Starrwind Dance Projects/Raven Spirit Dance's Spine of the Mother and Shay Kuebler Radical System Art's GLORY, Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 8 p.m., at Vancouver's Scotiabank Dance Centre. The double bill is part of Dance In Vancouver, Nov. 18-22. Tickets ($30/$22) and info: thedancecentre.ca.
The image continued to haunt her.
Having travelled to Peru on a number of occasions since 2002 to conduct research as part of her university studies as well as for pleasure, travelling with friends and family, professional dancer and choreographer Starr Muranko was introduced to a story from indigenous elders that she was unable to shake. "The spine of mother earth was the Andes mountain range and from their understanding that begins in Argentina and goes all the way up to Alaska," says the North Vancouver resident.
"It was this really strong image that North and South America, we share this mountain range and that was the actual spine of mother earth and that's where we were connected and where energy ran up and down these mountains. It was this image that stuck with me for several years. It kept nudging me and then finally I was like, 'I need to probably do a dance piece about this,'" With the story at top of mind, three years ago Muranko embarked on a cross-cultural collaborative research project, joined by indigenous artists in both Vancouver and Peru. Her resulting piece, Spine of the Mother, is one of two works being performed Wednesday, Nov. 18, at Vancouver's Scotiabank Dance Centre as part of the 10th biennial Dance In Vancouver. The five-day showcase of B.C.'s contemporary dance scene, running Wednesday through Sunday (Nov. 18- 22), is presented by The Dance Centre.
Spine of the Mother is a co-production of Starrwind Dance Projects, a non-profit organization that Muranko founded in 2009 as a means of supporting her research and development work focused on the creation and production of contemporary Aboriginal dance, and Raven Spirit Dance, which works to create, develop and produce contemporary dance from an Aboriginal world view. Muranko serves as an artistic associate with the company.
This is the first time that Muranko, who sits on the board of The Dance Centre, has shared a completed work on the mainstage of Dance In Vancouver. She did however offer a sneak peek, presenting an early excerpt of Spine of the Mother, as part of its last edition. The work has continued to evolve since then and Muranko is excited to be presenting it in its entirety this time around.
Muranko choreographed the work for two dancers.
"Pretty early on I realized that for this particular piece it seemed to be strongest as a duet because it really could create this relationship and this tension between the two points: north and south," she says.
The upcoming performances will be danced by Tasha-Faye Evans, a Vancouverbased Coast Salish artist, and Lima, Peru's Andrea Patriau. At times, Vancouver's Olivia Shaffer dances Patriau's role.
"As an audience member if you just settle into yourself and go on the journey with the dancers, then the process of the journey is that reconnection to yourself and to others. And I think too the thing that we've really realized is it's a women's journey. We're three women creating the piece, there's two women dancing. We talk about Mother Earth being a feminine force. We've talked about all the journeys that women go on in life whether it be childbirth or carrying the weight of the family or community or loss or love or all of those things. We've explored that in the research and we're hopefully going to be able to translate that into the presentation so that people can see some of those journeys for themselves," says Muranko.
These themes are among those commonly explored in her works.
"Even with the previous piece that I did, called before7after, which was connected to seven generations of Cree women in my mom's family up in northern Ontario (part of the Moose Cree First Nation), the thread that seems to be the things that I'm interested in is this connection to land and identity and traditional stories or teachings and then how do we embody that as people living in 2015 here in the city. And so I feel like there's an interest or a curiosity or a pull for me around telling stories that come from the land and stories that we carry in our bodies. I believe that even our bones have memories, and our blood and our flesh and all of that," she says.
Muranko is grateful for the support of her cultural advisor on the project, Peru's Jhaimy Alvarez-Acosta, who offered important insight in light of being grounded in those traditions and world view.
"What is it that the earth is trying to tell us from North and South America? That's kind of the thing that I keep coming back to even though the form is contemporary or modern in terms of how we're expressing it. The story and the world view and the perspective and even the process in the studio is always very much grounded in an indigenous perspective," she says.
Sharing the bill with Spine of the Mother Wednesday night is Shay Kuebler Radical System Art's GLORY. GLORY was inspired by the "epic battles of childhood and a passion for action films, examining the complexities of violent behaviour and its glorification in our media-drenched culture," according to The Dance Centre.
"They're two very different pieces but I think it's going to be exciting to actually see how they come together.. .. It'll be a nice evening for people to come and see two very different expressions of contemporary dance," says Muranko.
Other performances being presented at this year's Dance In Vancouver at the Scotiabank Dance Centre include: Ziyian Kwan's dumb instrument Dance a slow awkward and The Biting School's The Righteous Floater on Thursday; MascallDance's The Three Cornered Hat on Friday; MACHINENOISY plaything and Vanessa Goodman's Action at a Distance Wells Hill on Saturday; and Marta Marta Productions' Speaking in Ligeti on Sunday. Battery opera productions' M/Hotel will also be presented Wednesday through Friday at the Holiday Inn Vancouver Downtown.
Following Wednesday's performance of Spine of the Mother, it will be performed in Toronto Nov. 20 before returning to Vancouver for its official premiere at Earth Song, a double bill of contemporary Aboriginal dance works presented by Raven Spirit Dance at The Dance Centre, Nov. 26-28.
