Silvy Panet-Raymond talks magical numbers, memories, and moving forward


Silvy Panet-Raymond is an award-winning choreographer, interdisciplinary artist and mentor. After four decades at Concordia in the Department of Contemporary Dance, where she held the position of Chair numerous times, she is moving on to other exciting and interdisciplinary projects. Panet-Raymond’s commitment to mentorship and pedagogical approach have left a significant impact on her department, where she has expanded the opportunities for dance makers at Concordia to develop unique creative and choreographic visions.

After four years spent in London, UK as a company dancer and collaborator, Panet-Raymond arrived in Montreal in 1980. While teaching part-time, she pursued diverse and collaborative creative projects nationally and internationally- including co-founding Tagente. She has participated in site-specific residencies, such as Zone of Silence in the northern Mexican desert and Québec's boreal forest. Her research-creation on dance and sociocultural transmission has expanded across continents with support from funding agencies, and she was a teaching member of the inter-university international summer school in university pedagogy CoLaBor.

Joining Elizabeth Langley in the Modern Dance Program as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in 1986, Panet-Raymond began her first term as Chair the same year. She strengthened organizational structures and contributed to the establishment of the Department of Contemporary Dance. She introduced pilot courses which tested new approaches to technical training, as well as experiential, multimedia projects for creative process and choreography. Alongside Michael Montanaro, she worked to enhance the versatility and adaptability of dance facilities for students to gain hands-on experience in technical production. Together, they forged links with other Montreal institutions and organizations to offer students credited and paid apprenticeships - valuable experiences and connections which carry through to professional life.

This fall she is an International Chair in Humanities and Social Sciences, Université Rennes 2 (Brittany) in its new Graduate Studies program CAPS—Creative Approaches to Public Space. As a guest artist she is also given carte blanche for creative endeavours with numerous European collaborators.

In an exchange after her departure, Panet-Raymond expands on her innovative approach to teaching, memories from her time at Concordia, and exciting projects on the horizon.

In an essay you shared with me recently, you write about how you will miss your students and describe them as “teachers of teachers”. Could you tell me more about this and your approach to mentorship?

I can only speak for my approach to teaching that takes into consideration the full situation within which teaching and learning occurs, that is a three-way affair of sorts. Students learn from their teachers, their peers and themselves. And the same goes for me. Challenging situations in a classroom can stimulate me to come up with new approaches to get unstuck, to remain mobile, to adopt different perspectives on a situation. I've created propositions and exercises that have engendered collaborative efforts to overcome resistance, build trust, bring out unforeseen talents. As the cliché goes, necessity is the mother of invention.

The Gift Project was prompted by some students who could benefit from being more considerate, inclusive and generous in their artistic practice. They learned to plan and organize a shared activity based on their individual expertise or talent.  One year, a former gymnast managed to book the Centre Pierre-Charbonneau gym at the Olympic Stadium where her peers could playfully explore all the apparatus and learn new skills; another student, professional skater took the entire class to the Old Port ice skating ring where everyone learned some new moves, including students from the Caribbean who had never skated before; he capped it off with a dazzling solo performance to music played by the ring's supervisor. Or the 'It may not be ideal, but it's real' classes held outdoors over two weeks in January. Students found ways to acknowledge living and creating in a northern climate, to adapt their art of movement to the environment in which they live. Lots of practical, experiential stuff.

Inevitably, as I observe students in their learning process, witnessing the emergence of ideas, creative failures, efforts that spawn unexpected results I'm also gaining new insights that keep me mobile of mind and body, preventing me from getting stuck in one way of seeing.

In perhaps a similar vein, what are some of the memories or pivotal experiences at Concordia that stand out to you?

So many! 1988: Holding a 12- hour dance marathon fundraiser at Foufounes Électriques to take a group of the department students to perform their dance works at the Calgary Winter Olympics while I was 7 months pregnant. Sponsors donated some great prizes for the dance marathon participants. 2002: the first Art Matters festival. At the Oscar Peterson Hall performance of new works by students in my capstone choreography class paired up with music students who composed music for their joint new works. Some collaborations continued after graduation (Richard Parry_Bell Orchestre and Arcade Fire, Stefan Schneider_Bell Orchestre with Andrew Tay and Sasha Kleinplatz and their Wants and Needs dance co.)

2009 move from Loyola Campus back to the SGW campus. My class created and performed works in and around the excavated site before the builders of the MB building arrived.  Can't say for sure, but I hope their spirited dances still live in the ground :) Michael Montanaro and I worked with the planners to ensure the 7th floor dance studios would be 'state of the arts, i.e.  7th Heaven.  Of course, there are all the productions where the public discovers the labour-intensive results of students' effervescent, inventive, at times provocative choreography and performance.

I understand that you are an International Chair in Humanities and Social Sciences, Université Rennes 2 (Brittany) in its new Graduate Studies program CAPS (Creative Approaches to Public Space). Could you tell me more about this and any other upcoming projects you would like to share?

In 2015, I was a guest artist teaching in Studio Arts at Rennes 2 as well as creating links with colleagues to set up exchanges. Now the new CAPS graduate program is being launched this September. Leading up to this a number of projects, courses, conferences have taken place, including the graduate course Public Arts Garage that I cocreated and cotaught with my colleague, Patrick Leroux, Associate Dean in Arts and Science. MA and PhD Concordia students were teamed up with those at Bauhaus University, Germany and Queen's University, Belfast. The “Public Arts Garage” encourages students to think across the boundaries of their disciplines. This particular seminar/workshop focused on ways that we inhabit and build legitimacy to occupy public space with art that both challenges and engages the community.It's part of a transnational collaboration in anthropology, visual art, drama, dance, literature, design, art history, architecture, ... and public space. The constellation of CAPS partners include University College, Cork in Ireland and University of Barcelona, Oslo Academy of the Arts and other European partners. I will be leading some workshops and giving a couple of public lectures and taking full advantage of having arts residencies where I have time and the resources to explore new sites, establish collaborations across disciplines in Rennes and in other countries.

During the pandemic, I expanded the project Ensemble Ouvert to reach out and connect artists over different continents.

Learn more about the Department of Contemporary Dance.