SKéN:NEN - Final Tuning Dance Residency Performance

Santee Smith, Tekaronhiáhkhwa/Picking Up The Sky is a multidisciplinary artist from the Kahnyen’kehàka Nation, Ohswé:ken/Six Nations of the Grand River. Her debut work Kaha:wi - a family creation story premiered in 2004 and one year later she founded Kaha:wi Dance Theatre which has grown into an internationally renowned company. Santee’s artistic work speaks about identity, Indigenous narratives, creative process, and representation. Conceiving and directing numerous productions, she also spearheads international Indigenous collaborative projects. She is the recipient of numerous awards and commissions and works as a guest curator/director. Smith's recent work includes Gardiner Museum's Indigenous Public Art for Talking Earth, 2022-23, Homelands Harbourfront Centre premiere and the theatreical premiere of SKéN:NEN 2024, presented by TOLive at the Bluma Appel Theatre. Santee resumes touring The Mush Hole, her production based on the truths of Canada's first Indian Residential School. Santee is a sought-after teacher and speaker on the performing arts and Indigenous performance, arts and culture. She is a leader in Indigenous land-based and creative research through her “Inviting the Land to Shape Us” series. She is the 19th Chancellor of McMaster University.

www.kahawidance.org
@kahawidance
@santeesmith
 

Photo credit: Make Emarthle/Shutter Shell Studios

Jesse Zubot is one of those unique musicians/composers whose praxis spans multiple genres and transcends contextualization into an idiom.  Known mainly as  a violinist, he is also a multi-instrumentalist and tends to incorporate electronic manipulation and studio gadgetry within his work.  Zubot is a 3-time Juno Award and multiple WCMA award winning musician.  He currently tours with the acclaimed Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq and produced both her Polaris Music Prize winning album 'Animism' and her current critically acclaimed album ‘Retribution’.   Artists Zubot has worked with in the more contemporary popular vein include Dan Mangan, Destroyer, Fond of Tigers, Mira Calix, Hawksley Workman, Veda Hille, Sandro Perri, Frog Eyes, Stars and Mother Mother.  Artists Zubot has worked with in the more improvisational and contemporary new music vein include Steve Reich, Francois Houle, Peggy Lee, Evan Parker, Eugene Chadbourne, Mats Gustafsson, Fred Frith, Eyvind Kang, Henry Kaiser and Nels Cline.  Zubot runs the critically acclaimed creative music record label Drip Audio and has composed for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia.  Recently, he has ventured into the world of film scoring having worked with Academy Award nominated director Kim Nguyen for his movie ‘Two Lovers and a Bear’.

Emma is the Creative Director and partner behind AVA Animation & Visual Arts and specializes in Projection Design. Originally from Mexico, she started with a Bachelor degree on Information Design. She is graduated with honours from both the Visual Effects for Cinema and Television and the Interactive Media Design postgraduate programs at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Canada. A member of the First Cohort of the #FifthWave Initiative by the Canadian Film Centre for women led businesses. With more than 14 years of professional experience, she has worked creating graphics and animation for renowned animation and post-production studios in Canada and abroad, among them E! Entertainment, Loop Media Inc., Enter the Picture, Tango Media Group and ETC Canada. Together with her partner Pedro Narvaez started AVA Animation and Visual Arts in 2010, pioneering the field of Architectural Projection Mapping for live events. Ever since they have created award winning works and installations for Mexico, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, United States, U.A.E., Lebanon, Armenia, Romania, Chile, Russia and Canada. 

James Kendal is a technician, carpenter and artist based in Toronto. His career in performance began as a youngster with training in music and many years as a classical ballet dancer. James’s career has shifted to stage technical and carpentry work following his years doing fine carpentry and home building. James has worked on many acclaimed productions - including touring internationally. Following his fast- paced years touring the world, James has taken on the role of Senior Performance Technician at McMaster University, where he currently spends most of his days. James is always delighted to work with Santee Smith.

Katie is an Anishinaabekwe Oji-Cree dance artist from Nipissing First Nation, and now based in Tkaronto. Katie has worked with companies and choreographers including Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, Human Body Expressions, Alejandro Ronceria, Christine Friday, Peggy Baker, and Jera Wolfe. She has performed at events including the FODAR Dance Festival (2023), Governor General’s Performance Awards (2023), APTN’s Indigenous Day Live (2022) and for film projects including The Nature of Things (2021), CBC Gem’s New Monuments (2021) and the Toronto Fringe Festival (2021). Most recently, Katie received a Dora nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble for the production of Homelands created by Santee Smith for Kaha:wi Dance Theatre and is excited to continue working with Kaha:wi Dance Theatre on their next show, SKéN:NEN in 2024.
 

Sophie is a Treaty 1-born, multidisciplinary creative, inspired by dance, music, film, collaboration, and Michif/Assiniboine + French/Ukrainian roots. An avid adventurer, Sophie exudes passions for busking, yoga and traveling on top of holding a degree in Dance Performance and Choreography from York University.  Sophie presently fulfills roles as: artistic associate of O.Dela Arts, The Chimera Project & V’ni Dansi/Louis Riel Métis Dancers, residency coordinator at Dance West Network, musician with The Honeycomb Flyers, a licensed practitioner of Traditional Thai Massage, a trained facilitator & student of BreathWave, a freelance dancer/choreographer/sound designer and a puddle jumping trickster.

Montana is from Oneida Nation of the Thames. He is an emerging choreographic artist who has begun development on his first performance project in 2022 at the Banff Centre named Conditions to Strike, which he showcased in the Jenny Belzberg Theatre. Montana has been working in theatre professionally since 2015; noteworthy works Montana has performed in are The Honouring (2015-2017), The Mush Hole (2016-2023) and most recent SKéN:NEN (2021-2023). Montana has collaborated with different performance collectives over the years like Dusk Dances (Kan^stote – 2021), Unsettled Score (Canoe – 2023), as well as Blue Bird Theatre Collective and Sweet Labour Art Collective. Additionally, Montana has previously acted on stage in plays such as Backyard Treater’s The Other Side of the River (2019) and The Grand Theatre’s Love Song for the Thunderbirds (2021).

Pedro is the Technical Director and Partner behind AVA Animation & Visual Arts. His background is Information Design with a postgraduate certificate in Visual Effects at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto. He has over 14 years of experience working in animation and post-production, collaborating studios in Canada and abroad, among them: Televisa, Organika, Loop Media Inc., and Zink Inc. Together with his partner Emma Lopez Hechem started AVA Animation and Visual Arts in 2010, pioneering the field of Architectural Projection Mapping for live events. Ever since they have created award winning works and installations for Mexico, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, United States, U.A.E., Lebanon, Armenia, Romania, Chile, Russia and Canada. 

Michel has designed over 100 productions and has been nominated for eight Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Toronto) one Sterling Award (Edmonton) and one Leon Rabin Award (Dallas). His work has been seen or heard in France, Haiti, Brazil and throughout North America at the Teatro Peon Contreras, the Kennedy Center, the Lajolla Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theater, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the Cultch, Alberta Theatre Projects, Canstage, Native Earth Performing Arts, Tarragon Theatre, Factory Theatre, Theatre Passe-Muraille, GCTC, National Arts Centre, Centaur Theatre, Roy Thompson Hall, Koerner Hall, the Stratford Festival and many points in between. Michel also has an extensive teaching background and has worked at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre and at York, Laurentian, and Bishop’s Universities.

Monique’s (Guna and Rappahannock Nations) artistic practice mines stories embedded in the body in connection to land and place. She has created land-based, embodied dramaturgies and taught Indigenous Theatre in theory, process and practice throughout Canada, the US, Latin America, and Europe. Most recent: the role of Wanda in My Sister’s Rage at Tarragon Theatre, Aunt Shady in The Unnatural and Accidental Women, at the NAC and Izzie M.: The Alchemy of Enfreakment written by Monique with a diverse creative team. Monique has collaborated with Santee Smith as the dramaturg for Kaha:wi Dance Theatre’s tryptic, Re-Quickening /Blood Tides/ SKéN:NEN and for Teneil Whiskeyjack’s Ayita for Edmonton’s SkirtsAfire Festival. She is a member of the newly formed Indigenous Dramaturgy Circle at Tarragon Theatre, and she was the inaugural Wurlitzer.

Shane is Kahnyen’kehàka from Ohswé:ken/Six Nations of the Grand River. He works as a videographer/photographer/editor/graphic designer/lighting technician/audio technician. Over the years, Shane has travelled extensively with various dance, theatre productions and musical groups providing the above services. His focus has been working within my Six Nations community, supporting our artists and cultural projects with organizations and artists such as: Woodland Cultural Centre, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, Thru the Red Door, Six Nations Polytechnic Institute, Six Nations Council, Derek Miller Band, Logan Staats, Rochester Knighthawks, Lacey Hill and more.

Senjuti (she/her) is a Bangali-Canadian, Tkaronto based multidisciplinary artist, designer, manager and a librarian. When she's not working to bring productions and creative visions to fruition, she's living her socialist fantasy in the very fantastic simulation game, The Sims 4. Some of her previous involvements include working with Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, Other HeArts, The AMY Project, The RISER Project and INDUSTRY and Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF).