carriers and keepers of the ancestral portals & ʔa·kinq̓uku (MU 2026)

An old ancestor and a new ancestor exchange experience and tradition as they pass each other on their journeys out of and into this world. Passing through the portals, they dream of timelines bridging and uniting to bring about a new vision of their shared future. Created and performed by World Champion hoop dancer, Beany John, and Contemporary dancer, choreographer and musician, Sophie Dow, carriers and keepers of the ancestral portals is a high energy duet weaving together their Taino-Cree (John) & Michif (Dow) cultures into an enticing exchange of Hoop Dance, Métis Jigging and Contemporary choreography. 

Fire ignites, grows, burns, and devours. Once it decays, what destruction does it leave behind? How does the earth regrow out of the ashes?  ʔa·kinq̓uku, the word for fire in the Ktunaxa Language, is the choreographer’s expression of the life cycle of a BC wildfire, and the subsequent regrowth that follows. Created and performed by Samantha Sutherland, (Ktunaxa), the solo is inspired by the wildfire that burned through Sutherland’s home community of ʔaq̓am in the summer of 2023.

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