RIETYSERIES IETYSERIESV V’NI DANSI: LA MITCHIN TYSERIESVA DI MITCHIF YSERIESVAR SERIESVARIE ERIESVARIET RIESVARIETY ESVARIETYS SVARIETYSE June 14, 2025
VARIETYSERIESVARIETYS ABOUT THE SHOW ERIESVARIETYSERIESVARIE TYSERIESVARIETYSERIES La Mitchin di Mitchif is a new Indigenous contemporary dance work created through an international collaboration with Santa Fe’s Dancing Earth. Co-choreographed by Chartrand and Dancing Earth Artistic Director Rulan Tangen, the work is inspired by cultural ancestral knowledge of Mitchif plant medicines.
Led by artistic director Yvonne Chartrand, V’ni Dansi – which means “come and dance” in Mitchif, a language of mixed French and Nehiyawak (Cree) origins – performs both contemporary and traditional dances, aiming to honour the traditional aspects of Métis culture as well as to embrace innovations. Company dancers perform traditional Métis dance under the name of the Louis Riel Métis Dancers and contemporary dance works as V’ni Dansi. Established in 2001, the Louis Riel Métis Dancers are a professional dance ensemble who perform traditional Metis dance. The dancers offer a unique blend of European and First Nations dances accompanied by live musicians on fiddle and guitar. Past performances include Canada Day events, National Aboriginal Day celebrations, Talking Stick Festival, Back to Batoche Days Festival, International Métis Fest, Heart of the City Festival and Dance Allsorts. The Louis Riel Métis Dancers also tour schools in the Lower Mainland and throughout British Columbia.
Yvonne Chartrand – Director and Co-coreographer Rulan Tangen – Co-coreographer Madelaine McCallum – Dancer | Eloi Homier – Dancer Sophie Dow – Dancer | Lyric Tsuji – Dancer Kéïta Fournier-Pelletier – Dancer Jessica Han – Technical Director Agnes Hui – Stage Manager
VARIETYSERIESVARIETYS ABOUT THE ARTISTS ERIESVARIETYSERIESVARIE TYSERIESVARIETYSERIES YVONNE CHARTRAND | Yvonne Chartrand is a choreographer & dancer as well as a national award-winning master Métis jigger. Her ancestors come from the Métis community of St. Laurent, Manitoba. In 2000, she co-founded V’ni Dansi where she continues to act as Artistic Director. Yvonne’s Métis dance work was passed to her through many Métis Elders such as Maria Campbell and John Arcand; she is one of the only people in Canada who holds this traditional knowledge. As a cultural keeper, Yvonne is dedicated to preserving traditional Métis dance in Canada. Her contemporary works are always informed by her Métis identity. As a contemporary dance choreographer she has conceptualized and co-choreographed company group works: A Poet and Prophet (2003), Gabriel‘s Crossing (2004), and The Crossing in 2006 (a dance trilogy inspired by these earlier works) written and directed by Maria Campbell. Her first full-length dance-theatre work Cooking It Up Métis created for young audiences has toured extensively to schools throughout B.C. Yvonne’s solo Marguerite (2000) was inspired by the lives of the Métis Women who endured the Red River and NorthWest Resistances, Stories from St. Laurent was inspired by stories gathered from six Elders in her ancestral community of St. Laurent, Manitoba. Her mentor Robin Poitras created the commissioned solo Sara Riel: The Long Journey with Edward Poitras, which Yvonne performed at New Dance Horizons, Regina in 2014 and toured to Edmonton and Winnipeg in 2016. Her solo Eagle Spirit premiered in Vancouver at V’ni Dansi’s annual Louis Riel Day Celebration 2016. She is currently developing a new solo work, Rou Garou, inspired by the Métis trickster figure. In 2022, her collaboration with Indigenous choreographer and dancer Rulan Tangen of Santa Fe’s Dancing Earth, La Mitchin di Mitchif, premiered in Vancouver for National Indigenous Peoples Day 2022. Yvonne was awarded a 2011 Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award from the Canada Council for the Arts. She was honoured to choreograph the Indigenous led Opera Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North.
VARIETYSERIESVARIETYS ABOUT THE ARTISTS ERIESVARIETYSERIESVARIE TYSERIESVARIETYSERIES MADELAINE MCCALLUM | Madelaine is a dancer from Ile a la Crosse, Saskatchewan. Though her main focus is Métis dance (she’s been jigging since she could walk!), she enjoys all forms including Pow Wow, contemporary, and hip hop. As well as performing for such well established organizations as Métis Nation British Columbia and Métis National Council, she also performed in the opening ceremonies for the 2010 winter olympics. Madelaine is also a teacher. She has spent the past 10 years working with the Louis Riel Métis Dancers on traditional Métis dance. Madelaine traveled to Batoche Days and won first place in her age category in 2009. When Madelaine is not dancing she can be seen modeling for Aboriginal clothing line, Artifaax Clothing and working for Women Against Violence Against Women Rape Crisis Centre as the Aboriginal Youth Facilitator. Madelaine is very thankful for all the opportunities that have come her way since moving to British Columbia because growing up in a town as small as Ile a la Crosse, these things just don’t seem possible. Her deep love of dance and firm belief in its healing powers, for the audience as well as the dancer, is what makes Madelaine McCallum such a name to look out for.
Thank you to Cedar Feast House Catering for catering tonight’s pre-show reception.
VARIETYSERIESVARIETYS ABOUT THE ARTISTS ERIESVARIETYSERIESVARIE TYSERIESVARIETYSERIES ELOI HOMIER | Born and raised on traditional Algonquin territory, Eloi Homier usually dances, canoes, and stargazes on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (TsleilWaututh) Nations. Everything Eloi undertakes – from dance and theatre, to storytelling canoe adventures, to sash-weaving, to astronomy (under the pseudonym Moon Guy Next Door) – has its raison d’être in his search for authentic identity.
With family lines stretching back 400 years and beyond on the territory now called Québec, Eloi is on a lifelong journey to weave his distant Gallic origins with his sprinkling of Wendat, Abénaki, Algonquin, and Nipissing roots in a way that gives a voice to his ancestors. SOPHIE DOW | Treaty 1-born Sophie Dow is a multidisciplinary creative, inspired by dance, music, film, collaboration and Michif/Assiniboine + French/Ukrainian roots. An avid adventurer, Sophie exudes passions for busking and traveling on top of holding a degree in Dance Performance and Choreography from York University. Sophie presently fulfills roles as: artistic associate of O.Dela Arts, The Chimera Project & V’ni Dansi/Louis Riel Métis Dancers, residency coordinator at Dance West Network, creative director of PEC’s Flight Festival, a licensed practitioner of Traditional Thai Massage, a trained facilitator & student of BreathWave, a freelance dancer/choreographer/sound designer and a puddle jumping trickster.
VARIETYSERIESVARIETYS ABOUT THE ARTISTS ERIESVARIETYSERIESVARIE TYSERIESVARIETYSERIES KÉÏTA FOURNIER-PELLETIER | Kéïta FournierPelletier is a queer, Métis, Franco-Manitoban artist from Treaty 1 Territory, currently based in Tkaronto (Treaty 13). They are continuously discovering what these intersecting identities mean to them, and the role they play in their art as a dancer, choreographer and educator. Her work has been presented at the Citadel Dance Mix, Allies and Friends, and at Aeris Körper’s festival “Here&Now”. They have had the pleasure to work with national and international choreographers over their career such as Aria Evans, Marjolein Vogels, Ingri Midgard Fiksdal among others. She has also collaborated with Theatre Passe Muraille, and lemonTree creations. Kéïta is interested in collaborating on works that question power, heteronormativity, and other societal norms that reject her identity.
Kéïta has a deep desire for learning and recently attended a 5-week Flying Low & Passing Through intensive with David Zambrano, in Brussels, Belgium. She hopes to continue to develop these techniques and bring them into her teaching practice.
VARIETYSERIESVARIETYS ABOUT THE ARTISTS ERIESVARIETYSERIESVARIE TYSERIESVARIETYSERIES LYRIC TSUJI | Lyric was born in Vancouver in 1999. She began dancing at the age of four and studied many styles of dance including jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, Polynesian, musical theatre, stage, acrobatics, and tumbling. She is very passionate about the performing arts whether it be singing, acting, or dancing. Lyric has also been part of two musicals. She was Evillene the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wiz, and Mrs. Potts in Beauty and The Beast.
Lyric joined V’ni Dansi in March 2017 and is honoured to be part of the company. Lyric is currently a full time student at SFU where she is studying Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. Lyric is glad to have the V’ni Dansi practices, rehearsals, and performances as they provide an environment where she can destress and enjoy dancing. RULAN TANGEN | Rulan Tangen is a creatrix: dancer and dream visioner. After an international dance career in ballet and modern dance, opera, circus, film and TV, she survived cancer to discover her purpose as Founding Artistic Director of Dancing Earth - passionately creating opportunities in contemporary dance where there were almost none, for successive generations of Native American and global Indigenous performing artists as cultural ambassadors and conduits for social change. Collaboratively with artists and community members, she cultivates innovative movement language as an evolving cultural expression, rooted in body as source of knowing, creating theatre as contemporary ritual for transformation.
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