Miriam Elaine Adams (née Weinstein; born January 29, 1944) is a dancer, choreographer, and dance archivist from Toronto.
After performing with the
National Ballet of Canada
The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca, the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 ...
, she co-founded 15 Dance Laboratorium with her husband
Lawrence Adams. It was the first theatre to present experimental dance in Toronto. In 1983, Miriam and Lawrence launched ''Encore! Encore!'' to document the works of six Canadian choreographers from the 1940s and 1950s, and in 1986 they launched a centre for archiving dance and publishing books called Arts Inter-Media Canada/
Dance Collection Danse (DCD).
Early life and training
Miriam Adams was born in Toronto on January 29, 1944. She studied with
Betty Oliphant
Nancy Elizabeth Oliphant (August 5, 1918 – July 12, 2004) was a co-founder of the National Ballet School of Canada.
Life
Oliphant was born in London in 1918. Her father was a lawyer who died within weeks of her birth in a train crash. Oli ...
and became a student at the
National Ballet School in 1960,
graduating in 1963.
Early career and 15 Dance Lab
From 1963 to 1969, Adams performed with the
National Ballet of Canada
The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca, the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 ...
as a member of the
corps de ballet
In ballet, the ''corps de ballet'' (; French language, French for "body of the little dance") is the group of ballet dancer, dancers who are not principal dancers or Soloist (ballet), soloists. They are a permanent part of the ballet company and ...
.
While there she met her husband, principal dancer Lawrence Adams.
After leaving the National Ballet of Canada, Adams taught at the
Lois Smith
Lois Arlene Smith (née Humbert; born November 3, 1930) is an American actress whose career spans 7 decades. She made her film debut in the 1955 drama film '' East of Eden'', and later played supporting roles in a number of movies, including '' ...
School of Dance. In 1972, Adams and Lawrence formed a dance company called 15 Dancers
which evolved into 15 Dance Lab, a 41-seat studio theatre in Toronto,
and the first to present experimental dance in Toronto.
The Adamses wanted to avoid the hierarchical structures experienced in ballet companies and instead promoted the independence of dancers representing various styles of dance.
In 1974, Adams and Lawrence incorporated 15 Dance Lab as a not-for-profit charitable organisation.
They received various grants for their organisation which allowed them to pay artists 80% of the box office revenue, plus a fee for performances.
Choreographic works
Adams' choreographic works contained humour, parody and satire of current events.
Her first choreographic piece with 15 Dancers was, ''ode to yogurt'' on June 13, 1972.
She choreographed ''Another Nutcracker'' in 1973, which parodied ''
The Nutcracker
''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...
''. In 1975 she satirised the defection of
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Барышников, p=mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf; ; born January 27, 1948) is a Latvian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male ...
from the Soviet Union in a video called ''Sonovovitch''.
In 1990, Adams choreographed and composed the score for ''So What’s This Got To Do With God Already?'' for Inde / 90 at Toronto's
Harbourfront Centre
Harbourfront Centre is a cultural organization on the waterfront of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated at 235 Queens Quay West. Established as a crown corporation in 1972 by the Government of Canada to create a waterfront park, it became a no ...
, a humorous perspective of Jewish culture featuring modern dance, ballet, ballroom, and basketball movements.
Publishing and archiving
From 1976 to 1978, Adams and Lawrence published the tabloid ''Spill'', edited by
Elizabeth Chitty. In 1979, they published a dance photography book with visual artist Lynn Rotin entitled ''Photographs Dance''.
From 1980 to 1983, they published a monthly newspaper called ''Canadian Dance News''.
During this time Adams also worked as a conference and special projects coordinator for the Dance in Canada Association.
In 1983, Adams and her husband created ''Encore! Encore!'' to reconstruct dances by six choreographers from the 1940s and 1950s.
Former dancers, choreographers and notators assisted to reconstruct, videotape and record these works through
dance notation
Dance notation is the symbolic representation of human dance movement and form, using methods such as graphic symbols and figures, path mapping, numerical systems, and letter and word notations. Several dance notation systems have been invent ...
. The couple chose works whose choreography, costumes and musical scores were created in Canada and performed by Canadian dancers.
The choreographers were
Gweneth Lloyd
Gweneth Lloyd, OC (September 15, 1901 – January 1, 1993) was a co-founder of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, a ballet teacher and choreographer.
Lloyd was born in Eccles, Lancashire, United Kingdom. She attended The Perse School in Cambridge, but ...
of Winnipeg,
Jeanne Renaud and
Françoise Sullivan
Françoise Sullivan LL.D (born 10 June 1923) is a Canadian painter, sculptor, dancer, choreographer and photographer whose work is marked by her ability to switch from one discipline to another.
Biography
Early life
Françoise Sullivan gre ...
of Montreal,
Nesta Toumine of Ottawa, and
Boris Volkoff
Boris Vladimirovich Volkoff, (born Boris Vladimirovich Baskakoff; April 24, 1900 – March 11, 1974) was a Canadian-Russian ballet dancer, director, choreographer and ballet master. After studying dance in Warsaw and Moscow he defected from Ru ...
and Nancy Lima Dent of Toronto.
The couple worked with Lawrence's brother,
David Adams, to reconstruct Boris Volkoff’s ''The Red Ear of Corn''.
Their production, ''There's Always Been Dance'' incorporated excerpts and images of these reconstructed works and was performed in Vancouver at
Expo 86
The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo 86, was a world's fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communicatio ...
.
In 1986, Adams and Lawrence created the Encore! Dance Hall of Fame to honour Canadian dancers and choreographers.
They also renamed their organisation Arts Inter-Media Canada /
Dance Collection Danse (DCD), establishing it as an archive, museum and publisher.
The first iteration of the archives was hosted in the Adams' home.
DCD published over 40 books, including a bilingual ''Encyclopedia of Theatre Dance in Canada''.
Adams acted as its director until 2019, remaining part of the organisation as co-founder and advisor.
Personal life
Adams married
Lawrence Adams in 1967.
Awards
In 1980, Adams and her husband won the Dance Ontario Award for providing opportunities for independent choreographers to showcase work at 15 Dance Lab.
*Dance in Canada Service Award, 1988
*Medal of Service, City of Toronto, 1992
*Rita Davies and Margo Bindhardt Cultural Leadership Award, 2009
*Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal, 2012
*Ken McCarter Award for Distinguished National Ballet School Alumni, 2021
In 2011, Adams was named a member of the
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...
for "contributions to preserving and popularising Canadian dance history."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Miriam
1944 births
Canadian ballerinas
Canadian choreographers
Canadian female dancers
Living people
Members of the Order of Canada
Dancers from Toronto
Canadian women choreographers