Curtains Up: Highlights from Dance Collection Danse features treasured artifacts and images from Canada’s national dance heritage collection. Founded in 1986 by former National Ballet of Canada dancers Lawrence Adams and Miriam (Weinstein) Adams, Dance Collection Danse (DCD) collects and exhibits dance materials from across Canada and from all genres of dance. This exhibition features dance items, artwork and photography from the early to mid-20th  century – a time when vaudeville theatres dotted the country and provided career opportunities for young dancers.  Following closely by the Ballet Boom of the 1950s, which saw the beginnings of the professional dance scene that exists in Canada today.

 Curtains Up:  Highlights from the Dance Collection Danse exhibition will be on display until April 2025. 

Juliet Costume

Juliet’s masquerade dress worn by Veronica Tennant in The National Ballet of Canada’s production of John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet

1964 - Veronica Tennant Collection

Members of the Neo Dance Theatre perform Cynthia Barrett’s Song of David (a salute to the new state of Israel) at the Canadian Ballet Festival

1949 - Cynthia Barrett Collection, DCD

Betty Pope, Lilian Jarvis, Angela Leigh, and Lois Smith in a hockey-themed promotional photo for The National Ballet of Canada

c. 1957, Lois Smith Collection, DCD

Anna Pavlowa

Reproductions of vaudeville-era Dance Lovers/The Dance magazine covers, 1924-1931

January 1929, design by Carl Link - Flea Market Collection, DCD

Backdrop for The Nutcracker, Act II, “Land of the Sweets” scene, choreographed by Nesta Toumine for the Ottawa Classical Ballet, designed by Sviatoslav Toumine

c. 1948, Photo: Jeremy Mimnagh - Toumine Collection, DCD

Toe tap shoes used in vaudeville shows

c. 1920, Flea Market Collection, DCD