Dancers of Damelahamid is warming up for the 13th annual Coastal Dance Festival, a celebration of Canadian and global Indigenous stories, song, and dance.
Taking place February 25–March 1, 2020 at two locations; the Anvil Centre in New Westminster and at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. The 2020 program includes the festival debut of Tooma Laisa and Leanna Wilson (Inuit), a musician duo from Canada’s Arctic, and youth workshops between the New Zealand-based Tuakana and Teina Leadership Academy Group, and two BC-based groups Ewk Hyaha Hozdii (Wet’suwet’en) and Yisya’winuxw (Kwakwaka’wakw).
“We’re thrilled to expand our 2020 edition to two venues that have become home to the Coastal Dance Festival,” says Margaret Grenier, Festival Executive & Artistic Director. “We found such engaged new audiences at the Anvil Centre last year and it was a joy to present our innovative, ancestral performances within the state-of-the-art space. We’re also honoured to perform for student audiences once again in MOA’s Great Hall, which will bring together the energy of local and international youth groups in a setting full of iconic Indigenous artworks. Looking to the future of Indigenous culture and the transference of knowledge forward through the generations, I can think of no better way to bridge communities in the Northwest Coast and beyond than through our 2020 program.”
This year’s festival welcomes 14 Indigenous performance groups from throughout British Columbia, Alaska, the Yukon, and Nunavut as well as international guest artists from as far away as New Zealand. Highlights include the return of several festival favourites: Chinook Song Catchers, with 10 cultural presenters, the Squamish-based dance company Spakwus Slolem, performances by Git Hayetsk and Git Hoan, the multigenerational Coast Salish Xwelmexw Shxwexwo:s (Salish Thunderbird); and the Haida company Rainbow Creek Dancers, featuring renowned artists Robert Davidson and Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson. The mother and daughter team of Chesha7 iy lha mens will return alongside the award-winning Inland Tlingit Dakhká Khwáan Dancers and the Nisga’a Kwhlii Gibaykw.
The 13th annual Coastal Dance Festival, takes place February 25–March 1, 2020 at the Anvil Centre in New Westminster and at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. Dancers of Damelahamid acknowledge the festival takes place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Qayqayt and Musqueam peoples.
Find out the full program lineup, schedule and tickets online at damelahamid.ca.