Lara Kramer’s Gorgeous Tongue embodies choreographer’s Anishinaabe heritage, June 15 and 16

Taking place at Dancing on the Edge, the solo features Nêhiyaw/Métis dancer Jeanette Kotowich

By Gail Johnson

 Jeanette Kotowich in Lara Kramer’s Gorgeous Tongue. Photo by Mathieu Verreault

Dancing on the Edge presents Gorgeous Tongue on June 15 at 7 pm and June 16 at 9 pm at the Firehall Arts Centre

FOR GORGEOUS TONGUE, Anishinaabe choreographer Lara Kramer has Nêhiyaw/Métis dancer Jeanette Kotowich embodying stories, dreams, and songs from her Indigenous lineage. Kramer explores the need for pleasure and the strength of instinctual connections in the work having its Western Canadian premiere at Dancing on the Edge 2024.

Kramer is a performer, choreographer, and multidisciplinary artist of mixed Oji-Cree and Mennonite heritage who lives in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyaang/Montreal.

Gorgeous Tongue is a celebration of “Indigenous transmission, transformation and futurity”. Kramer is known to use unexpected everyday objects such as mattresses and trash heaps in unsettling and metaphorical ways to address her mixed Indigenous ancestry and colonialism. Past works include Windigo and NGS (“Native Girl Syndrome”). Kotowich appeared on the Vancouver stage most recently in Kisiskâciwan, a work she choreographed.

Kramer’s work, which is grounded in intergenerational knowledge and relations as well as the impacts of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools, has been presented across North America, Europe, Australia/Oceania, and Martinique. 

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