The River 2025-2027
The River (1998) – 2025-2027
The River is the second work we are addressing in the Body to Land project.
The River traces the memory of Brewery Creek (Vancouver) through the landscape it once flowed freely for centuries. KJD together with the S'pak'wus Slu'lum Dancers of the Squamish Nation, the Brewery Creek Historical Society and other community groups created a site-specific, processional performance to honour the layers of history and memory of the now buried waterway. The performance followed the path of a buried stream, exploring the land/body metaphor and the congruence of our bodies and the land.
The current investigation under the Body to Land project will travel the path of the buried Brewery Creek, investigating movement choices and choreography of the original work. The 2027 production will also include a video documentary of past and present.
Current Co-Directors | Collaborators:
Dr. Alana Gerecke (PhD) is an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and educator in Vancouver. Her scholarly work has looked at the way settler choreographers tend to approach land through a colonial lens. She cited The River as a work coming close to honouring the land’s Indigenous integrity. As Co-Director, she will bring us closer to our goal of honouring the land’s Indigenous history. We are working to develop the choreography through a dialogical process.
Flick Harrison, filmmaker, educator, and community-engaged media artist, will be creating the video documentary from the visual materials and documentation that we have from the original production, as well as contributing visuals to accompany the live performance.
Bruce MacDonald, historian, author, and original 1998 collaborator,
Cease Wyss, Indigenous Ethnobotanist, educator, and interdisciplinary artist.
Rianne Svelnis, dance artist and Carnegie Dance Troupe leader.
Movement Investigation:
This work is highly experimental. The audience, rather than observe the dance work as something outside themselves, is invited, encouraged, and guided to experience “The River” as going on within their own bodies as well as, simultaneously going on through the land we are travelling on. This was always the overarching goal, that the audience experience the congruity of their bodies with all our inner waterways and land with its waterways running through.
Video Documentary:
The video documentary, with Film Editor Flick Harrison, will be created from what we have of visual material and documentation from the original 1998 production along with documentation of the current creation process (2025-2027). This film will be premiered in 2027 along with the performative component of this project.
