Nova Bhattacharya
Denise Fujiwara began her career as a member of the Canadian Modern Gymnastics Team. A desire to go beyond athletic virtuosity and to communicate through movement led her to dance. While completing her B.F.A. (Hons, Dance) at York University, she co-founded Toronto Independent Dance Enterprise (T.I.D.E.). A company of choreographers, unique for its time, T.I.D.E. emphasized continued learning and creative process. In 1989 T.I.D.E. produced Fujiwara's solo concert Spontaneous Combustion. Launched in 1991, Fujiwara Dance Inventions produced her second solo concert Vanishing Acts.
In light of her long-standing aim to integrate dance and theatre in her work, Fujiwara was naturally drawn to butoh (a twentieth-century Japanese form in which dance and theatre have never been separate). In 1994 Butoh master Natsu Nakajima created Sumida River for her by commission. Ms. Nakajima introduced her to arcane concepts such as "ma" — which refers to the contraction and expansion of space -- that continue to drive her research and choreography and are at the heart of her artistic desire to go deeper into each dance work. Committed to providing opportunities to continue advanced dance studies and share performance opportunities in the community, she has created the Master Class Series (1995), Dance Arts Research Experiments (D.A.R.E.)(1998), and co-founded and runs the CanAsian Dance Festival (1997). She served on the Board at Dance Umbrella of Ontario and endeavours to influence policy at The Canada Council for the Arts through the Dance Advisory Committee.
Article updated in 2005 to include current terms and conditions
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