“When he did his solos you could feel it.
My mum used to always say, ‘You have to find pity in your heart for them because something happened to them, too.’ People couldn’t do those things to other people if it didn’t happen to them. I’m always reminded of that kind of compassion and values that were so wise from our people.” While she watched the dance, Keeper felt
“as horrendous as everything was, our culture, our resilience is stronger than that.” The RWB team supported the Indigenous
perspective through to the end. “That’s why it worked – because they were willing,” says Keeper. She says that if the attitude had been, “we can only take it so far and then they are go- ing to take over, it would have never worked.” The Indigenous artists were decision-
makers, says Herd. Unlike classical stories such as Romeo and Juliet, he says, “This one people had to create. They had to create the characters. They had to get some understand- ing of what these characters were feeling, what were they thinking. This is a different kind of
approach. It’s more intense. You have to not just understand but you have to feel it. Going through the process is a learning experience for those of us who are not dancers.” The experience, he says, had a deep impact
on his company. He and his artistic director Lewis attended sessions of the Truth and Rec- onciliation Commission. “I think it changed us on many levels,” he says. In developing the story, Boyden returned
to characters he’d spent many years creating in his novel, Through Black Spruce, published in 2008. He wanted to see what would happen to them in a different context. “Let me try to recreate them in a world
where dance is involved, where music is in- volved rather than the contemporary reality,” he says. “Wouldn’t that be interesting? Wouldn’t that be fascinating to take characters from my novel and put them in a new place against new odds facing new challenges together?” Boyden wants the ballet to last. “What I want this ballet to do is introduce
Canadian, American and European audi- ences, to an aspect of Canadian history that is dark and disturbing in terms of what was done to Native people of this country,” he says.
“The heart
of the Indigenous world is dance and music and story, so let’s do this,” he says. “Let’s create something that is often thought of as very Western but turn it on its head. Re-imagine the paradigm and make it into something Indigenous.”
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 29
PHOTO BY REJEAN BRANDT PHOTOGRAPHY
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