Feb102019
Amazing dance studio and great team !
Brian and team/friends (Keren and Brigitt and Diana and …?) all impressed me so much with their technical skill and their wise (deep, effective) teaching and their generosity of spirit. Their passion for and delight in dancing makes Continental Dance Club a top place to go to learn, to create, and to just dance.
P.S. I’ve heard great praise for the food they sometimes serve… 5 Star
Jonathon Neville
A wonderful place to pursue your dancing experience!
Top professional instruction and a warm, friendly and supportive atmosphere allows you to learn in a relaxed setting. A great place to tap any artistic potential that lies inside you. As a teacher of many decades, I know a good thing, when I see it. 👌A pleasure to be associated with people who truly help you to discover your potential. 5 Star
John Loomis
Highly recommended !
5 Star
Elizabeth Sadowska
Highly recommend the Continental !
I’d highly recommend the Continental! …the Torner family who own and operate the hall went well out of their way to make sure we had everything we needed. Brian was attentive enough to have pointed out some details we hadn’t thought of. That saved us some headaches.
To the Torners: Thanks again for the lovely venue and we’ll look forward to our next event there. 5 Star
Stephen Randall
Everyone is super friendly and very hospitable !
The Continental Dance Club is a pleasure to work with. Everyone is super friendly and very hospitable… can’t wait to see what their future holds! 5 Star
Kevin Daywalker Blade Alexander
5 Stars
I like the Club. People I attend with are always pleasant and owners of the club seem eclectic mesh with my personality.
Cristina Patino
Knowledgeable, expressive and fun to be around!
Brian and Daniella are passionate about Dance and Pilates/Barre and it shows in the way they teach. They are knowledgeable, expressive and fun to be around! I recommend them, I LOVE MONDAYS for stretching yourself into learning ballroom dancing! 5 Star
Tony Ferrante
It’s a privilege to teach in the club !!
I’m so happy I found The Continental Dance Club – it’s a privilege to teach in the club !!
Very nice and big space !! Very clean !!
LOVE THE dance floor
Most life loving and enthusiastic owner ever !!!
Silvie Odlevakova
summer internship 2018
My name is Lukas, I am 22 years old, from Germany and visiting Canada this year. I have been in Vancouver since February and I arrived in Toronto the end of June.
One of the best friends of my parents, Ute Spaeth, connected me with Brian Torner , who offered me lodging and work at the Continental dance Club for 6 weeks this summer. I arrived just in time for the opening of the photography exhibition by photographer Angel Torres #URBANMATADOR2 at Mitzi’s Café. This was really exciting for me. Despite the incredible heat during Canada Day weekend, Brian and Angel put on a show and gave a great impression of their caping skills, which I captured on GoPro.
During the first couple of days we were on the move and took a lot of impressive pictures at some scenic places in Toronto, for example in front of the Toronto sign, in the famous Graffiti Alley, the CN Tower and other locations. In the following weeks, we worked on different projects together in and around the Dance Club and the exhibition.
I managed to find time in our busy schedule to visit some other interesting and impressive places in Toronto, for example the Hockey Hall of Fame, Echo Beach (for a one-day rock festival called “Vans Warped Tour”), the BMO Field (games of the Argonauts and the TFC), the Distillery District and many more – Toronto is a huge city which has a lot going on! A real highlight for me was being included in the closing show of #URBANMATADOR2 at Mitzi’s Café playing the bongos and congas as one of TRIO DA CAPO. Angel, Brian & I invited patrons to join an interactive percussion-dance-jam during breakfast/lunch at Mitzi’s Cafe, as a part of the finissage activities.
I want to use this little write-up to sincerely thank Brian, his parents Ernst and Ursula and Angel Torres for letting me be a part of their lives and for being so cordially received. It has been a real pleasure and I will never forget my time here and everything we were able to do together – so again: THANK YOU!
Now my time in Toronto has come to an end and I leave with mixed feelings as I am sad to leave but also excited for the upcoming weeks. My plans include travel along the west coast of the U.S. with two friends from Germany. We will be briefly back in the Toronto area in September before exploring east Canada.
Thanks to everyone who made my time here so memorable!
LUKAS PETSCHNER
CHAKRADANCE soul spa & URBAN RETREAT
THANK YOU Pollyanna Blanco, valued TEAM PARTNER of the Continental Dance Club since 2016, author, REIKI Healer, CHAKRADANCE Facilitator for connecting with me, director of The Continental Dance Club as MEDITATIVE CAPING ARTIST collaborating with Christopher Johnstone for January 27, February 3, March 3 dates of CHAKRADANCE soul spa & URBAN RETREAT. 5 STARS!
Brian Torner
Betty Ann Jordan (ArtInSite) REVIEWS A TORRES Darkness Breathes Light 10×10 Photography Project 2019 gun violence LATINX
August 1, 2019
It is a karmic law that, in the cycle of existence, no action occurs without an equal and opposing reaction. Having lost a nephew to gun violence in 2003, Angel Torres illumines this insight with emotional power in his photographic portrait series In Darkness Breathes Light.
A cinematic treatment of the aftermath of violence, this series could be mistaken for stills from Scorsese film. We see the aftermath of violence reflected in the anguished or shell-shocked faces of bystanders, family members, and concerned community avatars.
The “light” of the title is often lurid and feeble, the colour of blood or the flashing emergency lights atop an ambulance or police car. The darkness, by contrast, is widespread, found in the ominous gloom of back alleys, the graveyard, and most of all, the sorrowing mind of a devastated survivor.
Overall, we see the aftermath of violence as reflected in the faces and bodies of a cross-section of individuals who have been touched by it. Reactions run the gamut from fear and pain to steely, determined resistance.
Impelled by an awareness of the duality of light and dark, a skeletal deaths-head figure represents one aspect of the narrative, the brutally irrevocable outcome of gun violence. Weighing the balance, the portrait of an artist in the studio proposes a more redemptive vision of the renewal that is also engendered by violence.
In the journey of healing and renewal, no change will come about without the unwavering emotionally-charged efforts of the larger community. As we as a society collectively seek solidarity and a way forward in this weaponized time of crisis, artists such as Angel Torres are leaders in the charge.
Betty Ann Jordan, Toronto-based arts writer
ABOUT BETTY ANN JORDAN> https://bettyannjordan.wixsite.com/artinsite/about
A TORRES Photography Darkness Breathes Light FACEBOOK OFFICIAL https://www.facebook.com/TorresTornerARTProjects/?modal=admin_todo_tour
A TORRES 10×10 PORTFOLIO & INTERVIEWS & PRESS https://angeltorres.client-gallery.com/gallery/portrait?fbclid=IwAR1BM4bBUgtX0YmEeaSt-OztQTaPPrW6M5Kt3MikXuOr9A2-PJ6oK0SgMpE
Betty Ann Jordan
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