Coastal Dance Festival honours Indigenous stories, March 2 to 5
Dancers of Damelahamid bring together Indigenous artists from around the globe for 16th annual cultural celebration
Dancers of Damelahamid. Photo by Chris Randle
Dancers of Damelahamid present the 16th annual Coastal Dance Festival from March 2 to 5 at the Anvil Centre
THE 2023 COASTAL DANCE FESTIVAL will honour Indigenous stories, song, and dance from the Northwest Coast, Canada, and around the world. Presented by Dancers of Damelahamid, the 16th annual event is a cultural exchange of global Indigenous communities.
Dancers of Damelahamid is an Indigenous dance company from the Northwest Coast of British Columbia founded on more than five decades of extensive work of song restoration.
This year’s fest is featuring Indigenous artists from New Zealand and Australia; in exchange, Dancers of Damelahamid will take part in New Zealand’s bi-annual Indigenous performance festival, Kia Mau, in June.
Dancers of Damelahamid will also present an exclusive excerpt from their next full-length work, Raven Mother, set to premiere in 2024. The segment, which will be featured in the fest’s Signature Evening Series, grew out of a dance residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in December 2022.
Dakhká Khwáan Dancers. Photo courtesy of the artists
Among the many other highlights this year is the festival debut of New Zealand Indigenous performing artist Rosie Te Rauawhea Belvie.
The Festival’s Signature Evening Series will also include a performance by Paunnakuluit (Inuit), featuring drum dancers and traditional Inuit throat singers Tooma Laisa and Leanna Wilson; Australia’s intergenerational Wagana Aboriginal Dancers, who perform traditional and contemporary dances inspired by the Blue Mountains; Alberta-based Cree multidisciplinary artist and classically trained flutist Jessica McMann; Squamish-based Spakwus Slolem (Skwxwu7mesh), who share their canoe and cedar longhouse culture; Yisya̱’winux̱w (Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw), a group representing many of the 16 tribes of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw people on Northern Vancouver Island; and Rainbow Creek Dancers (Haida), who will offer traditional Haida ceremonial dances.
As part of this year’s by-donation Festival Stage Series are performances by several of the aforementioned Signature Evening Series artists. The daytime weekend performances will include the festival debut of Saskatchewan Métis fiddler Adam Daigneault and the return of dance troupe Chinook Song Catchers (Skwxwu7mesh, Nisga’a); mask-dancing groups Git Hayetsk (Nisga’a, Tsimshian) and Git Hoan (Tsimshian); Xwelmexw Shxwexwo:s, a family ensemble from many First Nations (Stó:lō, Musqueam, Sts:ailes, Snuneymuxw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Skwxwu7mesh); the acclaimed Inland Tlingit Dakhká Khwáan Dancers; and Chesha7 iy lha mens (Skwxwu7mesh, Stó:lō, Tsimsian), a family collective of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters.
Th fest’s Artist Sharing Series consists of two free offerings: March 2, a discussion of the connection of dance to ancestral lands; and March 3, the connection of dance to ancestral language.
“Our programming provides a platform for cultural sharing to deepen our understanding of our festival artists’ histories and sources of inspiration, in celebration of the ongoing cultural revitalization and resiliency of so many communities around the world,” festival executive and artistic director Margaret Grenier says in a release. “We are honoured for the opportunity to receive this ancestral knowledge from artists close to home and globally, and, in turn, to share our own traditions with the people of New Zealand later this year.”
Dancers of Damelahamid. Photo by Chris Randle
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