English-Language Arts Network

What's New

The Schmoozer - June 2, 2008

This month ELAN is teaming up with YES Montreal to host the biggest Schmoozer of all time! On June 2, 2008, from 5 to 7 pm at Bistro Origine in the Old Port, ELAN invites participants from the 8th Annual Montreal Self-Employed Artists' Conference to join ELAN members for an evening of socializing and networking.

With a beautiful outdoor terrace in Old Montreal, Origine offers a great view of the Old Port, delicious beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic for those who prefer a coffee or tea), and an atmosphere that just hums of summer and Montreal fever. For those who have never experienced Origine's vibe, you may be interested in checking out their youtube video.

Admission to the Schmoozer is $2. To help us plan for this event, please RSVP to the office by sending an email with Schmoozer in the subject line. To find out more about the 8th Annual Montreal Self-Employed Artists' Conference, visit the YES Montreal website.

Directions to Bistro Origine:

METRO: Place d'Armes. Walk towards Notre Dame and Old Montreal. Turn left on Notre Dame for one block. Right on St- Laurent Blvd. to the river (becomes Quai King Edward when you cross de la Commune). The red flags on the Quai lead to the Montreal Science Centre; Origine is situated to the left of the flags. The address is 2 rue de la Commune Ouest.

ELAN Database of Performing Artists

Separate from our website, ELAN has created a mini-database of performing artists (music, theatre, dance, spoken word, etc.) interested in touring out to the regions. This database will be used as a guide by affiliated associations throughout the province who are mandated to present 2 performing artists per year (artist fees are paid as well as some financial aid offered with regards to travel and accommodation). If interested please submit your name, contact information and a short description of what you are proposing in terms of performance. There is no current deadline. The database will be compiled over the next six months. Interested members can forward information c/o Executive Director Michael Toppings.

Did You Know?

Information at your fingertips!

The Quebec Drama Federation has a ticketing/promotional service available for use by the arts community, both English and French. The service is called CSHOW, and for a minimal service fee (much less than Admission or Ticketron) allows audience members to purchase tickets over the telephone, on-line or in person. As well, any organization using the service has their promotional material mounted on the site so that any member of the public buying tickets on line will see everything else that is playing.

This service has been used by theatre, dance and music to date, and has proved very useful to everyone, as it provides a central call-in number manned at least 8 hours a day as well as providing Box Office services to the organization for performances if required. If you are an arts organization interested in using this service, call the QDF offices at (514) 875-8698 and they will be happy to provide you with all the details and benefits.

BOARD speak

Lin Snelling

Dance Representative

Lin Snelling has been a part of ELAN since its inception at the Quebec Arts Summit in 2004. She began as a dance representative with Philip Szporer, and has remained an active member of the Board of Directors, serving as President of ELAN from 2005-2006.

Lin's work has an interdisciplinary focus; it is coloured by her diverse artistic experience. She was originally trained as a journalist, then became a dancer through studies in Graham Technique at the Toronto Dance Theatre, and then worked as a choreographer in Toronto. Her Montreal chapter began when she was hired into the dance/theatre company, Carbone 14.

Despite the fact that Lin didn't speak a word of French when she moved to Montreal, she was well received into Montreal's diverse dance community. She jumped right into a three-month tour with Carbone 14 and Lin describes it as "a crash course in a whole new culture."

She has since choreographed, performed, and taught extensively in Canada and Europe, often collaborating with her partner Michael Reinhart. Lin has always enjoyed collaborations, which is a major reason for her interest in working with ELAN. The idea of having one organization where many art forms are represented provides exciting and stimulating possibilities to Lin.

When ELAN was first formed, the dance community was coming out of a crisis. The Jean-Pierre-Perreault space had just closed down and this allowed members of the dance community to rethink the vision, direction, and responsibilities of the community, and in so doing it brought dance artists and administators together to discuss and talk about how to proceed.

Since then, many dance organizations, such as the Le Regroupement québécois de la danse (RQD), Agora de la danse, and Tangente, have helped continue to bring a new energy and dynamism to the Montreal dance scene. Circuit Est, directed by Francine Gagné has taken over the Perreault space and has opened its doors again to the dance community. Circuit-Est. and its members - Sylvain Émard Danse, Louise Bédard Danse, Le Carré des Lombes, Fortier Danse-Création, Danse Carpe Diem/ Emmanuel Jouthe and Et Marianne et Simon - will together continue in this new space.

"Dance has integrated itself very well into the community across borders," reflects Lin as she declares that the Montreal dance community is presently very healthy. "There is a lot of cooperation going on, now more than ever." People are seeing each other's work and finding ways of learning and working together. Montreal has a huge number of English-language dance artists that work together with dancers from Quebec and from Europe. Because this city is so fertile, and it is an affordable place to live, dancers are drawn to Montreal from all over the world. Montreal's dance community is rich and active with younger companies, established companies, and independent artists all seeing each other's work.

The Festival TransAmériques (FTA) is particularly exciting this year because of the emergence and promotion of the Off-FTA. Many theatres have opened their doors to emerging performers and there is an organized group of people working in conjunction with the FTA to promote the Off portion of the festival. Lin encourages everyone to go see a show at the Festival TransAmériques- any one, just pick one and go!

Lin's involvement with the FTA this year has been through teaching a two-week course at Transformation Danse. This is the second year that dance training has been incorporated into the performance schedule of the festival, and it has been a huge success. Teachers from New York and Montreal have come together to train 65 dancers from all over the country.

For the past two weeks, Lin has been involved in a performance in the storefront of Galerie Espace, on St-Laurent blvd. This piece, entitled "Life World," choreographed by Tedi Tafel, incorporates live performance with video installation.

Lin's near future holds many exciting projects, including a tour to Athens, Greece with Belgian dramaturge, Guy Cools, to perform Repeating Distance, which is a site-specific performance and workshop. She will then be traveling Repeating Distance to Vienna to participate in ImPulsTanz, a huge dance festival bringing together dancers from all over the world. In August, she will create a new work, and in September, she is moving to Edmonton to start a new contract as Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta, teaching movement to actors in the Drama department. She is keeping her apartment here in Montreal and is not leaving the city permanently. Lin will be sorely missed in Montreal while she is gone, but she has promised to return for performances this Fall and Winter.

You may view samples of Lin's work in ELAN's Arts Showcase.

Artistic Collaborations

Visual Artist Needed

An ELAN member is looking to hire a visual artist to create an artwork that incorporates jewellery into a painting. The jewellery will be provided. If you are interested in this project, contact Edmund Nash.

Creating with Sound

An invitation to dancers, visual, spoken word and video artists to collaborate with experienced composer, performer, improvisor and soundscaper. If you are interested, contact Allyna at (819) 876-5682.

Indy Short Jambalaya

Three screenwriters, two editors, two directors, two musicians and two cinematographers got together in Montreal to create a wild and exciting film project consisting of up to ten shorts in June and July. They need camera people, sound people, actors and just fun people in general to make some design-build shorts.

This is a volunteer project for now but they will make it worthwhile for the participants and try to market the shorts and then compensate everybody. The point of making these films is to learn and teach as you go along and experiment with HD, Super8, 16mm and miniDV. If you are interested, please contact Arshad Khan at (514) 274-0475 or on his cell at (647) 292-8549.

Seeking Songwriters and Beatmakers

Marie-Soleil is a 19 year-old singer and is part of a government program to create an album and videoclip. Marie-Soleil is looking for composers and authors for her songs (English, hip-hop, club, R&B music). If you are a songwriter or beatmaker and would like to collaborate on this project, contact Marie-Soleil.To listen to Marie-Soleil's music, check out her myspace and youtube sites.

Artists Wanted for Human Sexuality Project

Looking for artists who feel a need to work on the subjects of the human body and human sexuality to work together in an effort to bring a different vision to sexual imagery than we usually see. No past experience or resume is necessary, just a willingness to breach this subject. There will be meetings held at 6:30pm on Wednesday, May 28th and 6:30 pm on Monday, June 9th to form working groups in view of eventual exhibitions. For more information, email.

Artistic Collaboration on the History of the Lachine Canal

Judith Brisson is looking for Quebec Artists interested in the history of the Lachine Canal to take part in a multimedia exhibition that will take place during the month of September in Pointes St-Charles. In particular, she is looking for Francophone artists who work in performance or in film, who have already worked with this subject matter, and who are ready to create a new and original body of work inspired by the canal and its surrounding communities. Send submissions by email before June 30, 2008 to Judith Brisson.

© 2005–07, English-Language Arts Network / banner images © Patrick Saad

web site by zijn digital

[ Note: CSS for this page has mostly been turned off for older browsers. ]