Our guest blogger this week tells us: I am an established professional dancer, mid-career choreographer, and teacher with a career spanning nearly 30 years. I have danced with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and spent 12 years dancing in Europe. In 2007 I moved to Montreal. My most recent choreographic work Kiwaapamitinaawaaw (2020) was presented at the Biennale d’Art Contemporain Autochtone (BACA) at CCOV. Alongside my artistic practice, I am pursuing my MA in the Individualized Program (INDI) at Concordia University in a multidisciplinary research program. I am a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation.

social media: Instagram @viktoise

About me

Tansii, I am a Red River Métis woman with my Maternal family and community in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. I am part of a generation of Métis citizens that were raised outside of the Métis homeland and away from community, and who are in the process of reconnecting. My Paternal side is settler (Irish/ Scottish) and my Maternal family names are Vermette, Delorme, Sayer, Laliberté, Frobisher, Pepin, Davis, Gaudry, and Villebrun. 

My research-creation performance and thesis is on connection: kinship ties, memory, and where language lies in the body. My process of learning the Michif language, supported by dance, will culminate in a research-creation with a dance performance and video installation.  UNESCO considers Michif to be critically endangered, with only a handful of Elders that are fluent speakers. There has been an incredible amount of work done to preserve our beautiful language. I am only coming to some of the many people that have been holding strong to keep it going and am encouraged and proud to be doing my small part to contribute as a language activist to continue to build and to keep our language alive. I take this responsibility seriously and understand I am only beginning this journey to learn my language. I wish to honour and thank all those that have worked so hard and continue to keep Michif alive in the Métis community.

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