World champion Hoop Dancer, Beany John, shares about the history of the hoop dance and the importance of creation through the hoop, in a workshop setting welcoming all into movement. No previous experience required. Hoops will be provided. All ages and abilities are welcome.
Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie St, Vancouver, BC)
The Birmingham Studio, Level 3
By donation
Beany John
Beany John is a Two Spirit shapeshifter, storyteller, and dancer. She is Taino and Cree from Kehewin, Alberta. She is a Grass Dancer, Hoop Dancer, and traditional artisan. Beany has been teaching Hoop Dance to youth across Canada since 2004.
Presented in Partnership with
The Training Society of Vancouver
Join Olivia for an advanced Contemporary dance class including improvisation and exercises that will get the blood pumping. This masterclass will also give insight into the choreographic method behind the artist’s choreography, Matriarchs. All are welcome.
Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie St, Vancouver, BC)
The Birmingham Studio, Level 3
$15
Olivia Adams
Olivia Adams is a proud Wulli Wulli woman from and based in Meanjin (Brisbane) in so called Australia. Olivia works as an independent dancer, choreographer and producer and is proud to work in and on works that champion First Nations voices and stories and is passionate about the practice of healing and storytelling through dance.
Guided by movement, story, and country, this workshop invites participants to explore embodiment as a form of cultural and personal storytelling. Through improvisation, imagination, and collective grounding, Amelia Jean O’Leary leads a space of connection, sovereignty, and creative release, where dance becomes story, resistance, and renewal. All ages and abilities are welcome. By donation.
Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie St, Vancouver, BC)
The Birmingham Studio, Level 3
By donation
Amelia Jean O’Leary
Amelia Jean O’Leary (she/they/yinarr) is a queer First Nations Gamilaroi and Wadawurrung Yinarr dance artist, storyteller, and director based on Gadigal Land. Blending dance, sound, and story, her work explores queerness, sovereignty, and resilience. Transforming performance into acts of alchemy, connection, and cultural reclamation.
Champion hoop dancer Sandra Lamouche offers this introductory hoop dance that is open to all levels of movement experience. Participants will learn basic steps and the foundations of hoop dancing, plus history, teachings and stories that are associated with the hoop dance in order to gain understanding and appreciation for this form of Indigenous dance and culture. Hoops will be provided. No previous experience required. All ages and abilities are welcome. By donation.
Scotiabank Dance Centre
677 Davie St, Vancouver, BC
The Birmingham Studio, Level 3
By donation
Sandra Lamouche
Sandra Lamouche is a member of the Bigstone Cree Nation residing on the land of the Nitsitapi (Blackfoot people) of Southern Alberta. She is a champion hoop dancer, award-winning Indigenous educational leader, TEDx and keynote speaker, award winning children’s author and transdisciplinary artist. She received an M.A. researching Indigenous Dance and well-being. The hoop dance and its teachings of unity, balance, equality and interconnectedness of creation guides her work. This includes land based practices, environmental and climate related topics as well as, social justice issues include advocacy for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Residential School Survivors and their descendants, which directly impact her and her friends and family.
Presented in Partnership with
The Training Society of Vancouver
Yaliyat cocahq/Travelling spirit: In her current research, Ivanie Aubin-Malo explores movements symbolically linked to the oral narratives of the Wabanaki people. Being Wolastoq, Ivanie will share certain words in the Wolastoqey language that describe important aspects of this culture, inviting participants to translate them into movement. Participants will be guided in travels through movement and voice, duo and group explorations, and will develop an increased sensitivity to the common movements of the group, reminiscent of the synergy of waves. All ages and abilities are welcome. $15
Scotiabank Dance Centre
677 Davie St, Vancouver, BC
The Birmingham Studio, Level 3
$15
Ivanie Aubin-Malo
Ivanie Aubin-Malo (Wolastoq and Quebecois) is dancer, choreographer, and curator. She founded and now coordinates the MAQAHATINE collective, a series of events that bring together Indigenous movement artists. Ivanie is currently working with seven performers from the Wabanaki Confederacy on a production scheduled to tour in 2026.
Join Sophie and Samantha in a workshop exploring both of their contemporary movement practices. See how they each approach bringing themes of cultural importance to their contemporary work and learn excerpts of the works they are performing in the festival.
Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie St, Vancouver, BC)
The Jarislowsky Studio, Level 3
By donation
Sophie Dow & Samantha Sutherland
Treaty 1-born Sophie Dow is a multidisciplinary creator, inspired by dance, music, film, collaboration and her Michif/Assiniboine roots. Sophie presently fulfills roles as a freelance dancer, choreographer, producer, musician, sound designer, bodyworker, and artistic associate of O.Dela Arts/Matriarchs Uprising, The Chimera Project & V’ni Dansi/Louis Riel Métis Dancers.
Samantha Sutherland is a contemporary dance artist, choreographer, and teacher based in Tkaronto of Ktunaxa and Scottish ancestry. She has presented her own dance works in festivals across Turtle Island, and performed in works by Olivia C. Davies, Raven Spirit Dance, Santee Smith, Alejandro Ronceria, and Jera Wolfe. She is currently an Artistic Associate with O.Dela Arts.
