Tag Archives: Vanguardia Dance Projects

Niimi’iwe Dance Double Bill at Native Earth Performing Arts

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Aanmitaagzi is very excited to present Conversations: Hidden Stories with Vanguardia Dance Projects as part of the Niimi’iwe Dance Double Bill at Native Earth Performing Arts this week! The show will run from February 5 – 8, 2026 at Aki Studio in Toronto, and will be accompanied by a workshop led by Vanguardia’s Co-Artistic Director Norma Papalotl Araiza at 11:00 am on Saturday. The other half of the Double Bill is Spine of the Mother by Raven Spirit Dance, and you can find out more about both productions below.

CONVERSATIONS: HIDDEN STORIES

Conversations was inspired by the investigation of “body and territory” by the Colombian-Canadian choreographer Olga Barrios. This work springs forth from the women of many colours that she experiences in herself and the many other voices in the world that seek connection with ideas of traces erased from history. In 2023, under the direction of Olga, the artists of Vanguardia and Aanmitaagzi came together with the desire to share, investigate and explore the land, people, culture and stories we are connected to. Looking at stories of displacement and erasure, Conversations is a journey through what has separated us from ourselves and each other. Through soil, fabric, land and water, the work reaffirms a sovereign right to ancestral memory, connection and future.

Photo by Colin Boyd Shafer

CREDITS:

Creators: Norma Araiza, Penny Couchie, Animikiikwe Couchie, Lilia León, Olga Barrios
Dancers: Norma Araiza, Lilia León, Olga Barrios
Guest Dancers: Lucia Llano, Maria Riaño
Director & Choreographer: Olga Barrios
Composer and Sound Designer: Edgardo Moreno
Projection Designs: Alejandra Higuera and Olga Barrios
Visual Artist: Sherry Guppy, Alejandra Higuera
Costumes: Jennifer Kelly
Lighting Design: Trevor Schwellnus
Stage Manager: Kelsey Ruhl

SPINE OF THE MOTHER

Tracing the inner terrain of our bodies as women through breath, impulse and memory unlocks kinetic energy creating ritual, which spans the spine of the mountain range we have shared for millennia.

The metaphor of the “Spine of Mother Earth” is a name given by Indigenous Elders in South America to the Andean mountain range that spans from the base in Argentina, through the Americas and ends at the tip of Alaska. Our bodies become the landscape like the mountain ranges that connect the North and South (the Eagle and the Condor) and through this we find our kinetic connection to others that transmits impulse, breath and spirit.

Spine of the Mother began as an innovative collaboration with Indigenous artists in Canada and Peru and over the past decade has been performed across Canada and most recently internationally at the Kia Mau Festival in Wellington, New Zealand as part of Raven Spirit Dance’s 20th Anniversary tour.

Photo by Yasu Okada

CREDITS:

Choreography: Starr Muranko
In collaboration with and performed by Tasha Faye Evans * and Marisa Gold *
Past performers and artistic lineage: Andrea Patriau, Olivia Shaffer and Sarah Formosa
Produced by: Raven Spirit Dance
Original Sound composition by: Edgardo Moreno (‘Gracias a la Vida’ sung by Daniela Andrade)
Lighting Design: Jonathan Kim
Video/Media Design: Sammy Chien
Dramaturge and Mentor: Alvin Tolentio
Mentor: Michelle Olson
Cultural Advisor: Jhaimy Alvarez-Acosta (Peru)
Original Costume Design: Ines Ortner
Additional costume design + Additional Dramaturgy: Alejandro Ronceria

* The participation of this Artist (these Artists) is arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the Dance Opera Theatre Policy (DOT).

SHOWS:

Thursday, February 5th @ 7:30pm
Friday, February 6th @ 7:30pm
Saturday, February 7th @ 7:30pm
Sunday, February 8th @ 2:00pm

To buy tickets, please visit Native Earth’s website or click here.

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

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.