DanceArts Vancouver, 1998-2000
General management


DanceArts Vancouver, formerly Judith Marcuse Dance Projects Society, is a small but well known performing arts organization led by one of Canada’s best known dancer/choreographers. The company has been in business for more than twenty years and is funded by three levels of government.

For most of its life, the company had been a repertory dance company, hiring a core of dancers and mounting productions to play at home and on the road. In the mid nineties, as it became harder to stretch funding dollars to cover the costs of such an enterprise, the company decided to change its strategy. It became more focused on projects rather than seasons, aimed its work at young people and broadened its style to include more elements of theatre and music. Under Marcuse’s direction, a new kind of show was created, one that dealt with the unsettling issue of teen suicide. Presented in a downtown mall after closing hours, and notwithstanding the subject matter, “ICE” was a hit. Marcuse was encouraged to mount a provincial tour for the show, and contracted with Lamont Management for McClymont’s services to manage the tour planning process and put the case for the tour together for government consideration.

It took more than two years to raise the funds to mount a Canadian tour of "ICE". (The tour is scheduled for October and November, 2000). Meanwhile, DanceArts produced two KISS Festivals, a smorgashborg of dance, theatre and music workshops and performances staged on Granville Island, and did all the research and development of the second show in the youth quartet, "FIRE", which deals with violence and its impact on young people. Through this period, McClymont served as the company’s Managing Director on a part time basis. With its tour of "ICE" now ready to go and "FIRE" to be produced in the spring of 2001, the company has accepted McClymont’s recommendation to engage a full time general manager.