Dance Professor wins Canada Council award
Filmmaker, journalist and teacher Philip Szporer is a veritable dance dervish: he often attends up to five productions a week, facilitates workshops internationally and has even appeared onstage as a performer.
For his 30-year involvement in the dance community, he was honoured by the Canada Council for the Arts last July with the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize.
Szporer, who has taught in the Department of Contemporary Dance since 2003, was floored by the news.
“I was both immediately humbled and happy. I was moved and touched,” he says.
The Concordia grad completed his BA in English literature in 1979 and returned for a graduate diploma in communication studies a few years later.
Initially, he made a career for himself in radio and print, working for CBC Radio, Radio-Canada, the BBC World Service and Radio Netherlands International as a commentator, producer and director. He was an arts writer for numerous publications including The Gazette, Village Voice and Hour, where he remains a columnist.
Though Szporer travelled extensively as a lecturer, published book chapters and even worked early on delivering singing telegrams, for him, everything fit together.
“All roads lead to dance,” he says.
In 1999, he teamed up with fellow filmmaker and Concordia alumna Marlene Millar to produce and direct films about dance. They founded Mouvement Perpétuel, a production company dedicated to the arts, shortly thereafter.
They embarked on the idea of following seven emerging choreographers from across the country, culminating in the 2004 film Moments in Motion, which was broadcast on Bravo! and screened at festivals worldwide. This year, he received funding from the Canada Council to research a follow-up tracking the lives of the choreographers seven years later – the grant allowed him to be eligible for the Lemieux Prize.
“Our collaboration works because we are able to feed each other and nourish each other,” he says of working with Millar. “We bring in influences from our own experiences and other connections.”
The prolific duo has created nearly 15 award-winning films in just over a decade, including The Hunt, Butte and Falling. Montrealers may recognize images from Quarantaine, the Festival international du film sur l’art used a still from the film on its poster this year and borrowed an entire scene to create the festival’s trailer.
With new projects on the horizon, including a 3D dance film with the National Film Board, Szporer keeps busy.
After getting the big news about his award, which is usually bestowed upon dancers and choreogra phers, he took some time to recharge. He found himself at a cottage on a lake, with no phone or internet.
“I feel extremely privileged to be doing this kind of work. But I made a contract with myself to take the month of August off,” he says.
Those curious about Mouvement Perpétuel’s productions can catch screenings on Sept. 16, 17 and 22 as part of Transatlantique Montreal’s Quartiers Danses festival. Consult the program online for times and locations.
Watch the trailer: