Jeanette Kotowich
Nimîhtowin Askîhk
The creative process of this work took many iterations in the embodied journey to uncover and reveal Nimîhtowin Askîhk. What has taken shape is our dynamic and complicated, yet beautiful relationship to Dancing the Land - Nimîhtowin Askîhk. As we sensitized ourselves to each landscape, it became clear that even in our heartfelt attempts to inhabit our surroundings without imposition, the Land itself has been imposed upon in irreversible & unavoidable ways. And so… we followed our intuition, senses and Spirit in the mindful extraction and shaping of this work. In collaboration with the Land we attuned our ideas to site, weather, sun, cloud, sky, tide and time of day. This process called for our whole selves to be in observation, integration, reflection, and creative activation. Nimîhtowin Askîhk means Dancing the Land in the Cree language.
Concept/Direction/Design/Performance: Jeanette Kotowich
Collaborator/Cinematography/Drone/Editing: Chloe Ziner
Collaborator/Cinematography/Projection Design: Jessica Gabriel
Original Sound Design: Roxanne Nesbitt (with viola by John Kastelic)
"Song for Today" written and sung by Jeanette Kotowich, produced by Kathleen Nisbet
Originally from Treaty 4 territory Saskatchewan, Jeanette Kotowich creates work that reflects Nêhiyaw/Métis cosmology within the context of contemporary dance, Indigenous performance, and Indigenous futurism. Fusing interdisciplinary collaboration, de-colonial practices and embodied research methodologies; Jeanette's work references protocol, ritual, relationship to the natural/spirit world and Ancestral knowledge. Their practice is intergenerational and vocational; it's a living and lived experience. Jeanette has self-presented and been programmed at theatres and festivals across Turtle Island and internationally.
Her solo Kisiskâciwan premiered in Vancouver 2022, and has since toured to 11 cities nationally, and to Germany and Australia. Her ensemble work Kwê was presented at Matriarchs Uprising and Dance in Vancouver 2021/22. She is now working on a new ensemble called BOLT, a work for 4 performing artists which will premiere March 2026.
Jeanette is the Artistic Associate at Raven Spirit Dance, and co-founder of aka collective. She facilitates movement workshops with Indigenous worldview, workshops on de-colonial perspectives in the arts, and is a Métis dance and cultural knowledge carrier. She resides as a guest on the ancestral and unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh,səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ, and Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm territories, colonially known as Vancouver. movementhealing.ca