Featuring works by:

Christine Friday

Sophie Dow

Sandra Lamouche

Samantha Sutherland

Jessica McMann

Jeanette Kotowich

Animikiikwe Couchie-Waukey w/ Bella Waru

w/ Olivia C. Davies; presented w/ Working Class

"I believe that our bodies hold the potential for powerful story-telling. Movement and gesture can connect our bodies to the world around us and facilitate the sharing of our lived experience. In this class, I share a Contemporary Indigenous dance methodology that is intended to open new ways of experiencing the world with breath, impulse, and shape guided by imagination and our connection to earth and sky. We will tap into the material of bone and muscle, mind and body, and presence work to explore the space within our body and surrounding us. Guided improvisations generate intentional gestures sourced from our imaginations and our blood memory. Set sequences will apply basic movement fundamentals and take us into momentum with reach, push, pull, yield, and spiralling action."

Talking Truths: Shaping Our Presence and Remembering Our Past w/ Jeanette Kotowich, Maura García, Christine Friday, Sophie Dow; moderated by Olivia C. Davies; presented w/ DanceHouse, SFU Woodward’s

What does care look like when we create work that holds ancestral spirit? Four Indigenous women from across the country speak about the choreographic impulses that guide their creative process and the cultural heritage informing their practice. We're excited to offer this free, online event for all to experience. Audiences are invited to join this circle live on zoom and be part of an intimate conversation presented as a way to learn, listen, and witness these dance artists speaking their truth.

Dance to Film & Film to Dance w/ Christine Friday

Inspired by land-based performance, participants will gather insight on the creation of dance film Firewater Thunderbird Rising by dance artist and filmmaker Christine Friday, who will share insight and process on how it was created and then evolved from film to stage production.

w/ Starr Muranko; presented w/ Working Class

This class will be a somatic-based practice which will focus on connecting to breath , our bodies in relationship to Mother Earth, and to the land that we dance on. Starr will guide participants through a series of explorations that will facilitate a deeper connection to the stories that we each carry within our bodies. We will work together to unearth these deeper connections that travel through the pathways within our bodies and out into the larger world. Witnessing one another we will layer together the movement we have discovered into a fully embodied experience while honouring who we are; both individually and within the circle.

Talking Truths: Shifting Our Way Forward w/ Sandra Lamouche, Animikiikwe Couchie, Jessica McMann, Samantha Sutherland; moderated by Olivia C. Davies; presented w/ Dance West Network

How does the creative force shift our ways of being in connection with land, memory and ancestral knowledge? Four new dance films by Indigenous women hold a collective truth—that we are always more than what meets the eye. Audiences are invited to witness as we gather in circle to hold space for conversation, reflection, and imagination of our shared future.

Dancing Ancestors w/ Maura García

An invitation for participants to connect with their recent & ancient ancestors and homelands through breath, dance and improvisation. Maura will also share some of her creative process, stories and choreography for her work Ancestor Dances.

w/ Michelle Olson; presented w/ Working Class

"Moving our questions, dancing our answers—our bodies are a site of inquiry. Through structured exercises and open-ended explorations, we will explore the movement patterns that support this inquiry and this will offer us opportunities for expression and sense of well being. This time will be for movement reflection and engaging with how moving our bodies are a part of integrating knowledge and sparking inspiration."

performances by Maura García and Jeanette Kotowich

Movement offering w/ Jeanette Kotowich

"We gather for this workshop to connect with embodied practices related to my research in Métis & Nêhiyaw Cosmology that bridges movement expressions into contemporary dance and performance practices. This is an experiential movement workshop, sharing Indigenous cultural perspectives and contemporary dance approaches. Bring your courageous hearts as we intentionally explore specific values to nourish our practices. Together we will stoke our creative fires with compassion, kindness, bravery & joy. Hiy Hiy!"

Gathering Hope w/ DTES Grandmothers Residency

You're invited to gather with us online for a sharing of our improvisational creation residency that weaves threads of cultural sharing and intergenerational knowledge with Vancouver Downtown Eastside community artists Dalannah Gail Bowen, Rosemary Georgeson, Savannah Walling and Sharon Jinkerson-Brass, along with Sophie Dow, Olivia C. Davies and Rianne Švelnis.

Generously supported by Dumb Instrument Dance, Morrow and the Talking Stick Festival.