Friday, November 28, 2025
7:30 PM | Aki Studio
mi historia que no es única by Jessica Zepeda
Conditions to Strike by Montana Summers
ʔa·kinq̓uku by Samantha Sutherland
Presentation
mi historia que no es única
by Jessica Zepeda
A contemporary North/Central American folk horror that blends experimental saxophone loops, and recorded testimonials. The story centres on an entity that is haunted by her parent’s undocumented journey from El Salvador to El Norte. mi historia que no es única is a devised ritual of reflection on more than forty years of micro tragedies overtaken by the macro urgency of a civil conflict: a practice of embodying our history, with mourning and without shame, to embark towards a brave future.
Creator: Jessica Esmeralda Zepeda (Kuskatan*) *Post-colonial El Salvador
Mentor: Violeta Luna
Other Showing: November 26
Jessica Zepeda, Creator
Jessica is a brown, multidisciplinary performance artist born and based in Tkaronto (Treaty 13) with roots from Kuskatan, post-colonial El Salvador. They are a part of Native Earth's Animikiig Creators Unit 2024/25 season and is a Buddies in Bad Times 2024/2025 Queer Emerging Artist Recipient. Jessica has produced/starred in their short film Sinvergüenzilla in First Kiss (Official Selection: 31st Inside Out LGBTQ Film Festival) and starred in the short film Saturday Fuego Diablo (Official Selection: Sivar en Cortos 2022). In early 2025, as apart of the 46th Rhubarb Festival, Jessica shared an excerpt of their work in progress solo called mi historia que no es única, which is a documentary-theatre performance study where an entity blurs the lines of reality, folk horror, experimental jazz, and recorded testimonial to process her parent’s undocumented journey from El Salvador to North America.
Violeta Luna, Mentor
VIOLETA LUNA’s work engages the relationship between theatre, performance art and community-based practice. Luna uses her body as a territory to question and comment on social and political phenomena. Born in Mexico City, Luna holds a graduate degree in Acting from the Centro Universitario de Teatro (UNAM.) Luna performs and teaches extensively throughout the world. www.violetaluna.com.
Presentation
Conditions to Strike
by Montana Summers
Conditions to Strike is a rendition of the Thunder Boy character from Onkwehón:we storytelling. Pulling from this character’s theme of being half human and half Thunder Being, Montana attempts to correlate the struggle of being caught in between the worlds of sky and earth to the struggle of modern queer identities being caught between masculine and feminine. He reinterprets the story by layering these two narratives of spiritual and queer identities together to tell an important lesson in multi-generational connections of love, protection, sacrifice and bringing needed balance to these dualities.
Creator: Montana Summers (Oneida Nation of the Thames)
Mentor: Santee Smith
Other Showing: November 30
Montana Summers, Creator
Montana Summers, from the Oneida Nation of the Thames, is a dance artist and emerging choreographer. In 2022, he started his first performance project, "Conditions to Strike," and showcased developments at The Banff Centre, Royal Botanical Gardens, and Native Earth Performing Arts. He will further develop in the next few years for a full production. Since 2015, Montana has worked professionally in theatre, performing choreography by Santee Smith, the artistic director of Kaha:wi Dance Theatre. Notable performances include "The Honouring" (2015-2017), "The Mush Hole" (2016-2023), and "Sken:nen" (2021-2023). He has collaborated with performance collectives such as Dusk Dances ("Kan^stote" – 2021), Unsettled Score ("Canoe" – 2023), and Sweet Labour Art Collective (“Compost-Recomposing Relations”–2022, “Dancing with Billy” –2023, and “Becoming Garden”–2024). Stage credits include Backyard Theatre's "The Other Side of the River" (2019) and The Grand Theatre's "Love Song for the Thunderbirds" (2021) and choreographed for “The Secret to Good Tea” (2024).
Santee Smith, Mentor
Santee Smith, Tekaronhiáhkhwa, is a multidisciplinary artist from the Kahnyen’kehàka Nation, Ohswé:ken (Six Nations of the Grand River). A visionary in Indigenous performance, her transformative work masterfully bridges movement, storytelling, and design, forging deep mind-heart connections. Trained at Canada’s National Ballet School, with degrees in Physical Education, Psychology, and a master’s degree in dance, Santee blends ancient knowledge with new media to create impactful and immersive performances. As founder of Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, she has created and produced 16 full-scale productions, numerous short works, and film/TV projects. Santee’s work explores themes of identity, humanity, and humanity’s responsibility to the natural world. Through her “Inviting the Land to Shape Us Series”, she advances land-based Indigenous performance research and fosters international collaborations and developing Indigenous dance artists. A Member of the Order of Canada and the 19th Chancellor of McMaster University, Santee continues to inspire as an artist and cultural leader.
Presentation
ʔa·kinq̓uku
by Samantha Sutherland
Fire ignites, grows, burns, and devours. Once it decays, what destruction does it leave behind? How does the earth regrow out of the ashes? ʔa·kinq̓uku, the word for fire in the Ktunaxa Language, is a solo that follows the life cycle of a wildfire, and the regrowth that occurs after. Created in the Pakitinam Choreographers Circle with Raven Spirit Dance, this piece was created in reaction to the wildfire that burned through the Samantha’s home community of ʔaq̓am in the summer of 2023.
Creator: Samantha Sutherland (Ktunaxa)
Mentor: Christine Friday
Other Showing: November 30
Samantha Sutherland, Creator
Samantha Sutherland is a contemporary dance artist, choreographer, and teacher based in Tkaronto. Her ancestry is Ktunaxa and Scottish. She grew up on Coast Salish territory and graduated from the Arts Umbrella Dance Diploma Program in 2018.
Samantha began choreographing dance solo works in 2021 and has presented in festivals across Turtle Island. Some include the Matriarchs Uprising Festival, Sharing the Stage with The National Ballet of Canada, Dance Made in Canada, SummerWorks, and Weesageechak Begins to Dance. Samantha premiered her first ensemble dance work naⱡa at Citadel Spring Mix in Toronto, and later presented the work in Vancouver at the Matriarchs Uprising Festival.
She has performed in dance works by Indigenous choreographers Santee Smith, Alejandro Ronceria, and Jera Wolfe. She is currently on faculty at The Centre for Indigenous Theatre, and an Artistic Associate with O.Dela Arts.
Christine Friday, Mentor