{{Short description|Canadian dancer and teacher}} {{Infobox dancer | name = Rachel Browne | image = | alt = | caption = | full_name = | birth_name = Ray Minkoff | birth_date = {{birth date|1934|11|06}} | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | death_date = {{death date and age|2012|06|09|1934|11|06}} | death_place = Ottawa, Ontario | height = | occupation = Dancer, artistic director, fundraiser, teacher, choreographer | years_active = | current_group = | former_groups = Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers, Royal Winnipeg Ballet | dances = | website = <!-- {{URL|website}} --> }}
'''Rachel Browne''' (born '''Ray Minkoff'''; November 6, 1934 – June 9, 2012) was a dancer, teacher and choreographer based in Winnipeg. In 1964, she founded Canada's longest running modern dance company, Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/winnipegs-contemporary-dancers |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca |language=en}}</ref>
Browne was Artistic Director until 1983.<ref name="CEWCD"> {{cite web | url =http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/winnipegs-contemporary-dancers/ | title =Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers | last1 =Crabbe | first1 = Michael | last2=Botaitis | first2 = James | date = 3 April 2015 | website = Canadian Encyclopedia | publisher = Historica Canada | access-date = 31 January 2016 }} </ref><ref name="WorldEncyc"> {{cite book | last1 = Holmberg | first1 = Arthur | last2 = Solorzano| first2 = Carlos| title = World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre: Volume 2: The Americas | publisher = Routledge | volume = 2 | date = 2014 | pages = 640 | language = English | isbn =978-1136118364}}</ref> She remained with the company in various leadership roles until her death.
Rachel Browne received numerous honours for her creativity as a choreographer as well as for her dedication to dance and to dancers.
==Early life and ballet career==
Browne's early dance training was in ballet.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jacobs Pillow : Person : Rachel Browne |url=https://archives.jacobspillow.org/Detail/entities/5812 |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=archives.jacobspillow.org}}</ref> After graduating from high school, she moved to New York City to train with Robert Joffrey and Benjamin Harkarvy. Harkarvy became the artistic director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1957 and asked Browne to become one of the company's dancers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rachel Browne |url=https://rachelbrowne.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/globeandmail-com-famed-taskmaster-used-to-change-the-clocks-to-get-more-work-from-her-dancers.pdf }}</ref> She danced with the Ballet until her retirement as a ballerina in 1961, citing care for her young family.<ref name=CERB> {{cite web | url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/rachel-browne/| title =Rachel Browne | last =Anderson | first = Carol | date = 3 April 2015 | website = Canadian Encyclopedia | publisher = Historica Canada | access-date = 1 February 2016 }} </ref>
==Formation of Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers==
Shortly thereafter, Browne began a teaching career at the Lhotka School of Ballet<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lhotka, Jill - MAIN – Manitoba Archival Information Network |url=https://nanna.lib.umanitoba.ca/lhotka-jill |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=nanna.lib.umanitoba.ca}}</ref> at the same time as beginning to choreograph new works. Her first piece, restaged many times over the years, was Odetta's ''Songs and Dances'' (1964). It showcased an earthy modern dance that differed from her ballet training.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Review: Toward Light: A Tribute to Rachel Browne (Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers) {{!}} Mooney on Theatre |url=https://www.mooneyontheatre.com/2013/01/14/review-toward-light-a-tribute-to-rachel-browne-winnipegs-contemporary-dancers/ |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=www.mooneyontheatre.com}}</ref><ref name=CERB />
Browne saw the need for a modern dance company and so founded Contemporary Dancers in 1964. It later changed its name to Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers. She took on the roles of dancer, choreographer, teacher, fundraiser and administrator for the new company. She also traveled to New York yearly to study Limón and Graham modern dance techniques and to learn new dance pieces for the company.
By 1970, the WCD was a professional dance company receiving Canada Council grants. Addressing expressed needs, in 1972 Browne founded the School of Contemporary Dancers to train future dancers.<ref name="CERB" />
In 1983, Browne resigned as Artistic Director. Nevertheless, as Founding Artistic Director for the next 29 years, she continued on in a variety of roles.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rachel Browne |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/rachel-browne |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca |language=en}}</ref> In the 2014 documentary ''A Good Madness'', Browne explains: ”My continued association with the Company enabled me to continue to do the very things that I loved to do: teach, choreograph and perform.”<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://agoodmadness.com/ |title=A Good Madness {{!}} The Dance of Rachel Browne |date=2015-08-12 |last=Saunders |first=Lisa |language=en-US |access-date=2024-06-22 |via=agoodmadness.com}}</ref>
==Creations==
In the 1960s, Browne's choreography underwent a change towards simpler, feminist works.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2004-05-17 |title=A new show of strength from women of substance |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/a-new-show-of-strength-from-women-of-substance/article743808/ |access-date=2024-06-18 |work=The Globe and Mail |language=en-CA}}</ref> Some of these works included ''Mouvement''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mouvement |url=http://vucavu.com/en/winnipegfilmgroup/2015/mouvement-(1) |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=VUCAVU |language=en}}</ref> in 1992, and a collaboration in 1996 with Ann Southam called ''Edgelit''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Posted |first=Alison Mayes |date=2012-06-11 |title=Jun 2012: Dance world's 'grande dame' left a living legacy |url=https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2012/06/11/dance-worlds-grande-dame-left-a-living-legacy |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=Winnipeg Free Press |language=en-US}}</ref> Browne also created works on different dance generations in her project ''Older Women Dance''.<ref name=CERB /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-01-11 |title=Dance Victoria's new show has smooth moves with Rough Cuts |url=https://www.timescolonist.com/archive/dance-victorias-new-show-has-smooth-moves-with-rough-cuts-4574210 |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=Times Colonist |language=en}}</ref> She choreographed over eighty-seven original dances, for solo, duets, trios and groups, many of these returning in a variety of incarnations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rachel Browne |url=https://rachelbrowne.org/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Rachel Browne |language=en}}</ref> Rachel Browne danced in her own and in many others' pieces for seventy-five years.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-02-03 |title=Love and Light |url=https://thedancecurrent.com/ |access-date=2024-06-21 |website=The Dance Current |language=en}}</ref>
”When she was in the studio with dancers, she was anything but a taskmaster. She was in the studio with love and understanding and encouragement.” Odette Heyn, former dancer, choreographer and co-founder of the School of Contemporary Dance, described Browne in ''A Good Madness.''<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://agoodmadness.com/ |title=A Good Madness {{!}} The Dance of Rachel Browne |date=2015-08-12 |last=Saunders |first=Lisa |language=en-US |access-date=2024-06-22 |via=agoodmadness.com}}</ref>
What Browne said her passion was after 1983-1984 was to: ”…focus on what I love the most and what I find the hardest, to try to make dances. … I still like to get up on a stage and perform, but in terms of a focus, it was really choreography. My needs as a performer didn’t interest me that much. The big gap that I felt with my life…this [was filled by] finally trying to choreograph. Always feeling that I was not naturally gifted at it, that I had to work extremely hard at it to make it work. I just wanted to do it.”<ref>{{Cite book |last=Anderson |first=Carol |url=http://archive.org/details/rachelbrownedanc0000ande |title=Rachel Browne : dancing toward the light |date=1999 |publisher=[Winnipeg] : J. Gordon Shillingford |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-896239-53-8}}</ref>
Browne donated videotapes of her dances between 1963 and 1994 to the Dance Collection Danse Archives in Toronto.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dance Collection Danse – Canada's only archive, publisher, and resource centre dedicated to Canadian dance. |url=https://dcd.ca/ |access-date=2024-07-01 |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Death==
Browne died on June 9, 2012, in Ottawa during a visit to see students perform in the Canada Dance Festival.<ref name=CBCRem> {{Citation | last = Scene Staff | title = Remembering Rachel Browne, founder of Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers | publisher = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation | date = 11 June 2012 | url =http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/scene/theatre/2012/06/11/remembering-rachel-brown/ | access-date = 1 February 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=BROWNE RACHEL - Obituaries - The Carillon Passages |url=https://passages.thecarillon.com/passage-details/id-191974/BROWNE_RACHEL |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=passages.thecarillon.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-02-03 |title=Love and Light |url=https://thedancecurrent.com/ |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=The Dance Current |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-06-11 |title=Rachel Browne, founder of Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers, dies at age 77 |url=https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2012/06/11/rachel-browne-founder-of-winnipegs-contemporary-dancers-dies-at-age-77/ |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=CityNews Vancouver}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Memorable Manitobans: Rachel Minkoff Browne (1934-2012) |url=https://mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/browne_r.shtml |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=mhs.mb.ca}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Crabb |first=Michael |date=2012-06-11 |title=Rachel Browne dead at 77 |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/rachel-browne-dead-at-77/article_26418b3b-c072-588d-8ece-00b8e9c79ccc.html |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=Toronto Star |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Star |first=Michael Crabb Special to the |date=2012-06-11 |title=Rachel Browne dead at 77 |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/rachel-browne-dead-at-77/article_26418b3b-c072-588d-8ece-00b8e9c79ccc.html |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Toronto Star |language=en}}</ref>
==Accolades==
In 1994, Browne was awarded a senior arts grant from the Canada Council.
Browne received the Jean A. Chalmers Award for Creativity in Dance<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chalmers Awards for Creativity and Excellence in the Arts Laureates|url=https://www.arts.on.ca/awards/chalmers-family-fund/chalmers-awards-for-creativity-and-excellence-in-t/chalmers-awards-for-creativity-and-excellence-in-t |archive-url=|access-date=June 18, 2024}}</ref> as well as a Manitoba Arts Council's Major Art Grant in 1995.
She was awarded the Order of Canada in 1997.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ms. Rachel Browne |url=https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/146-4956 |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=The Governor General of Canada |language=en}}</ref>
''Dancing Towards the Light'', Browne's biography by Carol Anderson, was published in 1998.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rachel Browne: Dancing Toward the Light the Light |url=https://www.jgshillingford.com/product/rachel-browne-dancing-toward-the-light-the-light/ |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing |language=en-US}}</ref>
In 2000, she received the Canada Council Jacqueline Lemieux Prize.<ref>{{Cite web |title=<nowiki>Canada Council For The Arts | Bringing The Arts To Life</nowiki> |url=https://canadacouncil.ca/-/media/Files/CCA/Funding/Prizes/Laureates/jacqueline-lemieux-prize/Jacqueline_Lemieux_Prize.pdf }}</ref>
In 2001, she received the Manitoba Arts Council Great-West Life Lifetime Achievement Award.<ref name="CERB" />
In a 2008 tribute, Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers renamed their performance venue The Rachel Browne Theatre.<ref name="CEWCD" /><ref name="CBCRem" />
In 2015, the documentary ''A Good Madness'', by Danielle Sturk, premiered in Winnipeg.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://agoodmadness.com/ |title=A Good Madness {{!}} The Dance of Rachel Browne |date=2015-08-12 |last=Saunders |first=Lisa |language=en-US |access-date=2024-06-18 |via=agoodmadness.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=King |first=Randall |date=2015-04-22 |title=Apr 2015: Dancing queen |url=https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/arts/2015/04/22/dancing-queen |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=Winnipeg Free Press |language=en-US}}</ref>
==External links== * https://rachelbrowne.org/dance-works/ * https://dcd.ca/
==References== {{reflist|30em}} {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Rachel}} Category:1934 births Category:2012 deaths Category:Contemporary dance choreographers Category:Canadian choreographers Category:Artists from Philadelphia Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:Canadian contemporary dancers Category:Canadian female dancers Category:Canadian women choreographers