I made a rare excursion into the world of dance on Friday evening to catch Barbara Kaneratonni Diabo’s one woman show What We Carry presented by Native Earth Performing Arts and A’nó:wara Dance Theatre.  Barbara is Kanien’keha;ka originally from Kahnawake and as well as being trained in classical and contemporary settler dance traditions she’s also a powwow performer in a range of dance disciplines.  She also has a pretty complex personal history.  All of this bears on what happens in the 45 minutes or so of this show.

The title of the show alludes to the fact that we all have “baggage”; not just the things that hold us back but also the things that enable personal progress.  But it’s all rooted in who we are and where we come from; in both a personal and a cultural sense.  If you want to see a medicine bundle as a kind of metaphor for that I think that’s fine.

The show unfolds in a series of dance solos exploring aspects of identity and life history interspersed with video clips of Barbara learning Kanien’keha on Zoom with Elder Wahlakeron Gilbert; where, incidentally we learn that the Kanien’keha word for “bum” is easily confused with that for “arm”.  I’ve had similar experiences with French!

The dance styles vary from powwow to abstract modern with a touch of ballet.  There’s even a sequence (with brilliant lighting) where Barbara explores attitudes to indigenous female sexuality in a style more reminiscent of a “gentleman’s club” than any other venue I can think of (though my experience here is limited!).  The ambiguity of the attitudes within her community to sexuality coming out in Performance came up in the Q&A afterwards.  Is it ever appropriate for someone who dances it what can be considered Ceremony to show too much flesh?  In an odd way it reminded me of Metropolitan Methodist firing choristers for taking work in the chorus of a touring opera company (pre WW1 but still…)

Bottom line, there’s a lot packed into 45 minutes of very well curated, choreographed and executed dance.

What We Carry plays at Aki Studio until tomorrow (Feb 9th).

Photo credits: Chris Randle