Screenwriter, director and producer Fernand Dansereau, and choreographer and dance teacher Linda Rabin are among the winners of this year’s Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards.
Awarded for 30 years, the prizes reward the entire career of Canadian artists whose achievements have inspired and enriched the cultural life of the country, in addition to shine abroad.
“I’m really touched by this award,” said Fernand Dansereau in an interview, saying he was surprised to receive such honours. The Governor General’s Award is the highest honor in the performing arts in Canada.
“Receiving this award at my age, continues the 93-year-old man, is great recognition of my work. It comes to tell me that I haven’t worked for nothing, that what I’ve done for society has an appreciation, a utility too. […] With all the others [lauréats], we have contributed to pushing back the limits of culture. »
Fernand Dansereau is considered a pioneer of cinema and television in Quebec. During his career, he has directed about fifty films, shorts and feature films, and produced about fifty others.
Unwavering Hope
On the small screen, he made an impression by writing the script for the series The park of the brave and Caleb’s Daughters. We owe him more recently a series of three films about aging and its taboos: old age and laughter (2012), Eroticism and old age (2017) and old age and hope (2019).
The jury of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation highlighted in a press release his “fine understanding of the working classes” and his “unshakeable hope in all things”.
“He takes a lucid and compassionate look at contemporary realities and constantly seeks to make cinematographic language accessible to all,” we continue.
About Linda Rabin, the jury wanted to congratulate her talents as a trainer in somatic movement: “She has helped artists and people from all walks of life to walk and develop their own creative process, both on stage and in the life. »
Linda Rabin has over 50 years of experience as a dancer, teacher and choreographer. She is considered a pioneer of contemporary dance in the country.
She is also co-founder and former co-director of the Ateliers de danse moderne de Montréal, which is now the School of Contemporary Dance of Montreal, where she still teaches.
Recognition for the profession
“When I heard the news on the phone, I thought they were playing a joke on me or that Linda was the wrong one, I almost hung up,” she says, laughing.
Already a distinguished member of the Order of Excellence in Education in Quebec and a member of the Order of Canada, Linda Rabin says she is “moved” and “embarrassed” to receive this new distinction.
“It’s an extraordinary recognition, I’m very honored,” she adds. I don’t usually find myself in the light like this. I have been working rather in the shadows for several years, behind the scenes as a teacher. This is great recognition for the profession. »
Also on the list of winners are director and television producer Rita Shelton Deverell, composer and music producer David W. Foster and singer and songwriter Tomson Highway. The winners will be honored at a gala on May 28 at the National Arts Center in Ottawa.