Michèle Moss, Digital Photograph on paper by Mike Tan

Digital photograph on paper by Mike Tan, 2020

Commissioned photographs of Michèle Moss, whose name appears in a dance recital program from the Negro Community Centre 1968, in the archival exhibition It’s About Time: Dancing Black in Canada 1900-1970.

Photographed with dancing costume from childhood at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks Building, Calgary, AB. Michele is a co-founder of Decidedly Jazz Danceworks.

Conversations with Michèle Moss and Cheryl Foggo

The Social Aspect of Dance with Michèle Moss and Cheryl Foggo.

Michèle Moss is the co-founder of Decidedly Jazz Danceworks in Calgary and Cheryl Foggo is a Calgary-based writer and historian. Together, Moss and Foggo will be discussing their personal experiences and the social aspect of dance, in relation to It’s About Time: Dancing Black in Canada 1900-1970 and Now, curated by Seika Boye. This conversation took place December 2, 2020.

Artist: Michèle Moss

Michèle Moss is a dancer, choreographer, researcher and educator. She is a co-founder of DJD (Decidedly Jazz Danceworks) 1984 through to 1999. She continues to collaborate with DJD on many teaching projects, most recent choreography presented in 2008 and most recent performance, the 30th anniversary concert, in 2014. She finds great pleasure in exploring the nature of jazz, through performance-creation and arts-based educational research. She enjoys a diverse career in dance; at this mid-point she is celebrating 15 years of academic service and scholarship. Her professional training has her seek out many experiences including swing, salsa, house dance as well as educational and current training practices to enhance her studio practice.

Her research mostly takes the form of creation projects but also includes textual projects, recently co-authoring chapters, with Dr. Jill Crosby, on the history of jazz in a Feb 2014 publication from the University Press of Florida called Jazz Dance: Roots and Branches. She greatly enjoys her U of C teaching assignments and finds the studio a vibrant place to be. During recent years she has been happy to have funded performance-creation projects take the stage working with small and large casts and often with live music. These collaborations with musicians are always especially satisfying and dynamic. She is fortunate to be the recipient of choreographic commissions and international teaching assignments.

Publishing her research in journals, magazines as well working on book chapter assignments have been very rewarding. She has conducted ethnographic research in field sites such as Italy, Jamaica, Poland, India, Japan, Sénégal and The Gambia, West Africa as well as New York City, New Orleans, Winnipeg, Toronto, Victoria, Paris and Monréal to name a few locales. Her most significant ethnographic field sites are Guinée, West Africa and Cuba. She considers herself a citizen of the world; born in the UK of Jamaican and British parents, raised in Montréal, resident of Calgary and frequent flyer in search of the best vantage point from which to consider dance and dancing. Onward Weltanschauung-ers!