ASAP 2025 presenting Catch and Release on August 21st

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Catch and Release
Culminating performance for the 2025 Aanmitaagzi Summer Arts Program

August 21, 2025 at 7 pm
Big Medicine Studio
161 Couchie Memorial Dr, Nipissing First Nation

Aanmitaagzi and the participants of the 2025 Aanmitaagzi Summer Arts Program are pleased to invite you all to Catch and Release, the culminating performance for this year’s program. The artists and youth participants have been working hard since the beginning of July to develop and prepare for this presentation through singing, dancing, regalia making, storytelling, visual explorations, attending pow wows, and other arts activities. The collaboratively created and performed work is an investigation and expression of indigenous dance and storytelling that has grown out of these activities and what lies in the hearts and minds of everyone involved. The presentation is free to attend and all are welcome.

The Aanmitaagzi Summer Arts Program (ASAP) is an annual 8-week intensive in indigenous performing and visual arts. Now in its eighteenth year, the program is led by award winning and renowned professional indigenous artists and educators. The program gives indigenous youth the opportunity to learn, share, express and create alongside our professional multi-arts team, guest artists, and community-members in a collaborative, inter-generational, and welcoming space.

Catch and Release is co-created and performed by:

Lead Artists – Sid Bobb, Penny Couchie, Katie Couchie, and Darren Nakogee with special guests Doreen Bellaire and Animikiikwe Couchie-Waukey

Program Participants – Albany Benson, Ouske Couchie-Bobb,  Lukas Driedger, Autumn Hookimaw, Mya Katt, Markus Lazary, William McGrath, Tayton  Mianskum, Malia Mathias-Mizzi, Niibin Nakogee, Finn Rice, and Shania Splane

Set by Sherry Guppy with Laura Linklater-Wong and Paige Linklater-Wong

Aanmitaagzi wishes to thank the Government of Canada through the Canada Council for the Arts and the Canada Summer Jobs Program, the Ontario Government through the Ontario Arts Council, Mushkegowuk Employment & Training Services, Moose Cree Training & Employment Unit, and the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre’s Apatisiwin Program for generously supporting the 2025 Summer Arts Program.

 

CONVERSATIONS coming to the Capitol Centre on August 9th

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CONVERSATIONS: Hidden Stories

Aanmitaagzi Story Makers & Vanguardia Dance Projects

August 9th at 7:00 pm
Betty Speers Theatre – Capitol Centre
150 Main St E, North Bay, ON

After premiering in Kitchener earlier this year, Aanmitaagzi Story Makers & Vanguardia Dance Projects are excited to bring CONVERSATIONS: Hidden Stories to the Capitol Centre in North Bay as part of ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival’s 2025 Duality program. This will be a one night only performance. Admission is free, but the festival is accepting PWYC donations to help offset costs.

CONVERSATIONS: Hidden Stories is a dialogue of bodies extended in various latitudes of the Americas. Starting from the investigation of “body and territory” by the Colombian-Canadian choreographer Olga Barrios, this work seeks a conversation between women through the Americas, seeking a South-North echo. Barrios’ research/creation explores the traces of Indigenous heritage that have been erased in her journey, as has happened with many people in various places in America and the planet. This work is based on the woman of many colours that she experiences in herself and with the many other voices in the world that seek connection with ideas of traces erased from history.

Production Credits

Dancers & Text Creators: Norma Araiza, Olga Barrios, Penny Couchie, Animikiikwe Couchie-Waukey, Lilia León
Composer & Sound Designer: Edgardo Moreno
Projection Artist: Alejandra Higuera in collaboration with Olga Barrios
Costumes: Jennifer Kelly
Lighting Design: Trevor Schwellnus
Installation Artists: Aanmitaagzi with Sherry Guppy (lead), Sid Bobb, Penny Couchie, Katie Couchie, and Olivia Shortt.
Director & Choreographer: Olga Barrios
Stage Manager: Kelsey Ruhl

Locations of work development: Big Medicine Studio (Nipissing First Nation), Arcadia Artists Co-op & National Ballet of Canada (Toronto)

On stage canvas installation developed by Aanmitaagzi artists in collaboration with the participants of the 2023 Aanmitaagzi Summer Arts Program at Big Medicine Studio in Nipissing First Nation.

About the Companies:

Vanguardia Dance Projects is a collective focused on creating, presenting, promoting and supporting works of dance artists with Latin American and Indigenous backgrounds living in Canada. We intend to promote an ongoing exchange and collaboration with international dance organizations and artists. We are interested in the dissemination of contemporary artistic practices of dance artists with Latin American background in Canada, maintaining conversations with the rest of the country and the world. We support innovative artists that include other art disciplines pushing the boundaries of what is called “contemporary” as well as works that, having dance as the core, reflect a permanent search of expression through different languages. www.vanguardiadanceprojects.com

Aanmitaagzi Story Makers is an Indigenous multi-disciplinary artist-run company based in Nipissing First Nation. Linked to provincial, national and international networks, we are committed to fostering a vibrant arts community through community-engaged projects that promote well-being, strengthen relationships with the land, and incorporate intergenerational approaches and methodologies. We combine art-making, education, professional development & social activism through contemporary and customary arts, nurturing historic Indigenous arts practices and exploring how these practices can be carried forward in a meaningful contemporary context. www.aanmitaagzi.net

House Concert & Open Mic – May 4, 2025

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Aanmitaagzi is hosting a House Concert and Open Mic session on Sunday, May 4th from 1 to 5 pm. Kicking off with an amazing set by Migizi Country (Dan Commanda & Leland Bell), the afternoon will continue with songs, stories, and spoken word performances from guests and audience members. Pre-registration is not required, but is appreciated if you plan on taking a turn at the mic. Light refreshments will be served and all are welcome.

For more information, or to sign up for the open mic session, please contact Sid Bobb at (705) 474-2227 or aanmitaagzi@gmail.com.

Hope to see you there!

Landing Workshop on March 29th

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Landing

Free visual and physical creation workshop
March 29, 2025 from 10 am – 1 pm
The Registry Theatre – 122 Frederick St., Kitchener, ON

Join us for this exciting artistic exploration in visual and physical creation, facilitated by Vanguardia Dance Projects and Aanmitaagzi! Get ready to move and tap into a new way of creating, brush up on your existing skills, and develop new abilities in creation.

Landing is a workshop aimed at exploring and investigating the relationship between place, land, and our own landscapes. We will engage in creating small dances inspired by big questions: What are we moved by? How do we celebrate the multidimensionality of who we are and the multitude of ways we express ourselves?

This workshop activity is being hosted as part of the presentation of the dance theatre piece CONVERSATIONS: Hidden Stories, presented by MT Space as part of their 24-25 season. Get the chance to meet the artists behind the work and discover how the work was created.

The world premiere of CONVERSATIONS: Hidden Stories runs from March 27-30, 2025 at The Registry Theatre.

For more information, please contact MT Space or visit the workshop event page on Facebook.

About MT Space:

Founded in 2004 by Lebanese-Canadian director, actor, and dancer Majdi Bou-Matar, MT Space (Multicultural Theatre Space) is a platform for all artists that have felt marginalized, racialized, and displaced. Centralizing marginalized and racialized artists and stories, it was created to fill what seems to be a great void in a community of many different peoples.

For the past seventeen years, MT Space has been fulfilling its mandate by creating, producing, touring, and presenting artistic work that reflects Canada’s cultural diversity. Since 2004, MT Space has become a conduit for internationally trained immigrants and newcomer professionals across all disciplines. It has grown from being a company that produces one show every year to an organization that brings culturally and socially relevant work from across the country and around the world to our community of Kitchener-Waterloo. MT Space challenges the preconceptions of theatre to create, produce, and present work that is accessible and affordable to low-income families while creating a space for Indigenous, immigrant, refugee, and marginalized voices to be heard.

CONVERSATIONS: Hidden Stories World Premiere

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CONVERSATIONS: Hidden Stories

WORLD PREMIERE – MARCH 27th at MT Space in Kitchener, ON

CONVERSATIONS: Hidden Stories is a dialogue of bodies extended in various latitudes of the Americas. Starting from the investigation of “body and territory” by the Colombian-Canadian choreographer Olga Barrios, this work seeks a conversation between women through the Americas, seeking a South-North echo.

Barrios’ research/creation explores the traces of Indigenous heritage that have been erased in her journey, as has happened with many people in various places in America and the planet. This work is based on the woman of many colours that she experiences in herself and with the many other voices in the world that seek connection with ideas of traces erased from history.

Production Credits

Dancers & Text Creators: Norma Araiza, Olga Barrios, Penny Couchie, Animikiikwe Couchie-Waukey, Lilia León

Composer & Sound Designer: Edgardo Moreno

Projection Artist: Alejandra Higuera in collaboration with Olga Barrios

Costumes: Jennifer Kelly

Lighting Design: Trevor Schwellnus

Installation Artists: Aanmitaagzi with Sherry Guppy (lead), Sid Bobb, & Penny Couchie

Director & Choreographer: Olga Barrios

Stage Manager: Kelsey Ruhl

On stage canvas installation developed by Aanmitaagzi artists in collaboration with the participants of the 2023 Aanmitaagzi Summer Arts Program at Big Medicine Studio in Nipissing First Nation.

Production Details

About the Companies

Vanguardia Dance Projects, is a collective focused on creating, presenting, promoting and supporting works of dance artists with Latin American and Indigenous backgrounds living in Canada. We intend to promote an ongoing exchange and collaboration with international dance organizations and artists. We are interested in the dissemination of contemporary artistic practices of dance artists with Latin American background in Canada, maintaining conversations with the rest of the country and the world. We support innovative artists that include other art disciplines pushing the boundaries of what is called “contemporary” as well as works that, having dance as the core, reflect a permanent search of expression through different languages.

Aanmitaagzi is an Indigenous multi-disciplinary artist-run company based in Nipissing First Nation. Linked to provincial, national and international networks, we are committed to fostering a vibrant arts community through community-engaged projects that promote well-being, strengthen relationships with the land, and incorporate intergenerational approaches and methodologies. We combines art-making, education, professional development & social activism through contemporary and customary arts, nurturing historic Indigenous arts practices and exploring how these practices can be carried forward in a meaningful contemporary context.

Production Tickets

THE REGISTRY THEATRE
122 Frederick St, Kitchener, ON

WORLD PREMIERE | WORLD THEATRE DAY 
Mar 27 . . . . . . . 7:30 PM 

MORE SHOWTIMES: 
Mar 28 . . . . . . . 7:30 PM
Mar 29 . . . . . . . 7:30 PM
Mar 30 . . . . . . . 2:00 PM 

Click Here To Buy Tickets

No Fee for Indigenous Patrons

Use promo code WILLOW when booking tickets online. Reserve now or get tickets at the venue pre-show. If you have any questions, call or email MT Space’s box office.

Phone: 519-585-7783 / Email: tickets@mtspace.ca

Sponsors and Acknowledgements

Locations of work development: Big Medicine Studio (Nipissing First Nation), Arcadia Artists Co-op & National Ballet of Canada (Toronto)

Aanmitaagzi wishes to acknowledge the funding support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario, as well as the Canada Council for the Arts, for this project and our ongoing operations.