We are an Indigenous Youth Arts Festival run, hosted and participated by Youth.
Interactive dance performances,
international traditional performers, storytelling, First nations dJ and so much more!
Storytelling Dance choreographies.
Awesome work, students and trainers.
Indigenous Youth Arts Festival
KEHEWIN NATIVE DANCE THEATRE
(KNDT) realizes the need, as senior artists, to train and bring youth to the forefront of the international indigenous arts community. Youth are integral to the well being of our communities and through this festival they will have the opportunity to meet and learn from positive youth role models, Indigenous senior artists and international performers.
THE TEAM
Russell Wallace has been the composer for the (KNDT) KEHEWIN NATIVE DANCE THEATRE since 1991. His music creates a direct link from storytelling to movement. He uses a blend of traditional and contemporary musical styles to create a sound that, without separating from the story, evolves and carries the story and movements of the dancers. He has worked with youth training programs for more than 20 years, both training and performing.
Violet Duncan was one of the original youth involved in the training during the festivals KNDT held from 2001-2004. Since then she has developed her own dance troupe, trains youth in Performance and presentation, as well as authoring and self publishing 3 children's books and recently signed with Random House. Violet has been one of Kehewin's dance trainers for the last 12 years, dedicating her Summers to training youth in Pow Wow dance and designing the costumes for the youth performances.
Beany John has become well known for her work both performing Hoop Dance and training in Hoop Dance. Beany won second place at the WORLD HOOP CHAMPIONSHIP in Phoenix in 2022 and has used this as a platform to encourage other youth to dance. Many Indigenous communities look to Beany as the prime facilitator for 2 Spirit youth conferences and as a Pow Wow and hoop dance facilitator. She has amassed a large youth following due to her positive perspectives on life, dance and community involvement.
Melvin John is the Technical Director for KNDT. A graduate of the Native Theatre School of 1981, he has a BA from from Trent University. He has been sharing traditional and personal stories through Dance and Storytelling with audiences of all ages for over 30 years and has been dancing in the Pow Wow arena since 1981. He shares his knowledge with youth so they canl re-gain pride in their own cultural identity and bring non Native people closer to conciliation.
KNDT Gallery
Event Information
