January 2011
Hello and Happy New Year !We are looking forward to sharing our dances and diversity - to transform environmental consciousness in collaboration with communities in the year to come !January brought us to the beautiful state of Montana, where we offered several 4 performances, and 15 workshops in 8 days , interacting with over 2250 community members!We started in Helena, and enjoyed workshops at several elementary schools, as well as inter-generational creative collaborations with Helena Indian Alliance where there were several young people with talent and aspiration for dance ! The highlight was the welcoming by Chief James Saint Goddard , hereditary chief of the Blackfoot confederacy, who accepted our gift of Southwestern sage and welcomed us to bring our dances into his territory, where he has been working tirelessly on preservation of sacred lands and of 4 leggeds who have traditionally inhabited the area. Of the performance, he said " something so special , that its indescribable in words" ! Also in attendence was Jonathan Windy Boy of the Chippewa Cree, himself once renowned through the world as a grass dancer with the original American Indian Dance Theater ( as choreographed by our colleague Raoul Trujillo), but now devoting himself through betterment of our people through his work in the Montana Legislature.
In Whitefish we were stunned by the stunning vista of mountains, and in the population of 5000 we held 3 performances to a full house of 450 ! This included 2 matinees for middle school youth, with young Blackfoot visitors driving in all the way from Browning !Next we went to Ronan school district on the Salish-Kootenai reservation, where we did 9 workshops for 3rd- high school youth, and were treated to fry bread Indian tacos by Pearl Yellowman.Thank you Montana, we hope to return soon !Here are links for:the Myrna Loy Center in Helena, Jan 21http://www.myrnaloycenter.com/education.htmand Whitefish Theatre Co, Jan 23 :http://www.whitefishtheatreco.org/