Archive for the ‘Events & Performances’ Category

Alianait is presenting a concert featuring the April Verch Band and local favourites Errol Fletcher & Jamal Shirley, plus the Iqaluit Fiddlers. April Verch is an internationally renowned and multiple award-winning Canadian fiddler, singer, songwriter and stepdancer from the Ottawa Valley.

Tickets are $22 in advance ($12 for youth 13 to 18) available at Arctic Ventures, and $25 at the door ($15 for youth 13 to 18).  All Alianait shows are FREE for elders and kids 12 and under accompanied by an adult.

The concert will take place on Saturday, May 26th at Nakasuk School starting at 7:30 pm.

Heather Daley, Executive Director
867-979-6468, ext 3
heather@alianait.ca

.

The fifth annual Ode’min Giizis Festival is gearing up for June 20-24 in Peterborough Ontario. The cast is spectacular (see here).

The Ode’min Giizis Festival is presented by O’Kaadenigan Wiingashk (OKW) and Public Energy in Peterborough, Ontario. From June 20-24 2012, Indigenous artists, including musicians, performers, visual artists, writers, storytellers, artisans, and dancers will gather to expand our imagination and dreams while pushing the boundaries of their art forms.
.

We’ve got them listed on our Calendar. Here are the links:

• A Tribe Called Red CD Release Party – Thur May 3, Toronto, ON.
• Indigenous Afterdark w/ A Tribe Called Red, et. al – Fri May 4, Vancouver, BC.
• Cris Derksen and Kristi Lane Sinclair – touring, first stop Tues May 15, Vancouver, BC.

.

King Lear, or Native Lear as it’s more commonly known, is currently playing at The National Arts Centre (Ottawa, ON) May 8-26. This post cherry-picks from Kevin Loring on Native Earth Performing Arts’ blog HokaHeh: Augie’s Dream

When the Ecstasy of  Rita Joe opened at the Vancouver Playhouse in 1967, after a pregnant pause, Canadian Theatre was born. It was at this time that, Actor/Director/Producer John Juliani approached his dear friend August “Augie” Schellenberg about how wonderful Chief Dan George would be as King Lear; and the idea of an all-Aboriginal Lear was born.

They asked Chief Dan George if he’d do it.
But Dan George said No.
We asked him, why not? It’s a good part.
Dan laughed and shook his head, Too many lines, too many lines.

-  August Schellenberg

More...

Spring Training Intensive in Contemporary & Traditional Aboriginal Dance, Story & Song
presented by Raven Spirit Dance & The Dance Centre

May 25th – June 2nd, 2012 in Vancouver, BC

Join us for a 9-Day intensive dance program full of classes, workshops, artist talks & professional development that focus on Contemporary & Traditional Aboringal Dance, Story & Song. Raven Spirit’s training and mentorship activities are formulated with the intent of providing artists the opportunity to make work in the creative field, as cultural workers fully invested in communicating, creating, performing and disseminating work as broadly as possible. The intent is to develop training opportunities for the emerging Indigenous community of artists, address break between the professional realm and training programs, foster the creation of critical skills, and ultimately work towards a stronger community and better developed pool of performers.

For more information, to register, or to see a class schedule please visit the RSD website!
See Schedule and Instructor Biographies!

Email: info@ravenspiritdance.com or Phone 604-646-0010

Latest: Can’t attend the whole 9 day training but want to experience some exciting new dance styles? Buy a 4-Class Card for only $20! (reg. $50). RSD still has spots left for this promotion to the first 20 people!

Vancouver Moving Theatre & DTES Heart of the City Festival in partnership with the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre invite you to witness

Storyweaving

May 11-13 & 18-20, 2012
Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre
Weaving First Nation Memories from the
Past into the Future

Twining together stories, poems and personal memories
With oral histories woven from cultural teachings,
West Coast dances and the ancient bone game of Slahal.

A cast of aboriginal artists, elders, dancers and Downtown Eastside community members help an old man- The Old One – open up to his life’s journey, his regrets and hopes, through the teachings of the medicine wheel. His journey home gives voice to experiences of the urban aboriginal community, to voices not heard, to lives left behind. Over the course of the Old One’s journey, ancestral memories emerge of the history of the Coast Salish area shared by many peoples.  Songs, dances and stories are shared about traditional roles, protocols and ways of seeing and doing.

For more information visit: http://vancouvermovingtheatre.com

Picked this gem up via Facebook via Full Circle via Planet Indigenous (loves the world wide web). On Planet Indigenous’s News Blog, Candice Jacko describes her experience at this year’s Talking Stick Festival:

I had the great pleasure to visit the beautiful city of Vancouver for the 11th annual Talking Stick Festival. The Talking Stick Festival is a 14-day event, created in 2001 by Full Circle: First Nations Performance, to provide a unique showcase and forum for talented Aboriginal artists and to introduce both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal audiences to contemporary Aboriginal artistic practice. This year it was held from February 20 to March 4 but I only attended for the first week.

I arrived in Vancouver on Family Day (although it wasn’t Family Day in BC) for the Taste of the Festival Gala Opening. The night started off with Spakwus Slolem (Eagle Song Dancers) whose members are from Squamish Nation whose traditional lands span across the lower mainland of BC which includes Vancouver. They welcomed the festival and audience to their traditional territory and blessed the floor with their traditional dances. This was the first time that I’ve seen West Coast dance and really enjoyed watching; their culture is so different from what I’m accustomed to seeing from Anishnawbe peoples. The next performance was an excerpt from the play Metis Mutt, an autobiographical one-man show, performed by Sheldon Elter, which recounts a young man’s coming of age through difficult family and cultural circumstances. Sheldon is a great actor and I enjoyed the short excerpt so I was looking forward to watching the full play the following day. There were also other short performances by Kinnie Star, Zaccheus Jackson, Bear Witness (from a Tribe Called Red), Git Hayetsk (another West Coast dance group) and the Eastern Sky Ambassadors.
The next day began with the full performance of Metis Mutt. Again, Sheldon is a great actor who played a few different characters and easily transitioned from one character to another.

Wednesday night, I went to the Café Deux Soleils for a spoken word event titledFrom Talking Stick to the Microphone hosted by Zaccheus Jackson. I really enjoyed Zaccheus as a host and a spoken word performer. He also encouraged a few youth from his poetry group to perform as well.

Later on this week the programme was packed with another theatre play titled In a World Created by a Drunken God written by Drew Hayden Taylor and performed by Trevor Duplessis and Kurt Spenrath. There were many great workshops, a reading with Paul Seesequasis for his new book Tobacco Wars, a music project with Kinnie Starr, Pacific Curls, Dave Larocque and the Borealis String Quartet. The Talking Stick also programmed late nights; I attended the late event on the Friday and had the chance to see musician Wayne Lavalle perform. I had the pleasure of meeting him afterwards and he is very nice and modest.

Sunday was my last day in Vancouver and I attended the “Celebration of a Pow Wow”. One of the festival staff had mentioned to me earlier in the week that this was the first time they planned a pow wow during their festival. I really enjoyed my time at the pow wow before my flight home. Each head dancer had their chance to show their dance and talk about the history of that dance. They also had a Snake Dance, which is the first time that I saw this at a pow wow. The host explained that a snake dance was a dance specifically for youth/children.

Overall, I had a great time in Vancouver and enjoyed the Talking Stick Festival. I would like to thank Harbourfront Centre for the wonderful opportunity to attend the festival. I’d also like to thank the Full Circle staff, Margo Kane and Nyla Carpentier for their warm welcome to the festival.

Chi-miigwetch (Thank you!)

fullcircleperformance.ca

SCREENING AT HOTDOCS: The Language of Love
Featuring Stephen Lytton
Directed by Marie Clements
A frog girl films production

Friday, May 4th – 9:30 PM TIFF Bell Lightbox 1
Saturday, May 5th- 1:15PM Isabel Bader Theatre
Sunday, May 6th- 6:30PM Cumberland 3

The Language of Love is an eleven minute documentary featuring writer/actor/activist Stephen Lytton’s raw and poetic articulation of the fourteen years he endured in the residential school system — a child’s survival redefines itself as the artful embodiment of a man. The Language of Love was commissioned by The Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival under their Building Bridges project as part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Commemoration Initiative.

Photo by Shelley Niro

Look at this pic! Go see TransMigration!

Inside Invention Artist Salon

TransMigration, Inspired by Norval Morrisseau’s life & iconic paintings!
May 10 – 13, 2012

Kaha:wi Dance Theatre (KDT) will bring together an incredible cast of performers for the upcoming world premiere of TransMigration, a co-production with Harbourfront Centre’s Planet IndigenUS as part of the NextSteps11/12 Series. This new production runs May 10-13 2012 at Harbourfront Centre’s Fleck Dance Theatre (207 Queens Quay West, Toronto). All performances begin at 8:00 pm, on Sunday at 3 p.m.

Tickets: $35 (adult), $15 (student), $20-$22.50 (senior)
Packages: $18-$20 (senior package), $25-$30 (Nextstep)
Group discounts (10 people +) are available by calling Harbourfront Centre’s Group Sales Coordinator, Daniel Palmo at 416-973-4000 ext. 4856.

For Tickets, call Harbourfront Centre’s Box Office at 416-973-4000 or visit their website.

Kaha:wi Dance Theatre and Harbourfront Centre will be hosting our “Artist Salon” Inside Invention on April 26 at 7:30 at the Lakeside Terrace.  For an incredible insight into contemporary indigenous art and personal look at Norval Morrisseau’s work and life join the discussion with guest speakers: curator, scholar, writer and media artist Steven Loft and poet, scholar, inspirational speaker and television personality Duke Redbird. Our informal look into the work-in-process includes excerpt presentation of developing choreography.

More...

Nyla Carpentier

Raven Spirit Dance & Nyla Carpentier presents: Pow-Wow Bootcamp no. 2
Sundays April 1 – May 13, 2012 from 11am-1pm at the Dance Centre in Vancouver!

Work up a sweat, build stamina & muscles dancing to the fast heartbeat of the drum…

As part of our ongoing training and artist development workshops we are pleased to present again, Traditional Pow-Wow Dancer, Nyla Carpentier for this active, fun, dance filled bootcamp!

Basic steps and formations will be shown as well as the history & origins of dance styles. Please dress in comfortable clothing & be ready to work up a sweat while dancing to the rhythm of the drum. No experience necessary. Ages 16+.

Rates: Full 7 week program ~ $65, Drop-in class ~ $15 (pre-registration or pay at door)
FREE class on April 29th in celebration of International Dance Week!

Dates: Sundays April 1 – May 13th, 2012, Time: 11am-1pm
Location: Scotiabank Dance Centre at 677 Davie Street
Registration: Please email martine@ravenspiritdance.com

Nyla Carpentier has 25 years experience of Pow-Wow dancing and will guide each class with a natural flow of warm up, pow-wow cardio then cool down, & will build upon pow-wow basics, themes and history as well as the origins of different dance styles. We will build towards the final class where all participants can dance for at least 6 songs with no stopping, having discovered their own style of movement and fitness through Pow-Wow.

For more information and to register, contact us at:
Email: martine@ravenspiritdance.com
Website: www.ravenspiritdance.com