Dancers of Damelahamid celebrates the 15th annual Coastal Dance Festival, April 20-24, 2022 at New Westminster’s Anvil Centre, showcasing Indigenous stories, song, and dance from across Canada and around the world.
This year’s festival is included in Canada’s yearlong Nordic Bridges initiative, fostering cultural exchange between Canada and the Nordic region through the multidisciplinary presentation of contemporary art, culture and ideas. To honour the festival’s milestone anniversary, Dancers of Damelahamid are also creating a short documentary to be available online this summer, sharing stories about its community of dancers and highlighting themes of cultural revitalization and resiliency.
“We are overjoyed with the opportunity to once again gather together at the Anvil Centre to celebrate and honour the cultural sharing from Indigenous artists from the Northwest Coast, as well as across Turtle Island and globally,” says Margaret Grenier, Festival Executive & Artistic Director. “As we celebrate Coastal Dance Festival’s commemorative 15th anniversary, we are immensely grateful to showcase a Northern focus in our festival programming. By bringing together Indigenous artists from across the Northern hemisphere, we attest to the diversity and strength of Indigenous arts, language, song, dance and regalia from these regions. This collaboration not only strengthens our artistic practices, but encourages collective understanding of our unique histories and cultures, which is something we can all benefit from in our increasingly divided world.”
As part of Nordic Bridges, Coastal Dance Festival will premiere works from four Indigenous Sámi artists from Norway and Sweden. In a festival first, an evening dedicated to contemporary Indigenous dance will feature a duet from Swedish Sámi contemporary dancers Liv Aira, artistic director of the Sámi-based Invisible People Contemporary Dance, and Marika Renhuvud, a dance educator and member of Aira’s dance company, as well as Norwegian Sámi aerial acrobatic dancer Camilla Therese Karlsen, who will perform with two members of her company. Joining the contemporary program is a local Indigenous artist who will make their festival debut: Tasha Faye Evans (Coast Salish), a Port Moody dance and theatre artist, who will share an excerpt of her latest work Cedar Woman.
The festival will also present several traditional Indigenous artists, including Norway’s Sámi singer and activist Sara Marielle Gaup and Sámi singer and poet Lawra Somby, as well as introduce Theland Kicknosway (Potawatomi, Cree), an 18-year-old youth activist, influencer and hoop dancer from Walpole Island, Bkejwanong Territory, in Ontario.
In addition to signature presentations from Sámi artists from Norway and Sweden, this year’s festival welcomes performances from 15 Indigenous groups from throughout British Columbia, Washington, Alaska, the Yukon, and Ontario.
This year, Coastal Dance Festival will introduce an Artist Sharing, which promises to complement the festival’s signature evening and festival stage performances. The series will serve as a platform for cultural sharing, featuring panel discussions and short presentations to deepen our understanding of Indigenous artistic practices, histories and sources of inspiration.
2022 Coastal Dance Festival Program includes:
ONLINE LAUNCH @ damelahamid.ca
Wednesday, April 20
Welcome to territory / Message from Margaret Grenier, Festival Director
In-Person @ The Anvil Centre
ARTIST SHARING | Free
Thursday, April 21 | 6:30 PM, doors open at 6:15 PM
SIGNATURE EVENING PERFORMANCES | Ticketed gala event
Thursday, April 21 | 8 PM, doors open at 7:30 PM
ARTIST SHARING | Free
Friday, April 22 | 6:30 PM, doors open at 6:15 PM
SIGNATURE EVENING PERFORMANCES | Ticketed gala event
Friday, April 22 | 8 PM, doors open at 7:30 PM
FESTIVAL STAGE PERFORMANCES | By donation
Saturday, April 23 | Programs @ 1pm, 2pm, 3pm
ARTIST SHARING | Free
Saturday, April 23 at 4:30 PM
FESTIVAL STAGE PERFORMANCES | By donation
Sunday, April 24 | Programs @ 1pm, 2pm, 3pm
Visit damelahamid.ca for the full schedule line-up, festival details and tickets.