- About
- Centre for Communications and the Arts
- Calendars of Events & Happenings
- Event Poster Collection
- The Communications Centre: Experiment in human experience
- Jade: Flower-child happenings and conceptual art projects in 1969
- Nini Baird: A Day in the Hectic Life of the Arts Centre Director
- Sound Recordings: Faculty Lectures from 1967 Communications Course
- Dance
- Film
- Literary Arts
- Music & Sound
- Music & Sound image gallery
- My "a-ha" moment with Murray Schafer
- World Soundscape Project
- Phillip Werren's electronic music
- Radio CKSF "on the air" fall 1966
- Robert Aitken performs with the Purcell String Quartet & Soundscape on radio
- David Skulski and the early music revival at SFU
- Phyllis Mailing: SFU Singer Who Reached the Top
- Purcell String Quartet: In High Demand
- Theatre
- Theatre image gallery
- How the early days of the arts at SFU changed my parochial little life
- Norm Browning, Jackie Crossland and Cece Granbois in Beverley Simons' new 1-act play "Greenlawn Rest Home"
- The Centralia Incident: "A theatre in search of a town—A town in search of its memory."
- The only escape: The early years of the SFU theatre
- Robin Patterson and the SFU Mime Troupe
- Theatre of Total Limbo
- Visual Arts
Dance image gallery
As one of the university's very first resident artists, Iris Garland enthusiastically welcomed students of all skill levels to participate in the Simon Fraser University Dance Workshop. Her boundless enthusiasm for dance and dedication to students helped dance to become one of the most popular artforms on campus, ultimately paving the way for SFU’s well-regarded credit dance program.
Interdisciplinarity and experimentation were at the heart of the Dance Workshop, with dancers creating both improvised performances and large-scale productions in collaboration with musicians and actors. The campus itself became the stage, such as when dancers animated the academic quadrangle steps, reflecting pond and rotunda for an unforgettable progressive performance one sunny day in May 1972.
The quality of instruction, which included the opportunity to learn from acclaimed visiting dancers -- such as Phyllis Lamhut and Gladys Bailin -- through master class workshops empowered students, many with little previous experience, to gain the required skills to carve out careers as dancers and choreographers.
Browse the gallery below for a variety of exciting images from this formative era in the history of dance at the university.
Iris Garland, Artist-in-Residence, on campus. [Simon Fraser University Archives. School for the Contemporary Arts fonds, F-109-12-7-0-26. “Garland, Iris,” (photo), undated.]
Iris Garland leads a dance workshop with the SFU Basketball team. Photo: Tony Westman. [Contributed by the photographer.]
Dancers in the SFU gym. Gladys Bailin, an acclaimed dancer-choreographer who visited SFU to lead workshops, plays the drum in the background. [Simon Fraser University Archives. Photo Index Database, IMC 75095-005 (photograph), 1975. Photographer uncredited.]
Karen Rimmer [above] and Edith Feinstein [below] in “Experiment at Noon,” a multimedia event featuring improvised electronic music and dance. [Simon Fraser University Archives. School for the Contemporary Arts fonds, F-109-12-3-0-6. “Experiment at Noon: multimedia event, 1970,” (photo and flyer), March 20, 1970.]
The SFU Dance Workshop makes the campus their stage for a progressive performance. Photo: Peter Higdon. [Simon Fraser University Archives. Iris Garland fonds, F-197-4-0-0-12. “Dance Workshop—May 1972 intensive—‘A Progressive Dance Programme’ production, 1972,” (photo), May 1972.]
Dancers in the SFU gym. [Simon Fraser University Archives. Photo Index Database, IMC 75095-011 (photograph), 1975.]