In Memoriam

Born in 1945 on a farm near Viceroy Saskatchewan, Amelia Itcush received dance training in Regina. A teenage studio photo of her arabesque reveals an effortless sense of line. Years later, her teacher Nehemia Cohen, originator of the Mitzvah Technique – the soil from whence the Itcush Method sprang – put it succinctly:

“When Amelia dances, everything is in the right place.”

Leaving a skeptical family for Winnipeg and Toronto, she was twice rejected by the National Ballet of Canada. After some hand to mouth living, she was discovered by Patricia Beatty and, in 1966, invited into the Graham inspired New Dance Group of Canada (later Toronto Dance Theatre). At Connecticut College, age 22, she encountered Graham, Limon and other American modern dance greats firsthand. She was “devastated” by the power and depth of their work, saying:

Amelia was a Canadian modern dance legend. Audience members tell of an unforgettable, riveting presence reminiscent of a wild animal. Spare, long boned, fluid, androgynous, feral, they say. As a Toronto dance student, Vancouver choreographer Jennifer Mascall recalls seeing the dance troupe enter parties - a “wild, intense artist tribe at the centre of everything.” These were seminal, exciting years for modern dance and the arts in Canada.

Her career was marred by ever-increasing struggle with injury and pain that drove her to ceaselessly explore new approaches.

During the 1970’s in Toronto, M. Nehemia-Cohen was a crucial influence; Amelia was eventually the first teacher to be certified in M. Cohen-Nehemia's Mitzvah Technique. Through Cohen, her work descends from two giants of somatic research, Feldenkrais and Alexander. Like Amelia, these groundbreakers were propelled by injury to overturn existing notions of postural correction primarily through the use of pedestrian movement range and hands-on interaction with the student/client, pioneering somatic practices internationally.

A lifelong fierce researcher, Itcush ultimately returned to the prairie and turned an old church into a research base in rural Saskatchewan. Students speak of the grain elevator and stark horizon as a presence in their study.

Amelia was a visual, kinaesthetic communicator and keen observer of animals and nature; she learned from eclectic sources and discovered affinities and exchanges with First Nations healing practises, Asian medicine, Japanese culture and the principles of martial arts. Her favourite book was Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Amelia focussed on the natural balancing forces of the body; her goal was the body’s “opening” - a living, constant state of fall, shift and release. Tightness anywhere in the system passes from one place in the body to another, interfering with range of motion, breath, and ultimately the health of internal organs.

She communicated hands on, spoke plainly, and used pedestrian movement range, to render the potentially life-changing results and significant application to injury and chronic pain accessible to all bodies. She developed, recorded, drew and evolved her curriculum, ceaselessly refining exercises and accompanying her courses with manual-style materials.

The Remembering Amelia Project has offered classes from some of the teachers, artists, educators, mental and physical health workers (in Canada and Japan) who inherit Amelia’s work.

We know that her discoveries and influence live and continue to spread in the world through the cells and the daily breath of these practitioners. And how much we will miss her.