The Reconnection Project

As a Métis who grew up outside of the community, I feel strongly about my desires to reconnect with my indigenous heritage. I know there are many others who share this desire and believe it is essential for us to know and understand this part of ourselves. This project aims to deepen our collective knowledge of indigenous spirituality and teachings. Many Indigenous artists working in dance feel distanced from their cultural teachings through centuries of forced assimilation. Through this project, I hope to address this.

In this first phase the five Indigenous dance artists will start by reconnecting with their traditional lands during a week of embodied research before gathering and sharing this knowledge in studio. We are interested in reconnecting to our traditional lands and sharing this journey of reclamation.

The above video is a result of the work developed in the studio.

Cast & Crew

Film by Vikram Dasgupta

Music by MJ Dandeneau

Performers: Cody Berry-Ottertail, Katie Couchie, lewennotaties Kali Kennedy, Samantha Sutherland and Jera Wolfe

Dramaturge: Brian Solomon

Cinematographer: Liam VanderPloeg

Photos by Vikram Dasgupta and Liam VanderPloeg

Supported by Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, Canadian Stage

Special thanks to Dance Umbrella of Ontario