Preview
KAHA:WI
High Performance Rodeo
Choreographed by Santee Smith
Runs January 20 to 22
Vertigo Playhouse (Tower Centre)
It’s been a particularly magical year for Six Nations, Ontario dancer and independent choreographer Santee Smith.
A member of the Mohawk Nation Turtle Clan, Smith finally premièred her very personal production Kaha:wi in Toronto in June 2004 after a five-year creative process, earning standing ovations from audiences and two Aboriginal Music Award nominations for the production’s subsequent CD.
After training at the National Ballet School, earning a few degrees (including one in kinesiology), receiving film and festival exposure and even flirting with pottery design, Smith seems to have put all of her life experiences into Kaha:wi, resulting in one exciting mosaic, and a new hybrid of contemporary and traditional performance.
"For Iroquois people, dance and song is how we celebrate life," Smith says. "There are specific parts of the year for celebrations, taking inspiration from the cycle of life. I wanted to bring in a sense of unity and the connection to the ground, which relates to energy – to connect people to the rhythm, to the breath, to the heartbeat."
Kaha:wi has an unusually large cast of dancers for a touring production, although Smith has slightly downsized from 10 dancers to seven (including herself) for the show’s visit to Calgary’s High Performance Rodeo. The storyline follows three generations of women (the title, meaning "she carries," comes from the name of Smith’s grandmother and daughter), and the basis for its music and dance is Iroquoian, often emphasizing the shuffling, rhythmic movements of the lower body and the airy, spirited grace of the upper body in motion.
"On a deeper level it connects the earthly world with the spiritual world," says Smith of the dance style. "When you die the spirit goes on, and that’s why we have the element of the ancient spirit guiding new life."
Commissioning about 30 North American Iroquoian musicians, Smith immersed herself first in the show’s music for about three years, applying every lyric in Kaha:wi to its central story of birth, life, death and rebirth, along with traditional (and not-so traditional) Mohawk hymns and movement rituals. Her background in kinesiology has given her a strong understanding of the body, but she admits that when she’s creating, she’s more fired up by content.
"I started with solo work in the studio to envision the piece," says Smith. "After a series of dance workshops, it developed and evolved. I also brought in people from the community to see the workshops, because I really wanted to represent them in a positive way."
Smith’s cast of attractive dancers often congregate onstage for energetic tribal dances, as well as partnered portraits of lovers and more intimate moments of loss, mourning and ancestral tension. "People can relate to it, but it’s also very Iroquois," says Smith of the dance. "Native or non-native, I think it’s really about telling the story."
As with other traditional dances, repetition is key in the movement, and somehow Smith combines this with the importance of repetition in modern and contemporary dance. Through the lovers, Smith has aimed to balance gender in the production, symbolizing the same balanced role they play within her own cultural climate.
"The Earth is mother, and the moon is grandmother," says Smith, "but there’s a duality between male and female in the lovers. There’s also a strong similarity between all the different nations, so it flows quite naturally to the others’ work in performance."
The Rodeo is one of many stops on Smith’s "Yoh ha hee yoh" tour, which also includes engagements in Washington, D.C. and New York state, featuring both Kaha:wi and a new piece, Here On Earth. |
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