Atlantic Ballet of Canada is expanding its Indigenous programing with the help of a $400,000 grant from the federal government.
Nipahtuwet Naka Wespahtuwet Possesom Paul, director of Atlantic Ballet Indigenous, said the new program is called Intercultural Indigenous Dance and it’s aimed at Indigenous high school students.
While he was dreaming about what this program could become, Paul said he thought how amazing it would be for students to be trained in this way and be able to dance internationally.
“Imagine the head start that would be for our youth here.”
Atlantic Ballet said in a news release that the contemporary-dance training program is “deeply rooted in the worldviews, cultures and practice of Mi’kmaq and Wolastoq nations of the Wabanaki Confederacy.”
The program has many goals, including to provide a more accessible path for Indigenous dancers to pursue a professional career, to enhance employment opportunities and to expand networks for emerging Indigenous dancers, the release said.
Along with the $400,000 federal contribution, Chris Googoo of the Ulnooweg Indigenous Communities Foundation announced an additional $50,000 for the program.
Tuesday’s funding announcement was held at the Moncton headquarters of Atlantic Ballet of Canada and featured dancers from different parts of the province.
Paul said the program has been nine years in the making — a long journey of relationship-building between himself, company CEO Susan Chalmers-Gauvin and artistic director Igor Dobrovolskiy, who worked with Paul on Pisuwin, the world’s first Wolastoq story-ballet, last year.
Paul said the creation of Pisuwin was “a flagship to prove that we could do what we can do.”
The creation of the show inspired the group to look for other programs across the country and while Paul said they found some, none really allowed the students to remain at home while training.
With this two-year program, the students will attend for one week per month, amounting to 420 hours of training per year, which Paul said will still allow them to stay in their home communities for much of the year.
The program is open to grades 11 and 12 students, who will receive high school credits and a diploma in dance at graduation.
Upon completion of the program, the release said the graduates will be able to network with, and be trained by, professional choreographers, instructors and company heads who can help them pursue dance professionally.
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The program will be looking for eight young people to join the program and they must have a background in powwow dancing. He said they will hold auditions beginning in September.
Paul said he remembers being a young person growing up in the dance world and not having anything like this program available.
“It was really important for me to see an opportunity for our youth that are coming up to be supported in a way that I wish I could have been supported,” he said.
With files from Jeanne Armstrong
This story was originally published in CBC News on June 26, 2024.
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