Aanmitaagzi’s Mkomiiwi fascinates huge crowd at Ice Follies 2020
By Kelly Anne Smith
NORTH BAY—Slowly the creatures emerged from the pressure cracks jutting out of frozen Lake Nipissing. They danced about as Nipissing First Nation’s Penny Couchie recited Pressure Cracks. Blue light shone on the creatures as they moved to the amplified composition by Jacob Dayfox. Hundreds walked the ice path lit up with whimsical light installations to witness the performance of Mkomiiwi.
Aanmitaagzi produced the performance Mkomiiwi showcased at Ice Follies 2020 on Lake Nipissing at Marathon Beach in North Bay.
The troupe’s co-director, Sid Bobb, discusses Aanmitaagzi’s co-director, Penny Couchie, choreographing and leading the creation process.
“She had a really beautiful poem that was at the center of our exploration. In 2010, she created this poem in a theatre project in Toronto. They asked her to improvise around this character, Ice Woman. When we were looking at Ice Follies this year, she proposed looking at pressure cracks heaving and the formation of ice and crystals,” explains Bobb. “Within her poem, there are these two narrative lines of the violent shifts and changes in life. Both in the lake and talking about her body; of being a mother and giving birth. But also looking at other things like the land, the extraction of oil and resources…Outside of those violent shifts, are the desire and the beauty of ice crystal formation. So, things that have a desire to gather together.”
Couchie guided the creative exploration.
“What are the pressures in our life? What are those big violent shifts? But also, what are those exciting desires to gather and create?”
It took about two weeks designing and constructing the installations says Bobb.
“Earlier in the winter, we built an 8’x16′ lodge here at the studio. And then we built that dream catcher archway. And then on the performance itself, we spent eight days exploring and putting together a structured improv together.”
Many artists had a hand in Mkomiiwi.
“Jumblies Theatre was an organization collaborator and we had a number of guest artists from within the region. Jumblies Theater offered their support and came up to assist us in any way. They were fantastic,” notes Bobb. “All the performers were performers/creators within the process. Every artist brought forth either personal stories of transformation or a more macro-political conversations that they wanted to have…We had our core team of artists – Tasheena Sarazin, Meg Paulin and Sherry Guppy. It was Sherry Guppy’s first-time taking part in the ice follies. She was part of the installation team. Migwaan (Buswa) was a performer that wasn’t here for the week. She came that day.”
Bobb called the creative group a strategic gathering that included Imelda Villalon and her partner Daniel Lomas.
“Imelda works with Penny and Muriel Miquel in the story weaving process. She’s been an instructor at the Centre for Independent Theatre (CIT) alongside Penny and I for many years. Daniel also worked at CIT and supported a number of our projects. That was the first time that he was a performer/creator alongside of us. He was the one that was working with the fire spectacle— the fireballs out on the ice.”
Bobb also talked of JP Longboat, a Mohawk that works out of Ottawa.
“He invited us to a canoe festival this past fall as a part of the National Arts Centre’s Mòshkamo festival. We brought the birch bark canoe and a big installation performance out to Ottawa. He felt a really strong connection to the river that connects Ottawa and North Bay. He’s been really focussed on water and land-based relationships through the arts. So having him here was really fantastic.”
Christine Friday performed as well. Bobb explained that she is Penny’s cousin and long-time collaborator.
“JP, Christine and I are building a triangle of collaboration and support for this region.”
The performers were pleased with the huge crowd watching.
“It was amazing. We came up over the pressure crack, because we were underneath the cloth material in the section called the arrival. We move across with our fabric material. When we unveiled ourselves and saw the audience, there was this beautiful wall. The audience looked like their own pressure crack. They were parallel to the pressure crack.”
“One of the really exciting things that we felt is the community has expressed gratitude and excitement around what we do on the ice. That’s magical for us to have a chance to dance on the ice. And to perform on the ice and then to have the community come out and join us, no matter if it’s -40 or +3, or perfect like it was.”
Chigokmis, the Aanmitaagzi Grandmother puppet, watched over the performance and crowd. The Aanmitaagzi Grandmother puppet was created in 2013 for the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre on the theme of Residential School impacts. Bobb says the character is from the Serpent People story that comes from the Manitous.
“We imagine that little girl who lost her family when they were on the island. They became serpent people. That girl’s spirit might have been one of the ancestors in the Skyworld who received children who didn’t return home,” he explains. “Whenever something is like-minded and relevant, some of the artists really want to see that Grandmother out there as we looked at creation and, in some cases, that destruction that happens during the change of seasons.”