UNO Works 2020

At this point, we intend to present UNO Fest 2020 as planned, but have paused all ticket and pass sales. Please check back for an update on ticket sales on April 2. Read our full statement on COVID-19.

Four short works by local artists, curated by UNO Works Indigenous Curator Lindsay Delaronde:  

Teri Ejere (solo)
Kemi Craig (solo)
Visible Bodies Collective: Elowynn Rose, Cheryl Henhawke, Nicole Mandryk, Lindsay Delaronde (Group)
Lindsay Delaronde (solo)

“It’s easy to go missing when you are already invisible.”- Visible Bodies Collective

This year’s UNO Fest includes multiple shows that bring invisible marginalized bodies into visibility through dance theatre. For this year’s UNO Works, Indigenous Curator Lindsay Delaronde has created a line-up of performances that will bring the audience into confrontation with their prejudices and biases, and help carve a pathway towards new understandings by centering narratives that embrace the power of Indigenous women and women of colour.

The UNO Works performers come together to highlight their stories of self-determination and bring forward their social-political voices to address injustice. Embracing their perspectives through storytelling using the body, this year’s Indigenous and African/Black communities will unite common narratives of overcoming adversities and resurrecting empowering narratives that transmute impacts of colonization.

These women will share stories honoring the MMIWG, stories of aloneness, and finding community as a black woman living in Victoria and embracing black joy! Brown bodies find their rhythm by moving through difficult histories.

Red on Red

Choreographer: Visible Bodies Collective
Director & Dramaturge: Jo Leslie
Performers: Lindsay Delaronde, Cheryl Henhawke, Nicole Mandaryk, Elowynn Rose

What happens when four Indigenous women come together in a dance studio? Curiosity brought us to explore Indigenous stories of injustice in the realm of movement. Exploring social justice through arts practice, we co-create a shared vision healing violence through dance, performance and storytelling. We stand together to hold space between the murdered and missing and to the invisible women. We embody the in-between space of life and death and advocate for the ones gone and lost.

About the artists:

Visible Bodies Collective is an inclusive and diverse group of Indigenous women who come from many nations and places across Turtle Island. Our collective practice is centered in Indigenous worldview, social justice, land-based inquiry and the resurgence of our cultural knowledge for creation production. Our collaborative practice is held by a council of Indigenous womxn gathering stories and igniting the fire of truths to be embodied. We gather to heal while mending the past, present and future, weaving story, rhythm and our natural abilities to orate our experiences. We unite to explore dance, movement, sound and story-telling through sacred ritual and connection to the mother earth.

My name is Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde, I am a Kanienke’haka woman from Kahnawake. For the past 13 years I have been a grateful, active and contributing guest on Lekwungen territory, Victoria, BC. I hold a Masters degree in Fine Arts and a Master of Arts in the Indigenous Communities Counseling Psychology Program from the University of Victoria. I held the position as the first Indigenous artist in Residence from 2017-2019 and currently the Indigenous Resurgence Coordinator for the Fine Arts Department at UVIC. My areas of research are Contemporary and Traditional First Nations visual art, Indigenous theatre and performance practices, expressive arts therapy examining decolonial methodologies in art. My artistic practice focuses on Indigenous theatre, land-based/site-specific performance art, collaborative practice, cultural resurgence and social/political activism through the arts. My artistic media include photography, performance/theatre, movement/dance and visual studio arts.