Standards Manual and Collier Descriptor Thesaurus
by Lawrence Adams, Amy Bowring and Clifford Collier
Software Developer: Eddie Kastrau
- For Companies and Independent Dance Artists
- For Mac or Windows operating systems
- Available in French or English
Designed by dance people for dance people, the Canadian Integrated Dance Database (CIDD) helps companies and artists archive their materials.
Many dance organizations and artists are faced with the ongoing problem of organizing their collections of papers, photographs, videotapes and artifacts. The CIDD provides a method of cataloguing the varied items found in a dance collection.
With the ability to upload records to a national database on the DCD web site, sources for dance research materials can be accessed worldwide increasing the global profile of theatrical dance in Canada.
About the Authors
Winnipeg-born Lawrence Adams spent his life in dance exploring a variety of roles: dancer, choreographer, teacher, videographer, editor, publisher, bookbinder, computer programmer and archivist. He began ballet lessons as a teenager, soon performing with The National Ballet of Canada, the Joffrey Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. With his wife, Miriam, he opened 15 Dance Laboratorium in 1974, Toronto's first venue for experiemental dance. In 1983, the Adams began research for a major dance reconstruction project, ENCORE! ENCORE!, and in 1986 over a dozen Canadian dance works from the 1940s and 1950s had been rescued. From this research, Dance Collection Danse, Canada's largest dance archives, was established. By the 1990s, the Adams were publishing books about Canadian theatrical dance. To date, Dance Collection Danse Press/Presse has produced over 35 books in addition to a semi-annual magazine. Lawrence Adams was an advocate for the art of dance, a proponenet of dance literacy and a pioneer of electronic archiving. He passed away on February 26, 2003. His impact on dance in Canada is immeasurable.
Clifford Collier started dancing in 1947 with the Boris Volkoff Studio in Toronto and performed with the Volkoff Canadian Ballet, including performances in several Canadian Ballet Festivals. He left the studio in 1952. He then studied for a short period with Willy Blok Hansen, and performed with the Willy Blok Hansen Trio on television. Leaving Toronto, he moved to Ottawa where he performed with Nesta Toumine and the Ottawa Classical Ballet. In 1953, Collier moved to Montreal where he danced in television productions for Brian Macdonald, Heino Heiden and Elizabeth Leese. After sustaining an injury, he returned to Toronto where he began to teach, first with Janet Baldwin and later, Gladys Forrester. In 1960, he began to choreograph and stage high school productions of Broadway shows for several Toronto schools. In 1970, Collier entered the Program in Dance in the Fine Arts Department at York University, where his interest in dance changed from the physical aspect to the academic. He graduated from York summa cum laude in 1975, and has since de- voted his energies to research and the development of archival resources. Collier holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Western Ontario and has extensive experience with databases through his work in genealogical research.
Amy Bowring holds a B.A. in Fine Arts Studies from York University and an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Western Ontario. She is a dance writer and historian, Director of Research at the archives/publisher Dance Collection Danse, and Founder/Director of the Society for Canadian Dance Studies. Amy has published articles in Right to Dance: Dancing for Rights, Canadian Dance: Visions and Stories, Dance Collection Danse Magazine, Canadian Encyclopedia, International Dictionary of Modern Dance, Encyclopedia of Theatre Dance in Canada and The Dance Current, among other publications. She chronicled Peggy Baker's Choreographer's Trust project and curated virtual exhibitions on Canadian dance artists Nancy Lima Dent and Alison Sutcliffe. Amy is currently writing a book about the Canadian Ballet Festivals (1948-1954) and their role in the professionalization of dance in Canada. She is a co-recipient of the 2002 Toronto Emerging Dance Artist Award. Over a period of ten years, Lawrence Adams was Amy's mentor.