Dance Central March April 2018

March/April 2018

Dance Central A Dance Centre Publication

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Interactions Two-Spirit A conversation with Jessica McMann Page 2 as Art Writing on A conversation with Katherine Chan

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ON 'OW'

by Katherine Chan Page 10

Welcome to Dance Central

Emerging Bodies A conversation with Jessica McMann AK: There are many different dimensions to your work, both between disciplines such as music, dance, media, 'administration' as you put it, and between what might be described as contemporary and traditional (or at least rooted in tradition) practice. Is it meaningful to you or important to think in terms of a 'contemporary' and a 'traditional' self?

JM: For certain things and when talking to certain people, I find that I use those categories. It was jazz flutist Hubert Laws who said, “It’s all music, really. It’s a drag they put boundaries on music like they do to the planet. It’s really a drag, but it’s all music, and if you allow yourself to think, you can do it all." "...I don’t like labels placed on me. I’d just rather be thought of as a musician – a professional flute player. I play wherever and whenever I’m called to do it – if I got the time and if I choose to do so.” After reading that I thought 'this is true about dance as well'. For me, it is more important that you can do many things, and many of the Indigenous choreographers and dancers that I have met do so many things; some people dance powwow and are also dance writers, and so on. Those categories sometimes hold people back, I

Welcome to the March/April 2018 issue of Dance

think, or make them unable to move beyond that. I was very much a

Central, which features as part of our ongoing

TWO SPIRIT

recommendation by Margaret Grenier, a conversation with Cree and Blackfoot dancer and musician Jessica McMann, in which she explores interactions between artistic disciplines, between indigenous and non-indigenous concepts of identity, and between two-spirit artists and community.

TWO SPIRIT

series on indigenous dance artists, and on the kind

The second feature of this issue is a text by, and a conversation with emerging Vancouver writer Katherine Chan, who was recently commissioned

by MascallDance to write about their ongoing project "OW", on the question of what it means to be exploring dance by writing and in writing.

As always, we thank all the artists who have agreed to contribute and we welcome new writing and project ideas at any time, in order to continue to make Dance Central a more vital link to the community. Please send material by e-mail to members@thedancecentre.ca or call us at 604.606.6416. We continue to look forward to the conversation!

Andreas Kahre, Editor 2

Da nce Central March/April 2018

Jesse McMann is an Cree musician, Hoop Dancer and choreographer. She has a Bachelor of Music from the University of Calgary and is pursuing her Interdisciplinary MFA at Simon Fraser University.

Her current research is in Indigenous Women's Performance, Indigenous methodologies as applied to devising/creation, and language as performance. Outside of her scholarly work, her new compositions in music have started to explore / create contemporary soundscapes steeped in Indigeneity to accompany spoken words that process our presence interlaced with indigenous identity and the body as politics. This accompanies dancework that includes traditional powwow dance and contemporary dance steeped in Blackfoot and Cree cosmology and ways of living.

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Emerging Bodies A conversation with Jessica McMann

AK: In what way does it make people uncomfortable?

JM: I think because of the content. I made a one sketch-

category person when I was younger, being a classical

piece about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women,

musician, but then you have people like Tomson Highway

and it hit people pretty hard, I think. My professor at

who do everything. I think it is sometimes easier to fall into

the time, Jin-Me Yoon, was saying 'you should push it

talking about these categories, especially in academia, but in

further, and make people even more uncomfortable'.

actual life (and I live in both words) people don't fit so easily.

The piece was about bringing people into a situation of experiencing discomfort, of being face to face with

AK: You are currently in the interdisciplinary MFA program at

MMIW and the settler violence and Residential School

SFU. What made you decide to do that?

legacy that lives on my skin. There was a section in the work about an experience I had with the police when I

JM: My undergrad degree is in music, and I had applied to

was younger that my cohort responded to. I had read

other schools for a Masters of Music degree but I wasn’t ac-

the last five days of Facebook headlines of MMIW,

cepted. In retrospect, they didn't have the flexibility of the

bringing the matter directly into the present. In addition,

SFU Program — a flexibility that surprised me. My husband

I also positioned the audience in an intimate, uncom-

had applied to Emily Carr, and I thought, “Oh, there may be a

fortable closeness to myself as a performer, not just

school with a later application date that fits me,” so I quickly

this work, but others as well. Another student, Minahil

researched SFU, handed in my application and when I was in

Bukhari and I used turban material and cotton print and

Vancouver for the Coast First Nations Dance Festival, toured

other sacred cloth, washed them in bleach over the

the school, declined it twice but finally decided to attend.

course of 25 minutes and laid them all out as a kind of

I thought I would combine dance and music, and see if it

decolonizing landscape; everyone had the bleach smell

works. There are people in my cohort who are very interdis-

in their nose, and it was completely in–your–face. I use

ciplinary, and it is very nice to be among minds and artists

dance and movement, and I guess what sometimes

who are also interdisciplinary.

is more like performance art. All three pieces I talked about have been performed in silence, re-assessing the

AK: Do you have a project in mind, or are you discovering

musical aspect, or rather the 'composed sound' aspect.

things as you go along?

AK: Do you have a sense of where this will lead you, or JM: I had a few projects in mind, but all that went out the

are you still experimenting?

window as I was getting used to doing the reading and creating in the studio. It was very fast paced, and all my ideas left

JM: Right now, I am working on the first iteration of my

my mind. This past semester, I started on my directed studies

graduating project, which will be presented on August

with Rob Kitsos, which has allowed me to be freer in my re-

30th. It is looking like a dance performance, with a

search and in-studio explorations. I took a First Nations

music/soundscape/soundtrack that I created myself.

Studies course with Dr. June Scudeler (Metis), whose research

It is about 25 minutes long, although the length may

is into Two-Spirited people, arts and performance, and

still change. It is a discussion of the ideas of culture and

Indigenous literature. It has been really helpful to be reading

displacement, and stories I am telling from my own

that and has inspired me to go into different directions as well

experiences in the past and the present; uncomfortable

as keeping on with my original thoughts about Indigenous

stories that people don't want to hear when it comes

performance. I started creating work around language and

to institutions like the police, school, academia, and

land, place and displacement, and cultural dis-acceptance. I

cultural protocols.

am adopted and I experience this weird interconnectivity; it is personal but not too personal, and I have been creating both

AK: You have created another work called the The Post-

the music and the dance. Some of the work I have created so

Human Project. Is it connected to this?

far has made people really uncomfortable, which is great.

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Dance Central March/April 2018

"There are cultural gatekeepers, there are certain people who are free to access what they want, and others who aren't, especially when it comes to Two-Spirit, Queer, and Transgendered Indigenous artists."

"There are cultural gatekeepers, there are certain people who are free to access what they want, and others who aren't, especially when it comes to Two-Spirit, Queer, and Transgendered Indigenous artists."

Da nce Central March/April 2018

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Dance Central The Dance Centre Scotiabank Dance Centre Level 6, 677 Davie Street Vancouver BC V6B 2G6 T 604.606.6400 F 604.606.6401 info@thedancecentre.ca www.thedancecentre.ca Dance Central is published every two months by The Dance Centre for its members and for the dance community. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent Dance Central or The Dance Centre. The editor reserves the right to edit for clarity or length, or to meet house requirements.

Editor, Art Director & Layout Andreas Kahre Copy Editor Hilary Maxwell Contributors to this issue: Jessica McMann, Katherine Chan Photography: Chris Randle (cover), Lynda Allen (back cover), Aran Wilkinson-Blanc, Tet M Photography Dance Centre Board Members Chair Ingrid M. Tsui Vice Chair Josh Martin Secretary Sheila G. Evani Treasurer Annelie Vistica Directors Layla Casper Carolyn Chan Eve Chang Jai Govinda Megan Halkett Anndraya T. Luui Jessica McMann Dance Foundation Board Members Chair Linda Blankstein Secretary Anndraya T. Luui Treasurer Samantha Luo Directors Trent Berry, Sasha Morales, Janice Wells, Andrea R. Benzel Dance Centre Staff: Executive Director Mirna Zagar Programming Coordinator Raquel Alvaro Marketing Manager Heather Bray Digital Marketing Coordinator Katrina Nguyen Associate Producer Linda Blankstein Venue and Services Administrator Robin Naiman Development Director Sheri Urquhart Lead Technician Chengyan Boon Accountant Elyn Dobbs Member Services and Outreach Coordinator Hilary Maxwell

Emerging Bodies A conversation with Jessica McMann JM: It isn't connected but I will use some of the techniques used in development for The Post-Human Project.

This project was an interdisciplinary studio project with Amy Wilson, a member of my cohort at SFU, who works internationally through amywilsonarts.com. TPHP ended up being a sound installation where people laid down on mats in the dark, and the soundscape flowed over them. It was a very immersive experience for the participants. We had gathered field recordings of the ocean and forests, as well as a large collection of photos and personal writings, and the soundscape was an outcome of that research.

This is a similar method to what I am using to create my graduating work.

AK: Does that work find its way back to the First Nations community at all?

JM: I am planning to do a public showing of my graduate projects in Calgary, as my research is from the land that I was raised in and from. My work is also very much connected to the Cree and Blackfoot culture I grew up in, and married into. Mohkinstiss (Calgary) is where the community is, so I feel the need to present it there as well. Whether they accept it or not, we will see, but it is important to have it open to the community and have the elders I work with be able to witness it, because they aren't always able to travel. But that is specifically about my graduate work, and how I can bring these ideas of community and reciprocity into the work I am making.

AK: Is that a connection you have always had as you developed an artist?

JM: My roots in dance started in the community, and I always strive to give back in my practice. My husband,

The Dance Centre is BC's primary resource centre for the dance profession and the public. The activities of The Dance Centre are made possible bynumerous individuals. Many thanks to our members, volunteers, community peers, board of directors and the public for your ongoing commitment to dance in BC. Your suggestions and feedback are always welcome. The operations of The Dance Centre are supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Province of British Columbia, the BC Arts Council, and the

Elijah Wells, is connected to the Blackfoot community and I am connected to the artists and urban Indigenous community in Calgary, and in the past, Winnipeg. I am connected to my family in Cowessess, and connected to the Queer Indigenous community, so there aren’t very clear lines which community I am part of, but rather this internal map of communities that I feel connected to and a map of those communities that claim me. It is a complicated

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concept and I am writing about all of this right now. The Canada Council for the Arts now has a cultural component when you apply, where you have to explain your cultural background and what you are doing to adhere to these cultural protocols, which is very much needed, but what I am writing about now is that perhaps it isn't so clean cut when it comes to Indigenous artists creating. There are cultural gatekeepers, there are certain people who are free to access what they want, and others aren't, especially when it comes to Two-Spirit, Queer, and Transgendered Indigenous artists. So the question is 'Who is community, and how do you have a relationship with a community that is discriminatory to who you are?' and 'How as an artist can you still create from your culture when navigating these politics?' What happens, for example, when an elder is homophobic and says 'no' to you? That is in itself a problem, that's a colonized way of thinking. I am currently writing on all this for an anthology that is in the works at University of California Riverside, so all these ideas are percolating in my head right now.

AK: You have described yourself as working with native and queer identities. How does the academic work translate back into your communities?

JM: I am a Two-Spirit woman, in a relationship with a Two-Spirit man, and I identify as queer and Two-Spirit. It has only been seven or eight months since I entered grad school, and all of my other work has been created outside of an academic context. The first work I created was Two

"I recognized that if it doesn't make sense, then it isn't tradition.

This was a way to begin to realize that traditions exist for reasons,— for

tangible reasons.

Spirit which I began in Winnipeg, with a lot of support from elders and the community there. I recorded elders speaking about acceptance and the ideas I am currently reading about — self direction and Indigenous Queer normativity and all these ideas in Indigenous philosophy that I was already living and learning about ten, fifteen years ago. It is great to see this finally in 'official' writing that you can quote in papers. Before I moved to Calgary, I created a piece for the Talking Stick Festival, called Natoowa Pakaa Ksiiks, with my — then boyfriend, now husband — Elijah.

It talked about Two-Spirit identity and the balance/imbalance people experience before accepting themselves.

Now it seems that the widely accepted ideas is that selfacceptance is the key, but in Indigenous communities I feel that it isn't as easy as that because of the colonialism and harmful attitudes that were infused in the culture by continued on page 12

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Writing Art on as

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Critical Movements Katherine Chan on MascallDance's "OW" Project

AK: You have mainly written in a context of visual art practice and curation. How do you experience the difference between that and writing about dance, or the performing arts, especially in light of the move toward a more inclusive critical discourse that several dance artists and writers in Vancouver are trying to develop?

As dance changes, so does writing about dance. Mascall Dance recently decided to commission Vancouver-based writer Katherine Chan to respond to their current interdisciplinary project titled "OW". The result, interestingly, is neither an essay, nor a preview, but a hybrid; a response to a multidisciplinary and embodied process outside the writer's previous experience. As Dance Central 's editorial mandate is to provide a forum for artists to talk about their practice, we asked Katherine Chan to provide a context for her writing and her experience.

AK: You describe yourself as 'writer, curator, poet, PR agent, storyteller', which suggests that you are engaged both in writing as art, and in writing about art. How do the two practices intersect, collide, or inform each other for you?

KC: I haven't yet figured out how to sharply answer when asked if I'm an artist. I usually say, "if you consider writing as a form of art, then yes." For me, art is achieved when the craft informs and creates a result that makes one pause and/or provokes a reaction, be it a thought or an undefinable emotion. How one writes reflects the writer, speaker, and that presents information, whether noticed or not. I believe "art" exists in that nuanced mundanity, as well. The only art I have had legitimate writing training in is literature, which is what my degrees are in, so I struggle constantly with legitimacy when it comes to writing about visual or

KC: To me, qualitative art in any medium creates experiences. Aside from conveying a feeling, in writing about performance arts or dance there persists a desire to translate an experience into words and prose poetry for me. One could accomplish that in a review and complete it with an overall verdict of "good" or "bad". One could also accomplish that — provide a live experience textually and include a critical element in the writing — by opening up a discussion on what makes it different, interesting, noteworthy. To me, the latter is much more engaging.

AK: When we spoke earlier, you mentioned the emotional impact Jennifer's work and personality had on you. How did that inform the voice you used to write about "OW"?

KC: I wouldn't say I expressed the impact of experiencing the rehearsals and speaking with Jennifer Mascall in the piece I wrote on "OW". I leave the impact for the audience to experience for themselves, or not. My biggest challenge was to provide an objective, understandable view of what the world of "OW" looks like, and why. To do that, it was important to explain the philosophy I gathered from getting to know Jennifer Mascall and her obsession with sound, movement, and really, the creation of art that is behind the purpose of "OW" and any production of hers.

AK: Thank you!

performance arts. Art writers are often individuals who have gone through specific education of both art history and art critique. I have none of that. When I write about art, which I have, somehow fortuitously and naturally, my goal is the same as in my own creative writing: I'm trying to convey a feeling, and if I have the capacity, I'm additionally making meaning out of that feeling. It must be hard to write about art without having the skill to write art. Having said that, I'm averse to any kind of writing (often academic) with a language so unnecessarily elevated it feels unnatural and becomes labourious to read. I find that unartistic and rather pretentious, which is, ironically, often an overall criticism of art presentation.

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Critical Movements Katherine Chan on MascallDance's 'OW' Project

a particular part of this system. Its title is a reactive sound indicating an impact on the body. It further suggests an inevitable interaction between the sound and the body, alerting us to the terrain we enter; something habitual yet unexplainable.

Mascall’s early influences include artists questioning pre-

ON "OW": How does it feel and what does it look like?

vailing notions of sound and music. Renowned dancer and choreographer Gus Solomons Jr. designs sounds that accompany the body. Recalling a day spent as a student in the studio with Solomons, Mascall describes “these strange sounds [he made] were the most interesting thing I’d ever heard.” She was also deeply affected by composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski’s compositional and performance style in the legendary “Attica”. During his piano playing, Rzewski called out lines from a letter written by an incarcerator about an impending riot at Attica State Prison. This inspired Mascall’s first choreographic work.

Founder and Artistic Director of MascallDance Society,

Entering the 20th century postmodernist zeitgeist in New

Jennifer Mascall has been an investigator of movement for

York City as a young artist, she studied with dancer and

over 45 years. A conceptual creative, her choreography

choreographer Merce Cunningham. Having sound, space,

resembles a creator designing a new world. When she ma-

and time as usual subjects of his experiments, he famously

nipulates space, the changes affect the movement of

said "I'm not expressing anything. I'm presenting people

bodies, which then influence sound. While attuned to

moving." Composer John Cage, Cunningham’s closest

bodily movement, the artistic director also works con-

collaborator, created an entire performance presenting the

sciously with the space in-between.

riddance of sound in his 1952 composition, titled 4′33″ .

“In the early development of my career, in order to try

Approaching MascallDance’s 30th Anniversary, Mascall

and understand what dance really was on its own terms, I

continues her investigation of sound and dance with the

didn’t work with music at all,” Mascall says of the influence

new performance “OW”, premiering in July. Her inquisitive

of sounds on her creative output. Parallel to an extensive

career-long quest bleeds into this latest creation: “OW”

career in the dance field, she was also immersed in somatic

anticipates a relentless search and expansion of possibili-

movement in the early nineties. She spent five years study-

ties in the many worlds sound and movement could create

ing 'authentic movement' with master teacher Judith Koltai,

together, with each element examined in the choreography.

working with silence, and four years diving into Body-Mind Centering™ with its founder, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen,

In the world of “OW”, stillness and contact between

which led to her certification as a teacher. The process of

bodies translate into a varied range of sounds. In addition

working with silence and somatic practice has since pro-

to a performance of dance, audience are presented with

foundly contributed to her research and conceptualization

vocalization of how touch feels on the performers’ bodies.

of performance ideas.

The performance venue will be transformed to match the choreographer’s vision: space will be a heightened aspect

Through challenging the role of sound, her repertoire

of the performance, influencing the dancer’s vocal and

repeatedly attempts to illuminate dance’s existence “in its

physical presentation. Entering the visceral experience of

own right”. Woven into the choreography is a philo-

“OW” is to embark on an expedition devised to locate the

sophical question: if music imposes a structure for dance to

tone of the physical system (of the body) and the pitch of

exist within, what does dance look like on its own?

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Influenced by musicals yet in post -postmodernist fashion, Mascall abandons plot and narrative entirely, and instead, focuses on how rhythms and movement interact. In “OW”, the dancers express sounds from sources within their bodies by applying their understanding of space to the maneuver of intricate parts of their internal space. They take on the challenge of allowing their bodies to move in response to the spontaneous sounds they make, instead of following music with choreographed body movements. Concerned with looking inward and expressing outward through movement, the discovery of “OW” is unexpectedly playful, simultaneously out of the ordinary and familiar. Singing and unearthly sounds are met with mundane, pedestrian ones.

The juxtapositions paint a moving aesthetic, echoed in the space between performers. Collaborating with sound artist, composer, and violist Stefan Smulovitz and experimental voice specialist DB Boyko, the dancers develop a “palette of sound” through voice techniques.

Smulovitz explains the interaction between sound and movement in “OW” as a dialogue: “This means it can support, push and pull, and must be connected viscerally to what is happening. Sound has a physical effect.”

Mascall’s latest creation is a dance between sound and movement in itself, zealous in revealing the authenticity of the marriage between the two. “OW” shines a light on the interchanges of rhythm, space between dancers, and how sounds transfer within that space.

An Expressionist work of performance wherein sounds

"When I write about art, which I have, somehow fortuitously and naturally, my goal is the same as my own creative writing: I'm trying to convey a feeling, and if I have the capacity, I'm additionally making meaning out of that feeling"

are tools for direct expressions of the body, “OW” presents a perpetual exploration of and fascination with the intimate relationship between the vocal and the physical. To watch “OW” is to be engulfed into a visualization of how sound directs body and how the manipulation of space influences the energy produced by sound and bodily movement.

“OW” premieres on July 4 - 14, 2018 at MascallDance (1130 Jervis Street, Vancouver, B.C.). Performers involved in this body of research include Anne Cooper, Vanessa Goodman, Eloi Homier, Billy Marchenski, Molly McDermott, and Walter Kubanek. Scoring and performing live in the production is composer Stefan Smulovitz.

Dance Central November/December 2017

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Emerging Bodies A conversation with Jessica McMann continued from page 7

way to move traditional dancing forward and include new elements, to prevent it from becoming a museum culture. She talked about the fact that some people accept this but that there is also a fair bit of resistance.

How does it work for you, from the perspective you

the Indian agents, the Residential school system and by

bring to the tradition? Do you experience resistance, in

all these other settler-colonial systems. This makes it very

yourself or from others, and how to you deal with it on

hard now to get back to what we once had, which was a

the level of protocol and permission.

self-directed Indigenous queer normativity in our communities (see readings from Leanne Betasamosake Simpson,

JM: It is something I think about a lot, and talk with

Anishnaabe). This is the idea that people's identities weren't

Elijah. When I was younger, I had the viewpoint that

based on sexuality and gender identity, but where they

nothing should change, because that is what I was

had community roles and place in the community. People

learning as I was learning to dance, and there were

did what they had to do in relationship to the Creator or

rigid structures that if an elder said 'don't do this' I

whomever they prayed to, and the community accepted it

wouldn't. But as I got older, and found out that people

as long as everyone was contributing. I can't speak about

I looked up to said it wasn't okay to be who I was, I

Coastal First Nations or other traditions or cultures, but

rebelled and moved away. I think there was a moment

only about my own experiences and background. We

in Winnipeg working with and listening to Carl Stone

created a 20-minute piece where Elijah animated spirit

when I recognized that if it doesn't make sense, then

characters that were dancing with me and then joined into

it isn't tradition. This was a way to begin to realize that

me. Natoowa Pakaa Ksiiks was one of the pieces where I

traditions exist for reasons, and tangible reasons. This

tried to support Indigenous artists by only asking them to

could be a societal perspective, a scientific perspec-

collaborate on all aspects. I see others doing it, trying to

tive, or a philosophical perspective; our traditions

raise up other Indigenous artists and it is empowering. The

engage thinking, thought and reason. Elijah has told

next piece we decided to create for the following Talking

me numerous times that we are always evolving.

Stick Festival was about dysphoria, which ended up be-

When trade came in we saw things that made our

ing pretty dark, but it was well received. I have started to

lives easier, like brass buttons and thimbles, and we

create dances that are a mixture between contemporary

would use them, so tradition was always evolving

and powwow, and I have a powwow performance called

and we were never stagnant in the first place. At the

Nimihitowin! that tours, and a smaller work called Powow

same time, I understand that sometimes one can fear

Mash-UP. When I teach now, everybody has to learn all

losing tradition/culture and holding on to it so tight to

the styles, as each dance style focuses more on a certain

prevent it from leaving that you can end up choking

muscle/bone group. Everybody learns the Jingle Dress, Tra-

it. I understand Margaret's point of view, and I have

ditional Dress, Fancy Shawl, and they all learn the Chicken

heard her talk about it at various occasions and I see

steps and the Fancy Bustle steps. Whereas in traditional

these people making new West Coast dances that are

dance classes, I find the men sit out when Jingle is dancing,

really cool, and others who say 'you can't make new

the women sit out when Grass is dancing. So this is a way

dances’. From my understanding, back in the day if

of pedagogy of Two-Spiritedness or perhaps Indigenous

somebody had a dream about a new dance they had

normativity. Now, Elijah and I have a new work called

to go make it, and then it was a new dance. That's how

Ihstipaitapiyopa which we will start in June. It starts from a

Jingle Dress came to be, so things are always changing

place of Two-Spiritedness and really look into the sto-

and if somebody has a strong grounding in a tradition

ries and places in Southern Alberta and Blackfoot culture,

and culture, then you have a place to move forward.

which is really exciting.

If something doesn't feel right, you shouldn't do it.

Maybe it will feel right in fifteen years. I recently did

AK: This reminds me of something Margaret Grenier said.

a dance where I let my shawl fall to the ground, and I

She described part of her ongoing task as trying to find a

kept hearing in my head all these people saying 'don't

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Emerging Bodies A conversation with Jessica McMann let your regalia fall to the ground!’ but it was a piece about loss, so I picked it back up and it didn't feel wrong to do that, and the feedback I received was that the moment felt powerful, because a lot of people feel that moment in their lives. Would I do that at a powwow? No, but there are many different places/venues/situations where one can present work that leave options open which is nice.

AK: You also do hoop dancing?

JM: Yes. I do a lot of different things, but that's the one that started me dancing. I don't have a traditional contemporary classical dance upbringing. If you count the year and a half I spent in a dance studio doing ballet, then yes, but it is pretty much powwow and then Raven Spirit Dance training, which is a totally different path than most dancers have. Hoop dancing has been central in all of that, allowing me to travel, taking me to Europe; it has given me many opportunities and that's what I teach in schools for income. I teach hoop dance to kids and adults, and create choreography; I work with a family of dancers in Calgary/ Mohkinstiss to create new dance pieces. They are very gifted contemporary dancers, as well as being Cree and Metis, with a background in musical theatre, and they love dance, so I can choreograph these things in my head onto people who are willing to try it.

AK: Where does hoop dance originate?

JM: I first learned from Alex Wells, who I think is now a four or five-time world champion, that the dance originates in the DinĂŠ (Navajo) Nation, and that it is a storytelling and healing dance. Dancers used one to four hoops in the beginning and it has evolved up to a hundred hoops.

As I moved along my learning journey, I heard different origin stories from the Lakota and Anishinaabe people, where it was also a healing and storytelling dance.

AK: What are the hoops made of?

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Dance Central March/April 2018

JM: They used to be made of willow and now they are plastic, which I find interesting because hoop dance has a relationship to the land, to animals and to the circle of life around us. It is a great tool for teaching philosophy to kids about how the world works around us.

Before, when they were willow, you couldn't do what you can do now, because they would break and so our bodies really formed to the hoop and now we are making the hoops form to our bodies which I view as a representation of what we do to the land, so before we molded to land and lived reciprocally with land. Now, we are digging giant holes or flattening mountains to build condos or building huge dams to manage water flow from the city instead of allowing the river to move naturally; we are forcing ourselves onto the land.

AK: Do you perform hoop dance in Vancouver?

JM: Yes, I have. Margaret Grenier at the Coastal First Nations Dance Festival has asked me to perform, and I am honoured and grateful for those opportunities. I have been mostly focused on grad school, but I have done a few things with powwow and hoop dance, and I will be at a few summer festivals, but most of my work is in Calgary.

AK: I came across a note that you played 'special flute' for Arcade Fire at the Junos, and that you play 'unusual' instruments. What are those?

JM: Yes, I did play a 'special', i.e. Native flute for them, and that was fun. Part of my music uses traditional instruments, and part of it uses modern instruments, like silver flute and piano, and the unusual includes electronics, slide whistles, and so on.

AK: How do the music making and the dance mix. Do you have a part of your brain that identifies as a musician and one that is a dancer, or are these are part of one identity?

JM: If I had to go with an “identity”, I think I would have to go with ‘Artist’. I don't think of myself as only a musician, except for bios and places where that is easier, but my artistic identity is very much interwoven between disciplines. I also paint, and I identify as a musician, dancer and choreographer; everything is mixed together. So I would say no, my brain is not divided.

AK: Do you have sense of where you might take all of this after you finish the SFU program?

JM: I am hoping to do a doctorate, and part of me really wants to teach post-secondary, because I really enjoy being a T.A. and teaching, and I know my limits when it comes to Elementary grades. My dad was a teacher, who I really look up to. Yet, my experience in postsecondary drives me to try and do something new and different. Being what I went through as an Indigenous undergrad student, I would never want another Indigenous student to go through these experiences. At the same time, I also want to create new stories that need to be told, and work with my husband Elijah.

AK: Is there something you would like to say to the Vancouver dance community.

JM: I would like to say that everything I say can only come from my own experiences, and very much my own personal experiences in dance, creating and music. Somebody else may have had a completely different experience, so what I say is based on my own experience and my philosophy in making dance and performing and being part of a community. This informs my experience and what I do.

"...from my understanding, back in the day, if somebody had a dream about a new dance they had to go make it, and then it was a new dance...so things are always changing and if somebody has a strong grounding in a tradition and a culture, then you have a place to move foward."

AK: Thank you!

Dance Central March/April 2018

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Dance Central March/April 2018