Captures larger shift
took her cues from what was happening with Northwest Coast visual art, which had begun to apply an Indigenous world-view to various forms of contemporary art, to international acclaim.
“So much work had been done in developing Northwest Coast visual design over the last couple of decades, but that really hadn’t taken place in our dance training,” observes the North Van–based artist.
Just as Northwest Coast art is now celebrated in mainstream contemporary galleries, works like Flicker and Mînowin are now being shown at contemporary-dance festivals and venues. It’s fitting, then, that Northwest Coast design plays such a huge part in Mînowin. Euro-Cree multidisciplinary artist Andy Moro makes formlines dance and glow via projections throughout the work. Elsewhere, collaborator Sammy Chien has helped the dancers use motionactivated digital projections that move across the floor.
The hybrid that the team has assembled over multiple residencies here and at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity feels cutting-edge; the digital magic conjures everything from white-wolf packs to orca pods. But it’s all still rooted in Grenier’s own ancestors’ interdisciplinary blend of dance, song, story, and masks. “There’s a fullness in it that people feel when that is shared, because it’s such a heart-driven work,” Grenier says.
Yet no matter how far Dancers of Damelahamid push the form of Northwest Coast dance, they are constantly checking in with elders— even as the work tours the world. “We’re really grounded in intergenerational practice, and that’s the core of everything we do,” says Grenier, whose son Nigel dances in the company. “And it’s equally important to have elders and mentors as it is to have young people in the project. It really gives weight to the importance of why we do this.”
Mînowin is at the Cultch Historic Theatre from Wednesday to Sunday (November 20 to 24).