daniels Corporation, the developer for the Regent Park revitalization and has provided both in kind and cash support. For the 2010 event we partnered with The Luminato Festival, who supported our series of workshops in the Nelson Mandela School and the final event as well. Toronto Community Housing Corporation and Dixon Hall have provided both logistical and in kind support for both the 2009 and 2010 events.

Program Impact

We provide unique opportunities for community members to collaborate with professional artists, creating an event that reflects the diversity and interests of the community.  It allows community members to bring their lived experience and skills to the creation of an art event, providing an opportunity to work with and learn from highly skilled artists. After the event, the participants have gained the confidence to create work on their own or with other community organizations. The artists have the opportunity to connect with people of more diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds than they normally would.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

"The richness of Toronto’s cultural inheritance is preserved in 750 cultural facilities (including 97 City-owned heritage buildings and 60 heritage sites). These are hubs for neighbourhood cultural activities, incubators of creative ideas and people, showcases for artistic performances and exhibits, and places where cultural memories are housed and celebrated." 

(Toronto's Vital Signs®, 2010)

CLC’s activities in Regent Park are striving to make culture a part of everyday life in the community.

•  "Less than 15% percent of Ontario children are physically active"
• "One in three children in Toronto is overweight or obese".

(Toronto's Vital Signs®, 2010)

CLC has worked in the schools with movement based work demonstrating to young people that the body can be an instrument of cultural expression.

Participant Vignette

This is a quote from Kate Stark, the Executive Director of Dixon Hall, “Bill, Laurence, It was fantastic today.  Your creative, artistic work is amazing!  As my husband and I walked back to our car, we walked through Regent Park and behind a family that lives in the south end. The young boy of about 12 or 13 was saying “that was fantastic today a lot of fun.”  Mom said, “Yes it brought tears to my eyes”.  Son said “tears of joy…I hope we can watch them take down our building when it’s our turn”. Congratulations!

The following is from Mitchel Cohen, President of Daniels Corporation. “We are truly fortunate that you and Laurence chose to settle in our neighbourhood.  You have already become such an important part of the transformation.  Your desire and ability to engage folks in the local community, as well as the larger artistic community is particularly exciting.  The opportunity for Council Fire, Linta and her family, the local food people, and our construction people, to be part of staging this event was wonderful, and memorable for everyone involved.

We look forward to continuing to work closely with you and Laurence and your amazing team on many more initiatives as the months and years unfold”.