Welcome to Reminiscing in Tempo! If this is your first DJD show, welcome!! You will get a great history lesson, I hope you will fall in love and come back soon. If you know us, I hope you will enjoy this dance down memory lane.

I must admit, this show is a little self-indulgent for me. I chose some (not all or we’d be here all week) of my favourite pieces to perform. Most of the work was created by Vicki Adams Willis, DJD’s founding Artistic Director, now Founder in Residence. We are so lucky that Vicki isn’t sick of us yet! She continues to be a vital part of DJD and was instrumental in remounting her work, especially Sophisticated Ladies Suite which premiered in 1986. There are other Adams Willis gems in there, as well some stunners created by co-founders Michèle Moss and Hannah Stilwell. I also wanted to include some beautiful pieces by Jamie Freeman Cormack and Sarisa Figueroa de Toledo, who were both longtime DJD dancers (among other things). I tossed in a little of my own work to hold the show together…

I want to send a special thank you to Laura Kleiner who has been a CHAMPION during this process. Laura is Artistic Assistant and always is a superhero, but her diligence in learning choreography off tiny grainy videos and her commitment to being down for the cause has reached new heights.

It’s beautiful to see this choreography get passed on to the current dancers. Much of this work was performed before they were in the company, some were not even born when some of this work premiered. It’s wonderful to see it live again and I’m grateful for how they have embraced this work with care and rigour. They are a special group of humans and dance this work beautifully.

As did all the dancers who have been part of DJD history. It’s been lovely to watch all those grainy videos…

So much reminiscing, so many memories. It’s incredible when an arts organization can make it for 40 years, never mind a jazz dance company in Calgary. Who knows, maybe it’s such a wild idea, that it could only have happened here.

Cheers to you DJD, and to the next 4 decades!