WEESAGEECHAK BEGINS TO DANCE 39 to Showcase Indigenous Artists at Native Earth Festival

Native Earth Performing Arts has announced the 39th edition of Weesageechak Begins to Dance will take place November 20-29, 2026 at Aki Studio and Bevy in Toronto.

Weesageechak Begins to Dance is Native Earth's annual performing arts festival showcasing new works and works-in-development by Indigenous artists across Turtle Island and beyond. New this year, the festival will include WAAWOONO (she or he howls), a Weesageechak Begins to Dance Revue full of music and comedy. Held on November 28 at Bevy with comedian/host Meg MacKay, singer/songwriter GAELN, drag artist Ozzii Versace and DJ KIMIWVN.

Now, in its 39th edition, eight Creators from Canada and Australia have been invited to showcase new and developing works at the festival that put Indigenous artists and their creative impulses at the forefront, shifting the expectations of Indigenous stories in the performing arts landscape.

Weesageechak will feature two presentations of The Lottery by Waverley Stanley Jr, IXKAME: Baile de los ancestros by B'atz' Recinos, [soft waters] by Erica Wilson, and The 7 Fires: A New Musical by Dillan Meighan Chiblow at Aki Studio, plus two Northern Indigenous Play Readings presented by Gwaandak Theatre from Whitehorse, Yukon.

Guided by this year's festival theme of RESURGENCE, Weesageechak Begins to Dance 39 celebrates the ever-urgent necessity for Indigenous storytelling in an inspirational and revitalizing gathering of stories, performances, and conversations.

The Weesageechak Begins to Dance 39 Schedule

November 20 at Aki Studio at 7:30pm

The Lottery by Waverley Stanley Jr (Gumbaynggirr, Kabi Kabi, Birri Gubba, Kaantju)
Set during a climate apocalypse, countries around the world must select two Indigenous individuals to represent them onboard a space ship headed to planet K2-18B. Their mission? To repopulate the dying human race. But what happens when they discover that planet K2-18B is already inhabited by human-like inhabitants? A story about colonization and survival, this special reading of THE LOTTERY comes to t'karonto all the way from Magandjin (Brisbane), Queensland in Australia.

Northern Indigenous Play Readings presented by Gwaandak Theatre
Ämbäya Shäw/Big Aunties by Christine Genier (Ta'an Kwäch'än Council)
Intergenerational love, laughter, and lessons as Aunties and Nieces make dinner. A new script in development written by Yukon First Nation playwright.

November 21 at Aki Studio

10am - 4pm Animikiig Creators Unit Open Studio
The Animikiig Creators Unit is a two-year development program for emerging Indigenous creators. During this Open Studio, participants Shyanne Duquette, Cameron Fraser-Monroe, and Iota'keratenion Thomas-Beaton will share insight into their creative processes and current works-in-development as they come to the midway point of the program. The open studio is coordinated by Program Director Irma Villafuerte.

7:30pm - IXKAME: Baile de los ancestros (Jaguar Death: Dance of the ancestors) by B'atz' Recinos (Mayan)
Is it a journey into madness and possession? Is it an illness or a spiritual initiation? This work follows a being simply called—the vessel. Caught in a space between worlds, between time, they exist. Through movement feeling the rhythms of the cosmos, of life itself, they dance. Audiences follow their journey into the depths of the underworld to discover what happens to the vessel when they have lifted the veil.

November 22 at Aki Studio at 7:30pm

The Lottery by Waverley Stanley Jr
Repeat performance

Northern Indigenous Play Readings presented by Gwaandak Theatre
Dègok'ee'ǫǫ̀ the Land, it is burnt by Keira Ash (Tłı̨chǫ Dene)
When the climate crisis comes to our home, how do we show up for one another? This play is a love letter to the Land, grandmothers and ancestors that raised Keira Ash and to the plants and animals that share their home. It is a reckoning for the summer of sepia, of smoke, of evacuation.

November 25 at Aki Studio at 7:30 PM
Audio-described presentation, with Active Listeners on site

[soft waters] by Erica Wilson (Pine Creek First Nation)
Centered on the themes of water, drawing from original poetry, Miss Carcass Caresse parallels the shapeshifting, extracted, and life-giving nature of water. This one person cabaret explores the tension between bodies of women, water and possessing agency that are placed upon them. The performance style in [soft waters] aims to be simultaneously burlesque and haunting, utilizing contemporary movement, mask work, and puppetry to create an otherworldly cabaret experience.

XKAME: Baile de los ancestros by B'atz' Recinos
Repeat performance

November 26 at Aki Studio at 7:30 PM
Relaxed performance, with Active Listeners on site

[soft waters] by Erica Wilson
Repeat performance

Shelter from the Storm by Curtis Kaltenbaugh (Anishnaabe and Scottish/Irish)
The story involves a familial confrontation between an Ojibway brother and his two-spirited sibling. They meet after a period of estrangement but the tensions, from their personal history to their respective positions in the unhoused discourse, will not make for an easy truce.

November 27 at Aki Studio at 7:30 PM
Active Listeners on site

The 7 Fires: A New Musical by Dillan Meighan Chiblow (Ojibwe)
7 strangers run into the woods. As time goes on, the 7 strangers start to piece together their dreams, teachings from each other and from the land. They realize that their meeting in the woods wasn't “by chance”. The Ancestors have been communicating with them the entire time and want them to do a ceremony. A story about strength, reclamation, relationships to land, each other, and our Ancestors.

Shelter from the Storm by Curtis Kaltenbaugh
Repeat performance

November 28 at Bevy at 8pm

WAAWOONO
A Weesageechak Begins to Dance Revue

WAAWOONO (Ojibway for “s/he howls”) is a new music and comedy revue featuring stand-up comedy from Meg MacKay, music from GAELN, and drag from Ozzii Versace. It all ends on the dance floor with a DJ set from KIMIWVN, food, and some mingling!

10am - 12pm Animikiig Creators Unit Open Studio
The Animikiig Creators Unit is a two-year development program for emerging Indigenous creators. During this Open Studio, participant Shyanne Duquette, will share insight into their creative process and current work-in-development as they come to the midway point of the program. The open studio is coordinated by Program Director Irma Villafuerte.

November 29 at Aki Studio at 2:00 PM

The 7 Fires: A New Musical by Dillan Meighan Chiblow
Repeat performance