Decidedly Jazz Dance Centre : a new home for Canadian Jazz

A New Universe awaits at the Decidedly Jazz Dance Centre

By Christine Leonard
19 May 2016 

Jazz is coming out from behind closed doors thanks to the construction of the impressive Decidedly Jazz Dance Centre in the heart of the New West. Ten years in the making, the cutting-edge facility will provide a much-needed growing room for the professional company and dance school, which has been in its current home since 1993. Designed by architect Janice Liebe of the DIALOG design firm and built by CANA Construction, the new structure embodies the kinetic movement of a dancer’s body with its graceful application of glass and steel. While a versatile modern theatre and seven well-appointed dance studios rank highest amongst the new institute’s assets, the abundance of natural light and flowing floor plan are sure to infuse the environment with positive energy.

“It’s a spectacular facility. It’s not just for us, we feel that it’s really a space for Calgary,” says DJD’s artistic director, Kimberley Cooper. “It’s also just such a beautiful, vibrant, glass-filled open place that I think it will add to the landscape of Calgary. You’ll be able to look in and see dancing all the time, which is something we don’t see that often. The beacon at the top of the building is a 10-metre penthouse that’s kind of like a light-box and we’ve just been working with some artist to create a public art piece that’s going to be in there. That will really draw your eye to the building as well. The artists’ names are Hadley+Maxwell. Without giving too much away, they are big on the Canadian art scene and they were here taking images for a beautiful concept that will let people know that is dancing going on in that building.”

Located within the new 12-storey Kahanoff Centre on Centre Street and 12th Avenue SE, the accessible space offers a 327 sq. m dance studio, a comfortable 232 sq. m community living room, multiple smaller dance studios (to be available for booking) and will additionally provide storage for the Company’s wardrobes, dressing rooms, media room, library, box office and administrative offices. A home that has been custom-fit to accommodate the present and future needs of an organisation that anticipates great things to come. To accomplish this lifetime goal, DJD worked closely numerous supporters including the philanthropic Kahanoff Foundation, who rents office space to charitable organizations at affordable rates. Construction of the Decidedly Jazz Dance Centre within the context of the burgeoning complex, located at Centre Street and 12th Avenue S.E., means that the first five floors of the new building are inhabited by Decidedly Jazz with the six floors above them being occupied by DJD’s co-residents the Calgary Foundation.

“This building has been a long time coming,” says Cooper. “As the economy has risen and fallen a couple times it’s taken a lot longer than we thought it would. So, there have been many incarnations of what it has now turned out to be. We’ve had really great partners all around. We have had a lot of support from the government and the Kahanoff Foundation, individual donors. You can name a seat in the theatre for $1,000 or donate more and have the building named after you. Everyone from millionaires to the dancer alumnus who are pulling funds together to buy a couple of seats. There are lots of ways you can claim your space within the Centre, which I think is really cool!”

As a member of Calgary’s dance community and DJD’s resident choreographer, Cooper shares her company’s passion for innovation. Aiming to demonstrate that the new facility will consist of more than sprung floors and wires, she is busy rehearsing the first work to be presented in the Centre’s crown jewel studio theatre. Cooper’s latest choreographic work, New Universe, featuring nine dancers and five live musicians performing the music of NYC jazz legend William Parker, is sure to leave a lasting impression as it premieres at the Decidedly Jazz Dance Centre’s Opening Gala on May 27th.

“For me, what I’m really looking forward to is being able to create in the space that the work will be performed in because that is so rare in the dance world. It’s pretty spectacular and that’s where the company will rehearse every day,” says Cooper. “The nice thing about being in this smaller space is that we can run for longer and that’s better for everybody. The artists get to do it more, the work gets stronger, the word of mouth can travel throughout the city and that’s our best ticket seller. I think that all of those things will help to make us more successful.”

A one-of-a-kind place of business that offers a unique forum and launchpad for the performing arts, DJD’s headquarters will undoubtedly make it a cultural focal point as Calgary progresses through a ribbon-cutting Year of Music. Cause for celebration on many fronts, the completion of this new facility marks not only the realization of a dream but denotes the value that citizens continue to attribute to the arts and the ways in which artistic disciplines continue to benefit the community at large.

“We’ve been talking to board for Fluid Festival, we’ve been talking to One Yellow Rabbit, we’ve been talking to the Old Trouts, and Sled Island has approached us about utilising our new spaces. People have already asked to have a wedding on our main floor because it’s gorgeous. And, really, we want to be an arts hub,” Cooper confirms. “Everybody’s excited about it because it has the ability to change the cultural landscape in Calgary. And we’ve had great neighbours; the National Music Centre and Arts Commons are only a few blocks away. We feel like Calgary is building a new arts district right now and it’s really nice to be a part of that.”

DJD’s Opening Weekend Gala that shows off their new studio and performance space takes place May 27 and 28. Then New Universe, DJD’s new work choreographed by Kim Cooper featuring original music composed by New York jazz composer William Parker, who will also lead the live band during performances, runs until June 12.

EDGAR WINTER -- an interview with Edgar Winter by Christine Leonard

Just orbiting this planet...

Edgar Winter comes full circle

Distilling a complex musical genre like the blues down into its most basic black-and-white constituents is a mighty tall order for any artist, but for Edgar Winter, who was raised on a steady diet of the stuff, nothing could be simpler. Having benefited early on from the tutelage of his musically inclined parents, Winter began performing with his much idolized brother, legendary slide blues guitarist Johnny Winter, at a tender age. Never content with settling into a specific style of music, Winter soon moved beyond his homegrown country-blues background and began to explore other musical worlds including jazz, classical and rock ’n’ roll.

Eventually mastering the alto saxophone and piano, Winter’s willingness to push the envelope led him to form The Edgar Winter Group in 1972, along with renowned songwriters and players Rick Derringer, Dan Hartman, Ronnie Montrose and Chuck Ruff. By January 1973, Winter’s unique combination of R & B and synthesizer rock won over critics and mainstream audiences alike with the release of the band’s most successful album to date, They Only Come Out at Night, which featured the electric keyboard juggernaut “Frankenstein” and the feel-good epic “Free Ride.”

Some 35 years later, Winter is still actively composing, performing and recording and continues to bring the blues into the future.

    “I have a lot of fun doing what I do,“ Winter says of his long-running career. “I still enjoy it as much as I did when I was a little kid playing ukulele with my brother Johnny and listening to the Everly Brothers. My dad showed us our first chord; he played guitar and banjo, and sang in a barbershop quartet and in the church choir. He also played the alto sax and performed with a swing band back in the day. Mom played classical, too, so good music was always a part of growing up. I think that’s part of the reason I try to broaden people’s musical horizons.”

   Looking to the horizons — and indeed the heavens — for inspiration, Winter is a noted Scientologist who is well-known in Hollywood, where he currently resides, for his work as a soundtrack composer. His arrangements have been featured in numerous film and television productions including The Simpsons, Wayne’s World 2, Netherworld, Invincible, Tupac Resurrection, Queer as Folk and the movie adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard’s Mission Earth (Hubbard left explicit guidelines regarding the score to accompany the inevitable adaptation of his magnum opus). The fact that both Edgar and Johnny Winter carry the genetic distinction of albinism only adds to their mystique.

While Johnny shirks from interviews, tending to let his amazing slide guitar-playing take the spotlight (Jimi Hendrix once approached him for lessons), Edgar has come to embrace his public persona. He even hosts a congenial website (www.edgarwinter.com) where he repeatedly thanks his fans and invites them to shed their preconceived musical preferences and experience his sound with open minds and ears.

    “It is really senseless to have all these musical prejudices,” Winter explains of his philosophical approach to his craft. “All music is beautiful and all styles have their own validity and are continually evolving and merging together. The one common thread between them is the blues. I’m thought of as a rocker, but I also play jazz, classical, blues, ragtime, Dixie and more. People think the blues has already happened and is over with, but I believe it still continues to have an influence on the pop music of today. The same can be said of jazz. That’s what my album, Jazzin’ the Blues, is all about.”

    One of the many perks of having been a major name in the recording industry for so long is the pull that Winter has when it comes to putting together a wish list of artists to appear on the forthcoming Rockin’ the Blues. Everyone from Slash to Clint Black has been assigned a seat in Winter’s blues-rock arena. Winter intends to let the record develop in a natural “organic” manner, one that will ensure that things are done with what he describes as a feeling of “rightness.”

    “I’m a musical rebel in the sense that I never want to be categorized,” says Winter. “I think it has hurt music, to an extent, that record companies are so insistent on defining artists by style to make it easier to target their market audience. I really feel that things were better back in the ’70s. There was an open attitude (amongst musicians) of freedom and playing music they believed in. Bands actually went into the studio with two or three songs and created the rest of the album in the studio. There was a magic and immediacy to the process, as opposed to the control presently exerted by record companies that want demos of everything in advance. Today, it’s more about business than art. Rock, jazz, blues; I’m just glad to have trained in so many different theatres. It makes for a really interesting, fun, high-energy show.”

Originally published in FFWD Magazine, August 23, 2007  by Christine Leonard