How dance connects Yellowknife, Norway and the world of language

A circumpolar dance residency is bringing together dancers and choreographers from Yellowknife and Norway to explore how language shapes movement.

The two-week residency, called Body of Language, is being hosted by the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre this month and then northern Norway’s Davvi Centre for Performing Arts in the summer.

There are two participants. Yellowknifer Fia Grogono was selected by NACC for the residency, while Chollada Phinitduang, a Thai-Norwegian artist, was selected by Davvi. 

“We’re looking at how different languages shape body movement, cultural movement,” explained Grogono of the project.

“What does the language do to us when we move to different places and what that does to our body and our identity, ourselves?” added Phinitduang.

“We want to take all of the cultural aspects, the geographic aspects, the emotional aspects, all of that into this work.”

The two have been collecting audio samples of different languages from friends and family, to which they perform freestyle dance as they listen to the voice notes.

Afterward, they make choreographic notes about their impressions of the languages and how they can build physical movement to reflect each one.

The residency is underpinned by creative process and cultural exchange, said Grogono, as opposed to a format focused on a specific choreographic or technical outcome.

“It’s been really lovely to have that kind of freedom for us as artists, to just set ourselves how we want to be working and letting the process unfold,” she said.

“We’ve been finding a lot of joy and a lot of interesting surprises and moments that we just would never have expected.”

“We’re looking into the richness of the language itself,” said Phinitduang. 

“We’re looking at the rhythm, the way it’s pronounced, the sound, the breathing, the quality, the texture of that.

“We bring that in and interpret that into our body, to take away a little bit of intellectual understanding of language and go to what is underneath all of that.”

Grogono said they are also accounting for background noise in the clips as they build their choreography – such as a dog barking or train going by – as well as filler words, pauses and stumbles.

Building circumpolar connection

The residency came about when NACC and Davvi wanted to build a connection and have their artists share tools and practices with each other.

NACC artistic director Kacie Hall said the NWT organization had noted a need for more professional development opportunities.

“This project stemmed from that desire to explore what we can do for artists in the North,” Hall said.

Mary Buckland, an arts professional in the NWT who has been observing this program and has a background in delivering and researching artist residencies, added: “Residencies have a particular quality to them that really reinforces the value of exchange and cultural relationships.”

Buckland said residencies like this one are particularly valuable to northerners, who don’t have many opportunities like this.

“We’re working on building them but we don’t have very many at the moment,” she said.

“Having a relationship with Norway, with other countries, that we can create exchange through and build relationships through is valuable in building our own art sector.”

As the two-week program wraps up in Yellowknife, the artists will host a few workshops and showcase their work in progress.

The first free workshop will be hosted on Wednesday, January 14 at 8pm at Bella Dance Academy in collaboration with the Yellowknife Dance Collective, and will feature fun prompts for participants to use in a physical practice.