Miriam Adams

Miriam Elaine Adams (née Weinstein; born January 29, 1944) is a dancer, choreographer, and dance archivist from Toronto. After performing with the National Ballet of Canada, she co-founded 15 Dance Laboratorium with her husband Lawrence Adams. It was the first theatre to present experimental dance in Toronto. In 1983, Miriam and Lawrence launched Encore! Encore! to document the works of six Canadian choreographers from the 1940s and 1950s, and in 1986 they launched a centre for archiving dance and publishing books called Arts Inter-Media Canada/Dance Collection Danse (DCD).

Early life and training

Miriam Adams was born in Toronto on January 29, 1944. She studied with Betty Oliphant and became a student at the National Ballet School in 1960,

Early career and 15 Dance Lab

From 1963 to 1969, Adams performed with the National Ballet of Canada

After leaving the National Ballet of Canada, Adams taught at the Lois Smith School of Dance. In 1972, Adams and Lawrence formed a dance company called 15 Dancers and the first to present experimental dance in Toronto. In 1974, Adams and Lawrence incorporated 15 Dance Lab as a not-for-profit charitable organisation. They received various grants for their organisation which allowed them to pay artists 80% of the box office revenue, plus a fee for performances. She choreographed Another Nutcracker in 1973, which parodied The Nutcracker. In 1975 she satirised the defection of Mikhail Baryshnikov from the Soviet Union in a video called Sonovovitch.

Publishing and archiving

From 1976 to 1978, Adams and Lawrence published the tabloid Spill, edited by Elizabeth Chitty. In 1979, they published a dance photography book with visual artist Lynn Rotin entitled Photographs Dance. From 1980 to 1983, they published a monthly newspaper called Canadian Dance News. The choreographers were Gweneth Lloyd of Winnipeg, Jeanne Renaud and Françoise Sullivan of Montreal, Nesta Toumine of Ottawa, and Boris Volkoff and Nancy Lima Dent of Toronto. The couple worked with Lawrence's brother, David Adams, to reconstruct Boris Volkoff’s The Red Ear of Corn. Their production, There's Always Been Dance incorporated excerpts and images of these reconstructed works and was performed in Vancouver at Expo 86. They also renamed their organisation Arts Inter-Media Canada / Dance Collection Danse (DCD), establishing it as an archive, museum and publisher.

Personal life

Adams married Lawrence Adams in 1967.