Aimée Dawn Robinson

14 14 Chu Niikwän Artist Residency Chu Niikwän Artist Residency

01. Performance of Seven by Aimée Dawn Robinson around the Kwanlin Dün Cultural

Centre Fire Pit at the opening of Meeting by the currents on November 7, 2020

02. Dance garment by Aimée Dawn Robinson

03. Dancers perform Seven inside the KDCC Longhouse, with musical accompaniment by Jicklinghouse

Aimée Dawn Robinson Artist Statement

Seven.

-- dedicated to the healing of all who have suffered from police brutality I was listening to the radio while planning my performance for the Chu Niikwan residency showing in-process. The CBC news came on. In Kenosha, Michigan, 29-year old Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven times by police officer Rusten Sheskey. Seven times. The River pulls our stories from us, helps to hear, hold and share stories. I wanted this story, of whatever art I’m making here by this river, to connect with the Outside. To make visible my heart, to connect with the hearts of others – to join in love and rebellion in times of loss and isolation. The shared garment for seven people, danced at the opening of the Chu Niikwaan residency show, is part of a formal procession of blessing, action, and reflection. The performance creates time to observe all we share -- the light and the shadows, joys and beauty, grief and shock also. Let the power of our steps, and of our gathering, create and send healing into the world from the banks of this powerful water. I made this 80-foot garment exclusively with fabric donated by the Whitehorse community. The ornaments on the costume are inspired by the regalia of my family’s region in the Carpathian basin, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén region. Part of being an artist can be recognizing and understanding what you wish to do with the legacy your Ancestors have given you. No matter how humble, nor how traumatic, our family’s stories shape our core, and our core shapes our art practices.

Aimée Dawn Robinson brings wild spaces, the conceptual, and the feminine to embodied performance practices. Aimée is a dancer. She is also a writer, performer, visual artist, researcher, musician, theatre-maker, teacher, producer/curator with 26 years of performance experience. She holds her Master’s in Dance from York University. Aimée started performing in Toronto in 1994. She has performed, screened, presented and taught dance across Canada and in America, Malaysia, and Japan. Aimée lived in Toronto from 1994 to 2012. Since 2012, she has lived in the Yukon, in and around Whitehorse, Dawson City, the M’Clintock River Valley, and Mount Lorne. Through her co-productions, Up Darling Contemporary Dance, A MONTH OF SUNDAYS, and Whitehorse Nuit Blanche, Aimée has co-curated/co-produced the premieres of 70 visual art, dance, music and performance works by Canadian and international artists.

Aimée lives in a cabin in the Southern Lakes area of the Yukon, where she delights in and sharpens her art practice. She is grateful to live and work on the lands of the Kwanlin Dün and Taa’an Kwächän Council.

Aimée Dawn Robinson