Animikiig Creators Unit 2020/21
Final Digital Presentation at Weesageechak 34 on November 18th & November 19th
JIMMY BLAIS
Jimmy Blais is a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, he is of Plains Cree and French settler heritage. Born and raised in Montreal, Jimmy graduated from Concordia’s Theatre Performance Program. He is a seasoned stage and film actor. He has worked professionally for over 10 years, for companies like The Stratford Festival, The Centaur, Geordie Productions, Porte Parole and La Licorne. Jimmy’s most notable tv role was playing Watio for five seasons in APTN’s hit series Mohawk Girls. Jimmy is also a writer, director, mentor and coach. He spent several years as a visiting artist/associate professor at Concordia University and as a mentor in Black Theatre Workshop’s Artist Mentorship Program. He was the Indigenous Artist in Residence for the 2016 Students On Ice Expedition to the Arctic. Jimmy just successfully completed the Indigenous Artist In Residence at The National Theatre School of Canada, where he spent 18 months focusing on creation and playwriting. His play Sonny’s Way was presented at Native Earth’s Weesageechak Begins to Dance festival in Toronto in November 2019.
2020 Mentor: Yvette Nolan
BREFNY CARIBOU
Brefny Caribou is a Cree/Irish-Settler performer and creator from Toronto, ON. She holds an MFA in Acting from York University. With curiosity, patience, and lots of humour, Brefny focuses her attention on works surrounding identity, culture, decolonization, and strives to interrogate and evolve her artistic practice on the regular. Brefny was apart of Cahoots Theatre’s 2018/19 Hot House Creators Unit and is co-creator of The Solitudes (Aluna Theatre/Nightwood Theatre), a collective creation piece centred around the histories of 8 ensemble members inspired by the world of 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcias Marquez, which had its world premiere in January 2020.
2020 Mentor: Monique Mojica
JOELLE PETERS
Joelle Peters is an Anishinaabe & Miami actor/playwright that grew up on Walpole Island First Nation in Southwestern Ontario. She is a graduate of Seneca College’s Acting for Camera and Voice program and is now involved in theatre, film, television, playwriting, and improv, mostly in Toronto; although she has performed across Canada at festivals and theatres such as Western Canada Theatre, Thousand Islands Playhouse, Factory Theatre, Summerworks Festival, Theatre Passe Muraille, and more.
2020 Mentor: Falen Johnson
KELSEY KANATAN WAVEY
Kelsey Kanatan Wavey is a proud member of Tataskweyak Cree Nation, and was raised as an urban NDN on Treaty 1 Territory in Winnipeg. Kelsey moved to what is colonially known as Vancouver to pursue a career in Acting for Theatre and Film, and now is expanding her creative career to include writing, music festival producing, and costume design among other things! Kelsey is a cancer, her fave movie is Kill Bill Vol.1 and 2 back to back, and her celebrity crush is Mark Ruffalo (no offence to Keanu Reeves).
2020 Mentor: Marcus Youssef
ANIMIKIIKWE COUCHIE-WAUKEY
Animikiikwe Couchie is an emerging multidisciplinary dance artist from Nipissing First Nation. She has worked across a number of disciplines and artistic genres. Most notably, she has engaged and worked with a number of large-scale community arts projects, including Like an Old Tale / Jumblies Theatre and Dances of Resistance / Aanmitaagzi. In 2013, Animikiikwe worked within acclaimed choreographer Penny Couchie’s dance theatre piece entitled “When Will You Rage?”. She narrated and danced within her mother’s piece. It was the most influential project that Nimikii has the privilege of working on, and also her first professional theatre project. In 2015 she worked on a project called Dances of Resistance with Aanmitaagzi, which was a three-year long process. This project involved working with a team of skilled artists who put their energy and time into seeing the vision be brought to life. She attended 3 years of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s 4-week summer dance intensive. In 2015 she completed her studies at the Canadore College Theatre Arts Program. In May 2018 she completed her training at the Ecole de Danse Contemporaine de Montreal. In September 2019, she was apart of the cast of Unnatural and Accidental Women, marking the opening of the inaugural season of the National Arts Centre’s new Indigenous Theatre department.
She would like to thank her parents, Penny Couchie and Sid Bobb, among many other arts organizations and artists for giving her the space to explore her art form within in these projects.
2020 Mentor: Penny Couchie
LINDSAY LACHANCE (PROGRAM DIRECTOR)
Lindsay Lachance (Algonquin Anishinaabe) has worked as a dramaturg for over a decade and has a PhD from the department of theatre and film at the University of British Columbia. Lindsay’s dramaturgical practice is influenced by her relationship with birch bark biting and the Gatineau River. She is the former director of the Animikiig Creators Unit at Native Earth Performing Arts, which focuses on the development of new Indigenous works.