Mediums
Mediums
1969
About
Mediums debuted at Simon Fraser University’s summer production in 1969, showcasing the works of five members of the school’s dance workshops. Other performers featured in this showcase included Maureen McGinness, Debbie Bowes, Cecalee Coffey, and the director of the workshop, Iris Garland, who also presented a new work choreographed to an electronic score by Pierre Henry.
Full performances took place at SFU Theatre July 25th and 26th at 8:30pm, and an abbreviated performance, without Mediums, was shown at 12:30pm, July 25th.
The People
Choreography/Dance: Karen Jamieson and Edith Feinstein
Music: Phillip Werren
Film: David Rimmer
Where it all began…
“It was one of those non-credit workshops in 1969 [taught by Iris Garland] that gave Karen Jamieson her first taste of modern dance. Jamieson was 22 and at SFU to take a teaching certificate. She doesn’t remember what drew her to that first dance class, but she does remember SFU of the ‘60s having an ‘openness’ that allowed her to dance.
‘Maybe it was the spirit of the times, but at SFU everything seemed to be up for grabs: there seemed to be no rules or regulations. I started to choreograph right away, and I was given the opportunity to do a noon-hour show after just one semester of dancing.’
In a profession where women dancers are expected to begin training as children, someone like Jamieson might have been dismissed. But Garland remembers Jamieson as a ‘natural mover’ and encouraged her dancing. After two semesters Jamieson left to study in New York. And while she doesn’t credit SFU with training her, she considers SFU’s program significant in her career, because it was there that she had her ‘first meeting with dance.’”
- Shannon Rupp
“SFU Dance Far from Academic”
The Georgia Straight, September 28 - October 5, 1990
Reviews
“…But then came Mediums, the most exciting local multimedia production I have seen.
Multi-media has a bad name, associated with wire, noise, light and lack of coordination. Mediums, a blend of film by Dave Rimmer, of dance by Edith Feinstein and Karen Rimmer, and woven through, surrounded by, made part of music by Phillip Werren, is an outstanding trip, which in its subtlety, its complete integration, its rich and exciting sensory blendings, comes close to mysticism.
If I were not in Seattle for the Joffrey Ballet I would go back this evening for another experience of Mediums.”
- James Barber
“Mediums steal the show at Workshop”
The Province, July 25, 1969
“Film, dance and electronic sound were blended for a Simon Fraser University presentation Friday noon that proved to be one of the most intriguing theatre events I have seen on that campus.
The production, titled Mediums, was an attempt to express visually and aurally some of the implications of W.B. Yeats’ theories about life – and it showed how effective mixed or parallel media can be when they’re handled in a circumspect manner.
For the first time, there were strong indications that the SFU theatre thinkers are beginning to dominate the multi-media thing, rather than be dominated by it. Each element was used sparingly and with caution; instead of a wholesale attack on the senses, there was subtle persuasion.
Mediums – performed by the SFU dance workshop, under the direction of Iris Garland – was the joint creation of workshop members Edith Feinstein and Karen Rimmer, composer Phillip Werren and film-maker Dave Rimmer, and the closeness of their collaboration was apparent at every turn.
Sound and film complemented each other, rather than indulging in outright war – and both gave an extra dimension and richness to the dance.
Within the range of their performance abilities, the dancers did considerable justice to the work’s dance ideas. And these ideas – despite what seemed to be an abrupt slackening of tension and invention around the middle of the work – were at times gratifyingly fresh and arresting; writhing diagonals, squirming circles and whirling starburst shapes created moments of bewilderment and desperation, and moments of great sadness.”
- Max Wyman
“SFU Medium Mixture Scores”
The Vancouver Sun, May 31, 1969
Banner photo credit: The Province, Friday July 25, 1969
Please note that populating the Karen Jamieson Dance website with new information and images from the archives is an ongoing process that we are undertaking as fast as we can. Karen Jamieson Dance welcomes any corrections or missing information to the description and acknowledgments listed above. These can be forwarded to admin@kjdance.ca