Dance partners and beyond: some of Elizabeth Langley’s friends and collaborators found in her archives

Langley was first hired to teach two three-credit modern dance courses as part of the Performing Arts division in 1978 and the popularity of these classes quickly led to the establishment of a bachelor's degree in choreography, the first of its kind in Canada at the time. She was promoted to Full-Professor in 1995 before her retirement in 1997 from Concordia. She however remained active, developing a very personal style of physical theater, exploring the possibilities of dramaturgy and presenting works in Cuba, China, Türkiye, Tonga, Australia. She was awarded the Prix Jacqueline-Lemieux of the Conseil des Arts in 1998 and received the Order of Canada in 2022. 

We received the Langley materials in April 2026.  Langley had organized her records very well, making the processing of it smooth and easy. When processing archival materials, I am often looking for recurrences and connections I can make between records within the fonds or with other fonds, beyond the obvious ones. One of the archivists’ goals is to ensure that researchers have as much context as possible, as archival fonds are often incomplete, and gaps can sometimes be filled by consulting records located elsewhere within the fonds or in other fonds. Also, I personally feel what piques my curiosity could also interest our researchers.  

The first recurring name I noticed was Rainsford. Paul Rainsford Towner is an Australian-born dancer, choreographer, and director. He is the artistic director behind the Melbourne theatre company Chapel of Change.

He and Langley met at the end of the 1990’s. They would collaborate on different projects in the following years, the first one being Journal of Peddle Dreams, ‘an expressionist work inspired by the life and writing of Eve Langley’, according to the production’s programme.

Journal of Peddle Dreams was the culmination of Langley’s years of research on the works of the Australian Novelist, but also on Oscar Wilde – the fonds includes various research notes and reference documentation on both literary figures. A study of gender and isolation, Journal of Peddle Dreams was presented in Australia in the summer of 2003 and in Montreal, by the Studio 303, in the fall of the same year. Rainsford also photographed Langley to promote the Journal of Peddle Dreams.

Langley and Rainsford would collaborate again in 2006 on Intimacy, a piece choreographed by Langley and directed by Rainsford. They would meet for another project later in 2013, as testify these meeting notes found in Langley’s fonds. 

Another recurring name and frequent Langley collaborator is the artist and photographer Ormsby K. Ford.  In 1976, he photographed Langley while she was interviewing Ballets de Monte Carlo for CBC in Ottawa, and he did a whole photoshoot with her in 1978.

Ford photographed Langley’s performances all through the 1980’s, notably Improvisation en forme de sonata II in 1981, Gestus ‘3’4 in 1984, 7 Scenes in 4 minutes in 1985, and in the 1990’s, including The Non-Deep-Meaning Show in 1995.

Also a recurring photographer for the Department of Contemporary Dance at Concordia, Ormsby K. Ford is credited as a photographer in some of Concordia’s yearbooks and Thursday’s Report between 1982 and 1996.

The last person I want to mention here is one that hails from Langley’s private life sphere, a friend who had a deep and lasting impact on her life. Pearl Reynolds and Langley met while studying at the Martha Graham School in New York City in the early 1960’s.  

As per a note by Langley accompanying the Reynolds materials: 

We met at the Martha Graham School. The political climate, as it was, presented us with many tests and challenges but we prevailed […]. She was an excellent teacher and profoundly transformative performer. I am changed from having known her. 

Reynolds would become a Broadway dancer, choreographer and dance teacher. In addition, the fonds includes photographs of Reynolds teaching dance in the 1980’s, taken by Langley.

Elizabeth Langley has been dancing for more than 70 years now. Although she presented many solo one-woman shows during her inspiring career, Elizabeth Langley’s dance practice was often a collaborative one and, of course, more peers and collaborators could have been added here: Sashar Zarif, Denise Fujiwara, Thea Patterson or Peter Trosztmer are amongst the other names someone researching the rich Elizabeth Langley fonds could stumble upon. 

Please write to archives@concordia.ca to make an appointment to consult the Elizabeth Langley fonds.

- Eric Côté, Archivist