''Dance for Modern Times'' is a Canadian documentary film, directed by

Moze Mossanen Moze Mossanen is a Canadian independent writer, director and producer who has created a body of critically acclaimed film and TV work blending drama, music, performance and documentary. Most recently, he wrote and directed the documentary featu ...

and released in 1987. The film depicts

contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in ...

through profiles of the work of choreographers

Christopher House Christopher House (born May 30, 1955) is a Canadian choreographer, performer and educator. For many years he was the artistic director of Toronto Dance Theatre. Early life and education House was born in St.John's, Newfoundland. He moved to Ot ...

David Earle David Earle (born 1939) is a Canadian choreographer, dancer and artistic director. In 1968 Earle was co-founder and co-artistic director of Toronto Dance Theatre alongside Patricia Beatty and Peter Randazzo, where Earle choreographed new modern ...

James Kudelka James Kudelka, OC (born September 10, 1955 at Newmarket, Ontario), is a Canadian choreographer, dancer, and director. He was the artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada from 1996 to 2005, now serving as the National Ballet's artist in ...

Ginette Laurin Ginette Laurin C.M. (born in Montreal 3 January 1955) is a Canadian dancer, choreographer and artistic director. In 1984, she founded the dance group named O Vertigo, based in Montreal. O Vertigo is dedicated to creation in new dance and to bro ...

and

Danny Grossman Daniel (Danny) Grossman (born September 13, 1942) is a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and activist. He created the Danny Grossman Dance Company which produced his political dances. Early life and dance career Grossman was born in San Francisc ...

.William Littler, "Dance feature puts viewers on stage". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', November 27, 1987. The film had originally been pitched to

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario ...

and the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

as a six-part television series, with the CBC ultimately commissioning it as a documentary film. The film premiered at the

Bloor Cinema The Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema (formerly the Bloor Cinema and the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema) is a movie theatre in The Annex district of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located at 506 Bloor Street West, near its intersection with Bathurst Street a ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

on November 27, 1987, and had a limited theatrical run in other markets before being broadcast by

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

in March 1988."Dance documentary deserves better". ''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...

'', March 25, 1988. Television critics criticized the CBC for running the film on a Sunday afternoon, calling it an excellent film that deserved a much bigger audience than it was likely to garner in that time slot. The film received a

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for scu ...

nomination for Best Feature Length Documentary at the

9th Genie Awards The 9th annual Genie Awards were held March 22, 1988, and honoured Canadian films released in 1987.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards''. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. . The ceremony was hel ...

in 1988.Liam Lacey, "Quebec film picks up 14 nominations: Zoo paces race for Genies". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', February 17, 1988.

References

External links

* 1987 films Canadian documentary films Documentary films about dance Canadian dance films 1980s English-language films 1980s Canadian films {{1980s-Canada-documentary-film-stub