ABOUT THE SHOW

Confluence is a dance work that weaves our perspectives, our histories and our bodies to create somatic tapestry that speaks to the resilience of Indigenous women. We embody the space between land and sky through play, prayer, grief and gratitude and are the living testament to the legacy that has been offered to us. Aligning our lives with the direction of the water in a river or geese in migration, we acknowledge we are always in process, shaping and carving through landscapes, creating rhythms and discovering our stories.

Want more from Raven Spirit Dance? Join us for the Joy of Jigging Workshop on June 18 at 2:30PM to celebrate Indigenous History Month!

Produced by: Raven Spirit Dance

Artistic Lead: Michelle Olson

Choreographic Visioning: Michelle Olson, Starr Muranko, and Jeanette Kotowich

In collaboration with performers: Michelle Olson, Starr Muranko, Jeanette Kotowich, Tasha Faye Evans & Emily Solstice Tait

Artistic Lineage: Margaret Grenier, Carlos Rivera, Yvette Nolan, Kristy Janvier, Salome Neito, & Tin Gamboa.

Original Soundscore composed by: Scott Maynard

Music: Ä́’sía Keyi – Diyet and the Love Soldiers, All My Relations -Iskwew Singers, Ammalu – Russell Wallace

Lighting Designer: Kimberly Plough

Stage Manager: Kayleigh Sandormirsky

Rehearsal Director: Salome Nieto

Somatic Movement Coach: Donna Redlick

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Michelle Olson | Michelle Olson is a member of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation and the Co-Artistic Director of Raven Spirit Dance. She studied dance and performance at the University of New Mexico, the Aboriginal Arts Program at the Banff Centre and was an Ensemble Member of Full Circle First Nations Performance. Michelle works in areas of dance, theatre and opera as a choreographer, performer and movement coach and her work has been seen on stages across Canada. Selected choreography/theatre credits include Gathering Light (Raven Spirit Dance), Salmon Girl (TYA – Raven Spirit Dance), Map of the Land, Map of the Stars (Gwaandak Theatre), Frost Trees Exploding Moon (Raven Spirit Dance), Mozart’s Magic Flute (Vancouver Opera), The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (Western Canada Theatre/National Arts Centre), Death of a Chief (Native Earth Performing Arts/National Arts Centre) and Evening in Paris (Raven Spirit Dance). She was the recipient of the inaugural Vancouver International Dance Festival Choreographic Award. She graduated as a Certified Movement Analyst from Laban/Bartenieff and Somatic Studies Canada and is currently teaching at Langara’s Studio 58.

Starr Muranko | Starr Muranko is dancer/choreographer, Mother and Co-Artistic Director with Raven Spirit Dance. Her choreographic work has been shared locally and nationally including the Dance Centre, Talking Stick Festival, Coastal Dance Festival, Dancing on the Edge, Native Earth Performing Arts, Weesageechak Begins to Dance, Impact Festival and InFringing Dance Festival. Featured works include Chapter 21, Spine of the Mother and before7after. A proud company dancer with the Dancers of Damelahamid since 2005, she has toured across Canada and internationally and trained under the guidance and mentorship of the late Elder Margaret Harris. She is currently the Artist-in-Residence at Ballet BC and has facilitated choreographic labs with the company over the past two seasons with colleague and collaborator Margaret Grenier. She holds a BFA in Dance from SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts and honours and celebrates her mixed Ancestry of Omushkegowuk Cree (Moose Cree First Nation – Treaty 9), French and German in all of her work.

Jeanette Kotowich | Originally from Treaty 4 territory Saskatchewan, Jeanette Kotowich creates work that reflects Nêhiyaw/Métis cosmology within the context of Indigenous performance, Indigenous futurism and contemporary dance. Her creations have been presented at theatres and festivals across so-called Canada, including Kwê at Matriarchs Uprising and The Dance Centre’s Dance In Vancouver. In the summer of 2020, she conducted land-based research in her home province of Saskatchewan, fusing interdisciplinary collaboration, de-colonial practices and embodied research towards the creation and premiere of Kisiskâciwan fall 2022, which has toured to Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, and Australia. Jeanette is the new Artistic Associate at Raven Spirit Dance, and has been artist-in-residence at the NAC Indigenous Theatre, The Dance Centre, and Shadbolt Arts Centre. She resides as a guest on the Ancestral and unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səl̓ilw̓ ətaʔɬ/, and Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm territories, colonially known as Vancouver. movementhealing.ca

Emily Solstice Tait | Emily’s Solstice Tait’s practice is rooted in contemporary dance but happily crosses into theatre, stage management and film. She is of mixed settler and Ojibway ancestry (Urban member of Berens River First Nation). Her dances have been performed at The Manitoba Museum, The Forks National Historic Site, and along the shores of Lake Winnipeg. Select performances include The War Being Waged (Prairie Theatre Exchange), The Secret to Good Tea (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre), Actualize (Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers), moi, suel·e (Théâtre Cercle Molière), Confluence (Raven Spirit Dance) and The___ Place video with CBC Arts.

Tasha Faye Evans | Tasha Faye Evans is a dance and theatre artist from a legacy of Coast Salish, Welsh, and European Jewish grandparents. Her career continues to be a collection of collaborations and performances with national and international Indigenous artists. Recent performances include Starr Muranko’s Spine of the Mother, Raven Spirit Dance’s Salmon Girl and Confluence and work in progress presentations of her own work, Cedar Woman. Tasha also focuses on redress and Coast Salish cultural resurgence, particularly in Port Moody where she is raising her two children. This past year, Tasha collaborated with Kwikwetlem and Tsleil Waututh Nation to create the first two of five house posts being raised along Port Moody’s iconic 2.5 km Shoreline Trail as part of a lifelong exhibit, “In the Presence of Ancestors”. Tasha’s work is an expression of her sacred and shared responsibility for these Coast Salish Lands and Waters and a future of health and well-being for all of our relations.

ABOUT RAVEN SPIRIT DANCE

Raven Spirit Dance creates and produces contemporary dance that is rooted in Indigenous worldviews and honours the communities and artists we work with. We share stories through Indigenous perspectives and practices and create opportunities for others to do the same.