Over the years, Brian Webb has danced in old work boots and bowler hats, in feather boas and black studded leather and, on numerous occasions, in his underwear. He’s rolled around on broken glass; he’s leapt across the stage in magic arcs of power and grace; he’s performed a duet with a 70-pound hip of raw beef, part of a riff on the nature of masculinity and machismo.
His unexpected performances create a public image of pure liberation, of someone who is unconstrained. Offstage, however, the 58-year-old adheres to a strict physical discipline: his perfect posture and internal poise, well-developed shoulders, the resolve to forego a tasty dessert — it reveals the tough self-governance of a lifelong dancer. Since creating the Brian Webb Dance Company (BWDC), Webb — the small-town boy who, unlike Billy Elliot, never showed early inclinations to express himself through dance — has evolved into a choreographer and producer of international reputation, one who has won multiple awards, including the Commemorative Medal for the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty in 2002 and the Alberta Centennial Medal in 2005.
“Brian is very influential in the contemporary dance world, and he wears several hats in the contemporary dance world in Canada,” says Pamela Anthony, director of Edmonton’s Winter Light festival and an arts journalist who has followed Webb’s career for decades. “Those things come together in someone with a very intense personal-movement language with things to say.”
Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, BWDC was shaped by Webb into Canada’s largest presenter of contemporary dance performances west of Toronto. It continues to grow, with a massive jump in attendance numbers last year. Impressive, since Webb says he only created BWDC “to develop a creative outlet I knew I would need if I was going to stay [in Edmonton].”
While much of BWDC’s vitality sprouted from his team, it also has good timing to thank. “It was an era of huge arts support in Alberta during the [Peter] Lougheed years. Horst Schmidt [the culture minister] had a vision, and we still benefit from that vision,” says Webb, pointing out that longstanding Edmonton arts groups, including Theatre Network, Northern Light and Catalyst theatres and BWDC, were all hatched around the same time three decades ago. Both Schmidt and Jeannie Lougheed wanted to boost Alberta’s artistic community presence in the ‘70s. “That vision has come and gone through the years,” he continues, “but I want to say that the BWDC has done a lot of controversial work over the years, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts has offered BWDC grants every year of its existence. I was never censored.”
Despite federal funding cuts to arts across the board in the past year, Webb says the public’s support and understanding of provincial art is undiminished. “I think we’re realizing more and more that the arts are a really strong component of our culture,” Webb explains. “They are not our [entire] culture, just a component, just as hockey is, just as the work we do is, just as our conservative politics is part of our culture.”
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