Friday Creeations and Native Earth Present MAGGIE & ME: A Healing Dance By Christine Friday
By: Stephi Wild
Friday Creeations and Native Earth Performing Arts are thrilled to present Maggie & Me: A Healing Dance, conceptualized, choreographed, and performed by Christine Friday featuring Penny Couchie, Waawaate Fobister, and Beany John from April 16 - 19, 2020 at Aki Studio.
Maggie & Me honours the legacy of women as healers in our communities. Through her ancestral gifts and experiences, the dancer receives a contemporary healing dance. Travelling through dimensional realms of existence - spirit, dream, and present - we are invited into the dancer's journey of healing and revitalization of the Anishinaabe culture. With a movement style that is free, lyrical and explosive, she walks into her own power. Christine Friday is an Anishinaabekwe from the Temagami First Nation. She is a proficient and resilient Indigenous storyteller. She began her career with In the Land of Spirits in 1992, and has maintained a professional dance career for over 27 years, choreographing solo work, commissioned work, youth creations, dance programming for youth, and full-scale productions. She launched her company Friday Creeations, a film and stage production company, and recently created/produced a 10-minute documentary dance film called "Path Without End" which is about her family story. She was awarded the 2018 K.M. Hunter Award for Dance through the Ontario Arts Council. Christine is deeply connected to the cultural wellness of her people and works hard to maintain cultural traditions and gifts of her Anishinaabe people. Her intention is to awaken people within themselves, creating a shift change in the world by reflecting reality and the human experience. She is currently building a vision for a Cultural Creation Centre in her community of Bear Island, Lake Temagami. Performing alongside Christine are award-winning arts leader, dancer, actor, choreography, and community-engaged artist Penny Couchie (Anishinaabe), actor, dancer, playwright, choreographer, producer, and Grass Dancer Waawaate Fobister (Anishinaabe), and champion Grass Dancer and Hoop Dancer Beany John (Taino and Cree). The production is further enriched by dramaturg Robert Desrosiers, lighting and technical director Rasmus Sylvest, sound designer Rob Bertola, and Set & Video designer Michala Clemmensan. This breathtaking immersive performance shares the story of how a healing dance can strengthen communities.
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