Students tap into their creativity with Christine Friday



Last month, students from our Company Life Program (CLP) had the incredible opportunity to work with Christine Friday during a four-day intensive at NBS. Christine Friday is an Indigenous storyteller, dancer, artistic director, choreographer, producer, filmmaker and community activator. Christine is the Artistic Director of Friday Creeations, a First Nations professional arts and culture based community platform that encourages creative entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency that connects to land, empowerment and truth.

Christine’s intensive was part of our Aspects of Creativity workshop series for senior students from grade 10 to CLP.  Conceived during the pandemic as an online activity, Aspects of Creativity introduced students to different dance artists and their creative process. Since then it has developed into an on-site initiative where each of the four senior groups is paired with an established dance artist from our community for four to eight sessions. This year, along with Christine, artists Peggy Baker, Emily Chung, and Esie Mensah all have been sharing their creative insights. As each artist has a different creative experience, they each create their own unique curriculums.

Working with the CLPs, Christine offered thoughtfully planned activities such as drawing, journaling, connecting with nature and open discussions, guiding the CLP dancers to connect and define themselves and their aspirations and later bring these discoveries into a movement context in the dance practice.

CLP students Alexander and Sarah share a few words on their experience with Christine.

“I really liked how she explored the idea of finding yourself as an artist—not just to portray a role in a ballet or a certain artistry that you're trying to bring out, but you,”  says Alexander. “She really focused on making sure that everyone individually was able to explore that—not only through dance, but through drawing, through writing, and through talking and discussing these sorts of things. I thought it was really great to explore your own artistry and not have to fit into a box.”

 “ I feel that something that really stuck out to me was the bonding experience,“ says Sarah. “Christine just created a very open environment for all of us, which I think was really important because it was the second week [of school] and a very new environment for a lot of people. She just made it so clear that the space was somewhere that we could be comfortable and open. We all expressed a lot of vulnerability and shared, even in this environment with so many new people. …When we started dancing and doing improv, I think just knowing that everyone was putting themselves out there in a very judgment-free environment allowed me to let loose a little bit more.”

We are so thankful that our senior students and CLP Dancers have this opportunity to explore and expand their artistic vision through connecting with diverse artists such as Christine Friday.









 

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