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Kaha:wi Dance Theatre Newsletter JULY 2017

Living Ritual

International Indigenous Performing Arts Festival 2017

Living Ritual takes place on July 25-27, 2017 in Tkaronto at Harbourfront Centre’s Fleck Dance Theatre located on the ancestral territory of the Onkwehon:we, Anishaanbe and Huron-Wendat. Kaha:wi Dance Theatre acknowledges the spirits of the ancestors, animals and the land in the Dish with One Spoon Treaty lands.

  • International Indigenous Artists
  • Evening Performances
  • Engaging Daytime Dialogue & Embodied Sharing

Registration: 

FULL FESTIVAL PASS - $100
DAY PASS - $50
MASTER CLASS - $10/CLASS
Email: info@kahawidance.org  Phone: 416-923-7373
 

Evening Performance Only:

July 25, 26, 27 @ 8:00PM - $20/TICKET
Harbourfront Centre Box Office: 416-973-4000
www.harbourfrontcentre.com
Tickets can also be purchased online here

Media Release

Media Contact: Dalton Higgins
M: 647.880.2355
P: 416.923.7373
E: daltonhigginspr@gmail.com

For Immediate Release Please add to Event Listings

Toronto, ON (June 26, 2017) – Kaha:wi Dance Theatre announces details of the Living Ritual - International Indigenous Performing Arts Festival - taking place in Tkaronto (Toronto) at Harbourfront Centre’s Fleck Dance Theatre from July 25-27.

Produced by Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, one of Canada’s leading performing arts companies, the festival creates space for Indigenous artists, arts and culture enthusiasts, and both local and global delegates from across Turtle Island (Canada, United States), Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Australia to gather, network, perform, celebrate, promote and dialogue about Indigenous artistic practice. The Living Ritual festival’s vision is Indigenous-led by Dora Mavor Moore Award and recent REVEAL Indigenous Arts Award-winning Artistic Director Santee Smith, and Artistic Producer, Curator and Festival Executive Producer Cynthia Lickers-Sage.

“Living Ritual carves out space for artists and audiences to be creative, share and connect, passing on knowledge in the most exciting and transformative ways” says Smith, who earlier this year took her first-ever trip to Nunavut, while touring her critically-acclaimed NeoIndigenA performance piece (that appears in the Living Ritual Festival) across the United States, northwestern Canada and New Zealand. “It's all about placing artists at the centre, from which springs forth conversation, understanding and connection. This festival also speaks to the power of place (Tkaronto) and kinship relations to the land and people. If someone wants to understand more about the Indigenous experience, Living Ritual offers some insight.”

Privileging Indigenous performance, the festival presents a wide array of works through powerful contemporary and experimental works, crafted from Indigenous methodology, voice and body, uniting past, present and future dance and theatre practices.

The festival opens up with an Onkwehon:we Edge of the Woods Welcome Ceremony as part of its daytime programming which includes: Provocation Addresses, panel discussions, Embodied Sharing (Master Classes) and Performative Lectures. The program then shifts in the evening to include one night only public performances and premieres from internationally renowned artists and companies who offer a distinct perspective on Indigenous performance including: the pioneering Spiderwoman Theater (New York, USA) presenting Aanmitaagzi‘s “Material Witness”, Qaggiavuut Nunavut Performing Arts’ (Nunavut, Canada) new work “Kiviuq Returns” (which recently world premiered at the National Arts Centre's Canada Scene - Living Ritual will be the lone Toronto stop of their tour); the world premiere of “[MIS]CONCEIVE” by Thomas E.S. Kelly (Queensland & New South Wales, Australia); the critically-acclaimed “We Wait in the Darkness” by Rosy Simas Dance (Minnesota, USA) and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre’s (Toronto, Canada) own “NeoIndigenA” by Artistic Director Santee Smith among others.

At a time when many colonizing structures are openly being called into question, Living Ritual also offers an honest public forum to dialogue on decolonial processes and push button issues, discuss global issues in Indigenous performance, and engage in professional development, while promoting artistic cross-pollination and inter-cultural collaborations.

Living Ritual takes place on the ancestral territory of the Onkwehon:we, Anishaanbe and Huron- Wendat and acknowledges the spirits of the ancestors, animals and the land in the Dish with One Spoon Treaty lands and opens a space to honour our interconnectivity and interdependence.

What:
Living Ritual - International Indigenous Performing Arts Festival July 25-27, 2017

When:
July 25-27, 2017

Where:
Fleck Dance Theatre
207 Queens Quay West, Third Floor Toronto, Ontario, Canada

About the company:
Kaha:wi Dance Theatre (pronounced Ga-HA-Wee) is one of Canada’s leading contemporary dance companies that explores the intersection of Indigenous and new dance performance. Kaha:wi Dance Theatre is renowned for artistry, creative excellence and collaboration.

About Harbourfront Centre:
Harbourfront Centre, on Toronto's waterfront, is an innovative not-for-profit cultural organization that creates events and activities of excellence that enliven, educate and entertain a diverse public.

Living Ritual has been made possible due to funding from the New Chapter Fund by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada-Canadian Heritage, Ontario 150, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and the K.M. Hunter Foundation. 
This is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter initiative. With this $35M initiative, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.

Friday 07.07.17
Posted by Kahawi Dance Theatre Kahawi Dance Theatre
 

KDT Newsletter – January 2016 - No:ia News!

No:ia...No:ia! Happy New Year! 
Welcome back family and friends! 2015 was a wonderful year for KDT, and we could not have done it without you. Our team would like to extend best wishes to you for 2016. We look forward to sharing an exciting year ahead. 
--
This edition at a glance:
KDT SI 2016
Indigenous Performance Gathering
World Premiere of Re-Quickening
KDT in the News

KDT SI 2016

KDT's 8th Annual Summer Intensive opens a creative space for artists to deepen and transform their physical and performance practice. KDT SI is back with 2 exciting new locations!

The month long process oriented training program kicks off downtown Toronto, ON at The Citadel from July 4-15, 2016 with classes Contemporary, Indigenous Performance: Powwow, Hoop Dance, etc. Confirmed instructors are Santee Smith (Six Nations), Benoît Lachambre (Mtl), Tony Duncan (US), among others TBC. 

July 18-30, 2016 activities move to our home community of Six Nations of the Grand River, ON for a 2 week CREATION LAB marking the 1st KDT SI in our territory! The LAB is open to emerging to professional interdisciplinary, inter-cultural artists who are interested in exploration of performance founded in Indigenous methodologies. This year's CREATION LAB is led by facilitators Alejandro Ronceria (TO), Louise Potiki Bryant (NZ) and Santee Smith (Artistic Director) who offer their insight and experience into Indigenous approaches to devising performance. Culturally immersive, exploratory experience LAB participants will explore Indigenous performance practices, exploration, creation, work-in-progress showings, and community exchange. The LAB kicks off with an inspirational talk by Indigenous scholar and writer Gerald Taiaiake Alfred - July 18 - Indigenous Resurgence.

Each instructor brings to the Summer Intensive their unique embodied movement knowledge, artistic vision, and mode of creativity and expression that collectively enhance the richness and uniqueness of the KDT SI training program. Participants learn in an open, inviting, healthy and collegial environment that fosters principles of Onkwehon:we "Good Mind".

KDT SI participants are also invited to stay for the inaugural Indigenous Performance Gathering - July 30-31, 2016. 

For complete details and registration, please visit our website.
Check out the KDT Summer Intensive 2015 Video Highlights here.

Interested in joining KDT Summer Intensive program?
Please email your interest and dance experience to training@kahawidance.org

Indigenous Performance Gathering

The Six Nations community is uniting to host a place to share our narratives and perspectives, creating a forum to nourish Indigenous artists. Join us this July 30-31, 2016 for our 2 day Indigenous Performance Gathering at Six Nations of the Grand River Territory! We invite dance, performance, theatre artists, scholars, knowledge-keepers, and community members to join us to engage in dialogue about Indigenous performance and interdisciplinary practice. Gathering includes: keynote speaker(s), master classes, panel topics, performative presentations that foster discussions about Indigenous creative process and teaching. Current artists in attendance include: Margo Tamez (US/BC), Alejandro Ronceria (TO), Louise Potiki Bryant (NZ), Santee Smith and many more to come. 

For more Information and to register: Cynthia Lickers-Sage
General Manager
 | cynthia@kahawidance.org | 416-923-7373

World Premiere of Re-Quickening 

Photo by Brenda Hernández

Photo by Brenda Hernández

The World Premiere of Re-Quickening is coming to Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre in April 2016! Led by a powerhouse team of women collaborators: Santee Smith, Monique Mojica, Marina Acevedo (MX), Frances Rings (AU), Louise Potiki-Bryant (NZ), Bianca Hyslop (NZ), Nancy Wijohn (NZ) guided by the words of Leanne Simpson, Christi Belcourt, Alva Jamieson, Leigh Smith and Maria Campbell. Re-Quickening is an inter-disciplinary performance examining international Indigenous women’s issues and process of rejuvenating the seeds of feminine power. Through an Indigenous collaboration process, Re-Quickening attempts to restore internal fractures, finding creative strategies for renewal to re-ignite intact feminine power.

Collaborating artists include: Lighting Designer: Arun Srinivasan; Costume Designer: Adriana Fulop, Designer: Steve Smith, Adrian Dion Harjo, Jennifer Martin; Music: Eugene Draw, Cris Derksen, Jesse Zubot, David Maracle, Santee Smith among others. 

To purchase tickets, click here.

Photo by Tony Nyberg

Photo by Tony Nyberg

Performances will take place at the Fleck Dance Theatre as a part of the the NextSteps Series. Post-performance Q&A's after every show will feature collaborating artists and invited guests.  

            Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 8pm
            Friday, April 29, 2016 at 8pm
            Saturday, April 30, 2016 at 8pm
            Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 3pm
 

Photo by Tony Nyberg

Photo by Tony Nyberg

For more behind the scenes footage, follow the journey on our Facebook page.

KDT in the News

"It's a timely call for re-awakening feminine power and her-story. By piercing together fragments and shards of Indigenous knowing, Re-Quickening is a re-affirmation of life and healing from issues of violence against women and Earth," says Santee.

To read the full story in the Two Row Times, click here.

Monday 01.25.16
Posted by Kahawi Dance Theatre Kahawi Dance Theatre
 
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