Choreographer/dancer Nyda Kwasowsky comes to Weesageechak with her newest piece Land of Many Waters, which was previously developed at The Bentway’s “This is Our Place” residency and Sketch’s Indie Studio residency. Inspired by the richness of her mixed racial background, Nyda uses movement language to examine self to share human experiences.
Land of Many Waters is an exploration and research into the ambiguous interior that she embodies and how this translates to my external space in relationship with her identity. “My research voices a versatile spectrum of stories from marginalized communities that have experienced generational cultural oppression. This multi-layered work shares the continued complexities of colonization, voicing the millennial experience, and our continued efforts to understand how we hold our space as autonomous individuals in collective society presently.”
Through a structured dance improvisation, spoken work, music and interview material, this work-in-progress delves into concepts of vulnerability, humility, undefined self, conflict, and growth.
“I want to share a sense of hopefulness that comes from a place of strength, struggle and survival.”
Catch Nyda Kwasowsky’s Land of Many Waters today at 7:30 pm!
More about Nyda Kwasowsky
What piece are you looking forward to seeing at W31?
I am looking forward to experiencing and acknowledging many voices and stories that will be shared through the festival’s programming this year!
Who is your Indigenous role model? How do they inspire you?
My family is my role model in radiating resilience, perseverance and strength which is my source of power as a creative. In order to share the expression of who and what my body has experienced generationally through movement language. The richness and beauty of culture that survived colonial powers will continue to drive my motor in voicing our stories, connecting broken landscapes and creating space for us to hold.
Where do you find inspiration for your creative work?
My internal landscape is my inspirational motor. It directs narratives and intuitive choices that inform my movement languages and expression, in creating context and content to conceptual realities.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
“Create work from a place of strength” This was recently shared with me and it resonates with my current practice!
What does art mean to you?
Art is the understanding of one’s self, reflection and strength to question our place and space in our determined environment. It means growth, beauty and the sharing of those expressions to unite humanity to our collective values and core experiences of the human condition. Art is everything, giving value to what we are aware of as individuals.
What are you craving right now?
I am craving a home where cultures from a multitude of colonial oppression can come together to share experiences and voice stories, hopes, and dreams without identity politics conflicting spaces for shared expression. We can learn and change collectively, if we can allow spaces to be undefined.
