SKéN:NEN - Final Tuning Dance Residency Performance

Santee Smith with graphics by Inti Amaterasu / Artist: Katie Couchie

Don’t miss this opportunity to see a showcase of Banff Centre’s Final Tuning 2024 Dance Residency in the Jenny Belzberg Theatre.

This performance will be a showcase of current work-in-progress.

Kaha:wi Dance Theatre's SKéN:NEN is an immersive performance experience, with a powerful multi-layered, cultural knowledge-embedded narrative that transcends time and place.

The Kanyen'kéha (Mohawk) word skén:nen (Sgah:nah) translates to mean peace and balance. On the edge of collapse, in an uncertain and imbalanced reality, the production SKéN:NEN conveys a narrative set in an imagined post-environmental catastrophe world. The focus is on Indigenous futurism in performance, exploring themes of resilience within self, community, and the natural world.

Through mesmerizing choreography, storytelling, and innovative media projection design audiences witnessed the journey of a young Kahnyen’kehàka girl and other climate survivors underscored by crucial need to remember and revitalize humanity’s interconnectedness with an environment in recovery. For the young girl this is remembering her rites of passage and learning from the Earth.

House Program: Details coming soon for synopis and production information.

This performance will include a post-show chat.

With support from:

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Santee Smith Biography

Santee Smith / Tekaronhiáhkhwa
Concept/Director/Designer/Projection/Live Performer

Santee is a multidisciplinary artist from the Kahnyen’kehàka Nation, Turtle Clan, Six Nations of the Grand River. Transformation, energetic exchange and fostering mind-heart connections through performance and design is her lifelong work. Santee trained at Canada’s National Ballet School; holds Physical Education and Psychology degrees from McMaster University and a M.A. in Dance from York University. Premiering her first production Kaha:wi – a family creation story in 2004, one year later she founded Kaha:wi Dance Theatre which has grown into an internationally renowned company. Santee’s work speaks about identity, teachings and way of life within Onkwehonwe:neha, creativity and Indigenous artistic process. She is a sought-after teacher and speaker on the performing arts, Indigenous performance, and culture.