On Friday night, the past and present will merge at the S|t. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.
Toronto Today reports that 110 Indigenous youths will don colourful costumes and express themselves through traditional dance with a modern twist.
These dancers travelled to Toronto from all over the country this week to participate in Canada’s largest Indigenous stage performance.
Rehearsals are currently taking place at the venue, where it was observed that excited young dancers buzzing around in preparation on Wednesday afternoon. Many of the kids are getting ready to share their culture on a professional stage for the first time.
The 19th annual showcase, hosted by the non-profit Outside Looking In, will feature dancers and performers from 11 First Nations and Inuit communities across the country, including remote fly-in regions.
The showcase will combine hip-hop and traditional Indigenous dance with high-energy live music including drumming, fiddling and classical guitar.
The Indigenous-led charity was founded in 2007 with a mission to empower Indigenous youths to complete high school through a focus on arts-based education.
Artistic director Candace Scott-Moore told Toronto Today this year’s performance titled Water Dance, demonstrates how Indigenous communities celebrate and honour water as a sacred element. Choreographed dances will touch on both the water crises that many Indigenous communities are facing as well as solutions for conservation.
Guest performances include 2024 Canada’s Got Talent winner Rebecca Strong, who is a member of the Black Lake Denesuline First Nation, as well as Nucky Jmc, a Metis rapper whose music recently reached number one on the Indigenous Music Countdown. Ascension Harjo, a world champion hoop dancer from Six Nations lof the Grand River, will also perform.
Scott Moore – who is from the Anishinaabe community Chippewas of Kettle and |Stony Point First Nation, near Lake Huron in southern Ontario – said of the 11 communities involved in the showcase, her community is geographically the closest to Toronto.
Scott-Moore added that for many of the youths, it’s their first time travelling away from home. While many of them arrive as strangers to each other, she said the dancers perform naturally in sync because they’ve been practicing similar community dances at home.
