
Regina Leader-Post Staff
Carol Anderson’s contributions to the arts community have garnered national attention as this year’s recipient of the Robert Johnston Visionary Artist Award.
Anderson, who grew up in Regina but has worked across the country, was recognized by the Canadian Artists Network (CAN) for a diverse career of 50-plus years as a dancer, teacher, choreographer, writer, movement educator and director.
In 2013, she received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for outstanding contributions to the Canadian modern dance community.
“Carol Anderson is living proof that creativity lives forever,” CAN executive director Scott Walker said in a news release. “She was one of the first mentors in CAN’s Artist to Artist Mentoring Program, she continues to write, to create dances for older artists in which she also performs, and she continues to help seniors keep active. We are thrilled to honour her with the Robert Johnston Award.”
Johnston, one of CAN’s original board members, served as Ontario’s deputy minister of culture and was general manager of the National Ballet of Canada.
The award is bestowed annually upon an artist for “visionary contributions to the arts and broader communities” and whose “exemplary work — produced away from the spotlight of the moment and without fanfare — has been a notable source of inspiration to others in the arts …,” says the release.
Anderson, who studied ballet as a child, started performing in 1970 with Canadian dance pioneer Judy Jarvis and went on to become a founding member of Toronto’s Dancemakers, working with the company from 1974 to 1989 as a dancer, choreographer and artistic director.
The award-winning choreographer has worked with the Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre as well as international assignments, creating dance for the concert stage, TV, theatre, film and non-traditional venues.
Anderson was an associate professor of dance at York University from 2002 to 2016 and is a licensed instructor in Pilates Matwork and other forms of movement exercise, focusing on “senior movers.”
As an author, Anderson has written about Canadian dance and other cultural matters in numerous books, articles, etc., plus two books of poetry and a cultural history/cookbook.
Anderson continues to perform “selectively” in addition to creating concert dance as well as dance/text installations for gardens, galleries and other non-traditional settings. She’s also a participant in the 2024-2025 Citadel Dance Exchange, developing an intergenerational legacy project.
“I am truly honoured to be the 2024 recipient of the Robert Johnston Visionary Artist Award,” Anderson said in the release. “Bob was wonderful, kind and funny, and an expert leader deeply devoted to supporting the arts. In the spirit of his enduring way of fostering creativity, I’m delighted that the Robert Johnston Award is allowing me to commission music for a current creative project.