Elmer & Coyote
Elmer & Coyote
2005
About
At the time of the creation of Elmer & Coyote, Byron Chief-Moon and Karen had been working together for 17 years, collaborating from radically different cultural perspectives and dance traditions. The relationship evolved over the years. It began with Byron as a dancer in Karen's choreography, resulting in major works – Le Bateau, Man Within, Gawa Gyani, Homeland, and Raven of the Moon. Karen took the role of choreographer and performer in Byron's large opus, Quest. Quest led to Elmer & Coyote, a duet co-created and performed by Byron Chief-Moon and Karen. It was the first work to find them performing together in a fusion of aboriginal story telling and post-post modern dance. This work represented a new direction for both of them.
This multi-layered work's point of departure is an ancient creation story from the Blood Nation received by Byron from his grandparents. The story is developed to reveal the dilemma of an aboriginal man in contemporary life and the initiation into a new state of awareness. Further layers reveal the story of the collision of cultures as the aboriginal tradition meets the language of contemporary dance. Finally, it is the story of two people a man and a woman and their process of creating new dance from their separate worlds. The theme of creation comes round full circle from the ancient timelessness of a creation myth to the absolute present of a contemporary creation.
Elmer & Coyote was part of the 2005 CanDance Indigenous Dancelands Tour, to Lethbridge, Regina, Peterborough and Montreal. The work was performed in the 2005 Dance In Vancouver platform at the Scotia Dance Centre, participated in the Simon Fraser University's 40th Anniversary Dance Series and was included in The Sisyphus Project 2007.
For more about this piece, see the clip below from “Byron Chief-Moon: Grey Horse Rider” (2007), a film co-directed and produced by Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer of Mouvement Perpétuel.
Excerpt from “Byron Chief-Moon: Grey Horse Rider” (2007). Mouvement Perpétuel. Co-directed and co-produced by Philip Szporer and Marlene Millar.
The People
Co-creators and Performers: Karen Jamieson and Byron Chief-Moon
Choreography: Karen Jamieson
Story: Byron Chief-Moon enlightened by grandparents Victor and Mary Chief-Moon
Musical Director: John Korsrud
Guitar: Ron Samworth
Cello: Peggy Lee
Vocals: Sandy Scofield
Percussion: Dylan van der Schyff
Trumpet: John Korsrud
Rehearsal Director: Lyn Shepard
Lighting Design: Mike Inwood
Storytelling: Beverly Hungry Wolf
Set & Costume Design: Kevin L. Smith
Creative Contribution: Sean Swiftdeer Brown and Duane Edwards
Lighting: Jeff Harrison
Images: Chris Randle
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