1930s

attends Toronto Conservatory of Music for seven years

1944

properties manager for the Belmont Theatre Group's Watch on the Rhine

1946

February 6 & 8: performs in Rita Warne's The Snow Queen ballet pantomime

June 26-27: choreographs and performs in Set Your Clock at U235 presented at Central High School of Commerce; show is seen by Jewish Folk Choir conductor Emil Gartner who informs Nancy about the Neo Dance Theatre

Fall: joins Neo Dance Theatre

1947

September: open house presentation in an unidentified gymnasium where she performs Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child with dancers Shirley Fields, Sylvia Lerman and Gussie Feldman

Fall: begins teaching a Children's Creative Dance Group at Holy Blossom Temple which she continues through 1949

October: presents Motherless Child again at Roberts Gallery

December 16: Y Christmas Fireside Lounge where she presents Accordian Polka

December 24: presents a solo work, Chee Lai, at a Christmas party at 585 Bathurst St.

1948

February 3: Y Branch membership meeting where she presents a group work called Late Date

February 10: YWCA Creative Dance Club presents a social evening of Dance Group Selections (Chee Lai, Late Date, Awakening of Man), as well as an art exhibit and films on Creative Dance, Leningrad Music Hall and AY Jackson (Note: Awakening of Man inspired by Primus and Dunham work)

Holy Blossom Junior Creative Dance Group presents The Story of Moses, a dance pantomime in five acts

Spring: teaches creative dance at the McGill St. YWCA and ballroom at the College St. YMCA

Summer: teaches at the UJPO's Camp Naivelt presenting three performances, work(s) unknown

1949

March 1-5: Second Canadian Ballet Festival at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre where Neo Dance Theatre performs Cynthia Barrett's Song of David

March 22: gives a concert in Toronto attended by St. Andrew MPP J.B. Salsberg who writes a letter of congratulations

April 13-14: Nancy and Neo Dance Theatre perform as guests for Lawrence Hindle's dance recital of pupils from Riverside and Forest Avenue Schools in Port Credit (west of Toronto); Hindle is an associate of Neo Dance Theatre; Neo Dance Theatre performs Nancy's Dark Cry as well as Experiment on a Theme co-choreographed by Nancy and Jack Medhurst

begins teaching folk and social dance for the YM-YWHA as well as taking over Rhea Shulman's Modern Dance Group

October 14: dance school season begins at UJPO with folk dance taught by Ivy Krehm, ballet by Betty Oliphant, modern by Cynthia Barrett and Nancy Lima; Neo Dance Theatre's name has changed to New Dance Theatre (NDT)

December 20: YMHA Modern Dance Group lecture demonstration and film presentation

1950

May 1: Massey Hall Benefit where NDT performs with Jewish Folk Choir and Negro Choral Society in Di Naye Hagode and The Lonesome Train, choreography by Saida Gerrard (Gerrard is supposed to perform but an injury prevents her and Nancy dances the role instead)

May 28: New Dance Theatre school recital at UJPO auditorium

October 14: Ballet Panorama fundraiser organized by Ontario Division of Canadian Ballet Festival Association, New Dance Theatre presents a section of That We May Live co-choreographed by Nancy and Alec Rubin

November 20-25: Third Canadian Ballet Festival at Montreal's His Majesty's Theatre where New Dance Theatre performs That We May Live

1951

Nancy's son Christopher is born this year

May 17: NDT gives first annual spring concert at Hart House Theatre presenting Tsung Ko Sun Ho by Nancy Lima, Spanish Suite by Theresa Chapman, Introduction and Fugato by Tom Lima, Hearts and Flowers by Laya Lieberman, El Yunah by Ivy Krehm, Salud by Nancy Lima, Oh Fickle Love by Nancy Lima and Credo by Nancy Lima

1952

May 5-8: Fourth Canadian Ballet Festival at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre where New Dance Theatre performs the collective work Heroes of Our Time, choreography credits given to Nancy Lima Dent, Laya Lieberman and Marcel Chojnacki

1953

May 22-23: New Dance Theatre performs with The Montreal Jewish Folk Choir at Mount Royal High School where they present Lysistrata by Nancy Lima and Marcel Chojnacki

1955

April 9: NDT presents Indian Woman's Lament at Hart House, commissioned by New Frontiers Concert

May 29: NDT gives annual school recital

Fall: moves to Sudbury to set up schools there and in nearby Garson

1956

May 24: Garson recital

June 1: Sudbury recital

1957

May 17: Garson recital

June 7: Sudbury recital

Summer: attends Connecticut College School of the Dance

Fall: moves back to Toronto

1958

January-May: teaches ballet and modern dance for the Don Mills Community Association

June 5: Adult Demonstration Workshop for Lillian Palmer's club at Bathurst Manor

September: re-opens a Toronto school working out of the New Play Society studio at 88 Bloor Street East

September: begins new season of ballet and modern dance classes for the Don Mills Community Association

plans evolve for the building of a new studio near Summerhill station; Nancy wants this to be the Lima Centre of Fine Arts with two studios, dressing rooms and a gallery for Tom Lima's paintings; she also envisions this centre to have "Sunday Evening Salons" in which experimental dance works will be performed; this building becomes Janet Baldwin's studio at 9 Price Street where Nancy Lima Dent also conducts classes

1959

January 12: Demonstration at Faywood Home and School Association in Downsview (north of Toronto)

January-May: continues classes for Don Mills Community Association

February 9: Demonstration in Don Mills

May 24: Evening of Dance at the New Play Society; first performance of the newly formed Nancy Lima Dent Dance Theatre (NLDDT); presents the following works by Nancy Lima Dent: The Magic Cup, Once Upon A Time, Ritual, Bewitched, Games, Concerto Grosso and Bedlam at Midnight; after intermission the Japanese Classical Dancers perform under the direction of Evelyn Fujimoto

June 20-August 25: works as modern dance teacher at Camp Manitou-wabing in its inaugural year

August 14-16: Camp Manitou-wabing performances include Nancy's The Many Faces of Man

October 19: Demonstration at YWCA

1960

February 25: Festival Evening of Modern Dance at the Concert Auditorium, 1021 College Street, Toronto; NLDDT performs Walls by Nadine Hollow and the following works by Nancy Lima Dent: Bewitched, Concerto Grosso, Glory Glory Halleluja, Will No One Hear and The Planets, the Void, Man

March 3: Nancy Lima Dent performs a solo on a programme of the Japanese Classical Dancers, venue unknown

May 21: Nancy Lima Dent presents Modern Dance: Focus Stage at the New Play Society studio; Cliff Collier dances as a guest artist; part one is called Modern Dance and features class demonstrations by Nancy's Elementary/Intermediate class and the Intermediate/Advanced students; part two is called Focus Stage and features the following works: Heartbeat for Freedom by Catherine Sadick; Three Part Solo by Shirley Whittaker, Janice Lait and Mona King; Orbit by Nancy Lima Dent; Unity In Diversity by Sylva Spikes; Concerto Grosso by Nancy Lima Dent

1961

April 25-26: Second Modern Dance Festival at the University of Toronto's Hart House Theatre; NLDDT performs Sonata by Sylva Spikes, Song of Faith by Merle Lister, Lullabye by Esther Taub, Shenandoah by Nadine Hollow and Merle Lister, and The Land by Nancy Lima Dent (5 sections of The Land: Land of the Silver Birch, Golden Corn, Black Fly, She's Like A Swallow, This Land Is Our Land)

December 12: Caligula opens, Nancy choreographs this Actor's Theatre production directed by Brian Petchey

1962

January: NLDDT begins a series of benefit performances for hospitals and retirement homes putting together a programme of modern and folk works such as Sea Maiden, Swallow, Lullabye and Goofy

January 27: Benefit Performance at The Hospital for Sick Children

February 11: Benefit Performance at Jewish Home for the Aged

April 15: Benefit Performance at Hamilton Jewish Community Centre

May 15-17: NLDDT presents the "children who wait in the dusk" at Centre Stage, 80 Bloor St. East

July 11-21: Nancy choreographs Archibald MacLeish's JB directed by John Turnbull for Centre Stage Summer Theatre; cast includes Brian Petchey, Joyce Campion and Vivian Smith Rae who had performed in Nancy's "the children who wait in the dusk" (Vivian appears to have worked with Nancy prior to the JB performances); some of Nancy's regular dancers also perform in JB such as Patricia Illingworth and Esther Taub

July 26-28: Nancy attends University of Toronto Orff Conference on Elementary Music Education

August 7-12: Nancy teaches for the Nickel Belt Ballet Company in Sudbury

Fall/Winter 1962/63: attends television course at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute

1963

March 16-17: Canadian Modern Dance Festival at Toronto's Bloor Street Jewish Community Centre; includes an adjudication by Walter Sorrell; NLDDT does not perform

May 26: presents a creative dance workshop at the Scarborough YWCA

Fall/Winter 1963/64: attends second part of television production course at Ryerson

October 22-December 10: attends "Working With Groups" course taught by her long-time friend Eleanor Dixon Reesor

1964

March 24: Nancy produces television project "Elements of the Dance" as part of her course at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute

May 23-24: Creative Modern Dance Recital for Scarborough YWCA (Nancy held modern dance classes for children on Saturdays and for women on Tuesday evenings); Lorne Hall, Judy Jarvis, Alena Kogler and Sue Hubbs appeared courtesy of the Bianca Rogge Studio of Dance

1965

Nancy begins to search for other work

February 15: Nancy's "Elements of the Dance" airs on CBC television's Take 30

March: gives an Orff movement class to teachers of the Scarborough Board of Education

April 1965 through
Sept. 1968

Nancy takes a sabbatical from dance due to an operation in which she received metal cartilages in the joints of both big toes. The problem with her feet had progressed to the point where she was teaching sitting down. During that time she worked as a Programme Supervisor for the Forest Hill Recreation Department and then the Canadian Red Cross as an organizer of blood donor clinics.

December: begins searching for work in the area of educational television but nothing turns up

1966

January 27: submits a letter of recommendation for Judy Jarvis to the Canada Council regarding the arts scholarship that allowed Jarvis to finish her Wigman School training in Germany

1968

January 16-March 13: offers a Teachers' Course for the Metropolitan Separate School Board

March: subbed in for Cynthia Barrett's class at the YM-YWHA

September 7: gives a creative dance class for the B'nai Brith Youth Organization

Fall: begins teaching again at Centennial College, Humber College, North York Parks and Recreation (Norman Ingram and Yorkview Public Schools); teaches through to the end of the 1969 school year

1969

January: teaches during winter sessions at Centennial College, Humber College, North York Parks and Recreation (Norman Ingram and Yorkview Public Schools)

May 12: North York Parks and Recreation presents a Dance Class Workshop at Norman Ingram Public School

July 15-August 21: Nancy teaches at Centennial College Summer School of the Arts

Fall: begins new session at Centennial College

October 6-April 14, 1970: teaches courses at University Settlement House (5-year-olds to adults), which includes a small group of performers who do community performances

December 13: Thursday night University Settlement group performs at the Bathurst and Dundas Public Library

December 17: Thursday night University Settlement group performs at the University Settlement Music School Christmas and Hannukah party

October 19: Demonstration at YWCA

1970

Winter: teaches at Centennial College and University Settlement House

January 23: Thursday night group from University Settlement House performs at Ogden Public School

Fall: teaches at Centennial College

1971

teaches at University Settlement Group and Centennial College

1972

February 11-12: gives a Modern Dance and Creative Movement Workshop at Confederation College in Thunder Bay

1973

makes an application for a Local Initiatives Program grant for her

October 2-December 17: "New Directions with Music, Dance and Drama" program begins with the SEED students who are given free space by the YM-YWHA on the condition the students will perform in a choral cantata the following May

October 17-January 23, 1974: "New Directions" at Earlscourt Children's Home for Emotionally Disturbed Children

October 19-November: "New Directions" at the Champlain School for the Retarded

December 17: LIP grant approved

1974

"New Directions" project continues through to June 14, 1974

January: "New Directions" at Gateway Public School where Nancy works with remedial arts students and perceptually handicapped

January: "New Directions" at Palmerston Public School where Nancy works with remedial arts students and perceptually handicapped

February 5-April 6: "New Directions" at Warden Woods Community Centre where Nancy works with underprivileged children, adults and seniors

April 26: Nancy is notified that LIP grants have been discontinued

May 25: Toronto Jewish Folk Choir presents the cantata Oifn Fidl (The Fiddle) with Nancy Lima Dent's choreography; dancers come from Lois Smith Dance Studio, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute Dance Department, Boris Volkoff Dance Studio and York University

1976

June: makes an application to Wintario for a theatre arts project

1977

November: publishes "The Portrait of Cliff Collier as a Young Man" in Dance Ontario News

October 3-December 3, 1977: Nancy conducts Valley Park Jr. High Theatre Arts Project funded by a Wintario grant

1981

October: approached by Jill Officer of the University of Waterloo Dance Program to send information regarding Nancy's life and the Neo/New Dance Theatre for a Canadian dance database project

1984

March 27: appears as a guest lecturer in Katie Adelman's dance history class at the University of Waterloo Dance Program

1986

participates in the ENCORE! ENCORE! project resulting in the reconstruction of Heroes of Our Time

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Lima Dent Exhibition Curator: Amy Bowring
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