EAIR 2022: Sarah Prosper

 Kwe'

Paqsitpi Welti eymu’sip Mocean Dance wula nipk, ketu telimuloq telji elukwey, aq koqowey we’jitmi kijka’jij.

Hello,

I am so happy to have had the opportunity to be an Artist in Residence with Mocean Dance this past summer. I would like to share some of what I have been up to including, where I’ve been, where my research has taken me and perhaps where this may go.

Though, beginning with Mocean is located in Mi’kmaq Territory, I spent the first month of my residency in Treaty 7, beside the sacred sleeping Buffalo Mountain, also known as Banff Centre Arts & Creativity in the Intercultural Indiegenous Choreographers Creation Lab. This lab was life giving for my career as an Indigenous Artist, where I participated with 8 other First Nations from around the world. Deep roots of life, love, and history was minced and mashed into these three weeks we spent closely together. I found song, spirit, and dreams in sleep and in movement. It was magical.

When I returned to Mi’kma’ki, my proposed research began at our gatherings, participating in powwows throughout Mi’kma’ki dancing traditional kojua, fancy and jingle. I brought works to Painted Dance Co in workshops, Eskasoni First Nation, Jeremy Dutcher & Friends concert, Bear River First Nation, and in outdoor spaces in reflection of the months passing. The creative grounds I stood on were shaking, I could feel the answers coming, and I had no clue what they meant or how I would share. I finished these beautiful weeks with a small open house of the ideas and exploration that was becoming.

Hieroglyphs and petroglyphs in my mind, poured onto paper, like language, I understood. My body longed for this, in movement and in sight, I could see my histories align. Although, still many questions remain, what a gift, we are able to create and recreate, again and again.

Wela’lin

Mocean Dance
Sara & Susanne
shalan joudry
Banff Centre Indigenous Dance Staff
Painted Dance
Jeremy Dutcher
Lisa Pearly Dutcher
Brother Aaron
Family & Friends

Kesaluloq, Sarah

Photos courtesy of Sarah Prosper