Prophecy inspires dance project at Fort York
Choreographer Jera Wolfe explores his Métis heritage in new work titled Miigis
For Toronto-born, Kelowna-based dancer and choreographer Jera Wolfe, the new season is like a homecoming.
In November, Canadian Stage will present Backbone, a Red Sky Performance production Wolfe co-choreographed with New Zealander Thomas Fonua two years ago at the Banff Centre.
More immediately, this week Wolfe will offer local audiences his first fulllength choreography when Red Sky performs the world premiere of Miigis as a free event at Fort York National Historic Site.
“Although I was born in Toronto, I’ve probably spent the least amount of time here,” says the much-travelled Wolfe, who’s 26. “So this is really exciting for me.”
Miigis takes its title from a variety of sea-snail shells, commonly known as cowrie shells, that hold enormous spiritual significance in Anishinaabe culture.
“It’s akin to the Holy Grail,” says Sandra Laronde, Red Sky’s executive and artistic director.
“The miigis has been used for many purposes, but in our tradition we think of it as spirited. It’s not just an object. It’s a guide.”
In its spiritual role, the miigis is closely allied to Anishinaabe migration, westward from the Atlantic Coast toward a place in the interior where, according to the first of the Seven Fires prophecy, the migrating peoples will discover a chosen place “where food (wild rice) grows on water.”
Laronde, who conceived and is directing Miigis, explains that the 50minute work is not a literal interpretation of the prophecy. Nevertheless, the stories associated with it that she has heard since growing up as part of the Teme-Augama-Anishinaabe (People of the Deep Water) community in Temagami certainly helped fuel the piece.
“In my research, what really inter- ested me were catalysts, why things happen; and trade routes and songs and stories.”
The Seven Fires prophecy points toward two drastically different future paths for humanity. One leads to disaster, the other to a sustainable existence that respects Mother Earth.
“This is the choice we face right now,” says Laronde, quickly emphasizing that Miigis is not a heavy message piece.
“At Red Sky we don’t do messages,” she insists.
“We simply want to create work that connects to the spirit.”
Wolfe’s association with the project has its own unique journey. His family moved from Toronto to Cape Breton when he was 2 years old. Six years later they lived in the Laurentians before heading west to Kelowna where he took up breakdance, hip hop and jazz before his mother, as Wolfe puts it, “more or less forced me into ballet class.”
Maternal intuition proved accurate. Wolfe fell in love with ballet and studied in the professional division of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, but still had an eclectic hankering for other styles, including contemporary dance — at age 19, he made an impressive appearance on So You Think You Can Dance Canada.
Later, he spent a year in Germany dancing in the gorilla ensemble of the Disney musical Tarzan, a role that included lots of stage flying and played into Wolfe’s natural love of athletic, high-energy movement.
In his mid-teens, however, Wolfe had begun to connect to his Métis heritage and was drawn to the Banff Centre’s Indigenous Arts program where Laronde served as director from 2008 to just last summer.
Laronde quickly recognized Wolfe’s talent and, over several summers, nudged him encouragingly toward choreography.
“I was so fortunate to get that opportunity, being mentored by Sandra,” says Wolfe. “I never imagined I could enjoy choreographing so much.” Last summer, Wolfe choreographed a work in Winnipeg for his alma mater’s student showcase. As is typical in concert dance, the work was entirely Wolfe’s creation. With Miigis, as earlier with Backbone, he’s choreographing Laronde’s vision of the work.
“It’s a bit of a challenge, but it forced me to explore the story and, in the process, find my own way of connecting with it.”
Wolfe will be among six professionally trained dancers appearing in Miigis, a cast supplemented by 12 traditional dancers and inspired into movement by a six-piece musical ensemble. The music for Miigis will be given as a concert performance on Sunday afternoon.
Miigis, in a slightly shorter form, has already been performed in an August “avant premiere” at North America’s most prestigious dance festival, Jacob’s Pillow, in Becket, Mass.
So far as Laronde has been able to determine, Red Sky’s appearance there was the first by a Canadian Indigenous company in the festival’s 85-year history.
“We had a very energetic response and a long ovation,” says Laronde. “There was a huge audience.”
She’s confident of a similar response in Toronto this week: “People are going to be taking away images from Miigis that will float in the mind for a long time.” Miigis is at Fort York National Historic Site, 250 Fort York Blvd., Friday and Saturday. See redskyperformance.com for information.