Akira Nguyen Ly

November 30, 2017

David Earle

David Earle was born in Toronto on September 17, 1939 as Charles David Ronald Earle.

As a truly renowned artist who is acknowledged as one of the most influential and greatest

contributors to the modern dance world, David has created 130 works over his career.

He first began dancing when he was 5 years old, learning ballet and tap. By the age of 8

he was putting on 4 performances a year with Toronto Children's Players which he continued

doing to the age of 19. At 20 years of age, he applied and was accepted into Toronto National

Ballet School on a scholarship where he studied for 4 years. It was at NBS where he met David

Himes from whom he was introduced to the world of modern dance. Through this introduction

David danced for 2 years in the Yone Kvietys' modern dance company until he graduated from

NBS. Upon completing his studies, he received a scholarship and went on to study with Martha

Graham in New York City. In addition to studying and working with Martha, he had the

opportunity to dance in Jose Limon's dance company as well.

David is credited with assisting in the success of England's London Contemporary Dance

Theatre company's first two seasons. After which, he returned to Toronto and together with

Patricia Beatty and Peter Randazzo, founded the Toronto Dance Theatre company. Though all

three shared the artistic director responsibilities, David Earle was known and recognized as the

most influential of the three. In 1979, he created TDT's professional Training Program. In 1987

he became the company's only artistic director and saw the company through two successful
seasons in New York as well as Europe and Asia. However, in 1996, David resigned from TDT

and left because of his disapproval of the direction in which the company was taking. He

relocated to Guelph where he established his own Dancetheatre David Earle company where he

could freely and permanently teach, express, and create through his own vision and beliefs.

David has been granted numerous awards through his career. These include the Clifford

E. Lee award and Dora Mavor Moore award in 1987, Toronto Arts Award in 1988, John A.

Chalmers award in 1994, Murriel Sherrin award in 1998, Canada Council for the Arts Jacqueline

Lemieux Prize in 2002, Water Carsen Prize in 2006, and even the Order of Canada in 1996.

His creations are known to be provocative and sensual. Not just in the physical sense

but in the intellectual sense as well. David focuses on the expression of humanity through

dance often having themes of harmony between contrasting elements such as Spiritual and

Carnal desires, Wonder and Beauty of the human form, the sacred and the profane, etc. His

pieces are thought provoking as David always thought it important to focus on the 'question'

rather than the 'answer' of humanity and life. As a teacher and artist, David wants most to

express, share, and challenge the notion of ecstasy through dance. Being a performer who

enjoys both the beauty and the musicality of dance, his pieces are often performed with a live

ensemble accompaniment as evidenced with DtDE's debut performance in collaboration with

Penderecki String Quartet in 1997.

Some of David's most notable creations are Baroque Suite, Atlantis, Boat River Moon,

Dreamsend, and Sacra Conversazione.

 Works Cited

http://artsalive.ca/en/dan/meet/bios/artistDetail.asp?artistID=92

http://www.dcd.ca/exhibitions/earle/

http://www.dtde.ca/about/

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/david-earle/