hello, buffalo

World Premiere
Daina Ashbee is a Bessie Award winning Canadian artist of Métis and European descent whose work uncovers our connection to the environment, the earth and ancestors. Her eighth original performance/dance piece began as a small gesture to perceived beings and animals that cohabitate this realm with her. In acknowledging their presence and existence, she realized we often do so from a very human lens where we categorize, humanize and manipulate these animal forces.

As the title suggests, we begin in dialogue with and amongst one another (hello) in the performance space. We are each acknowledged and seen. Eventually audience merges with performer as performer merges with natural energies. These energies take us to abstract spaces where bodily sensations draw us away from the narrative we are inclined to build and develop to frame and validate our understanding of each experience.

Also searching for a goal and narrative, performer Imara Bosco eventually sucks us deep into the power, forces, cries and songs of animals and nature, wiping away layers of human consciousness and diving into the experience of earth, animal and other living frequencies.

Hello, Buffalo is a glimpse into an imaginary world we know nothing about, assuring us mother nature will be here when we are gone. Images, vibrations, somatic impulses: something we know and can feel. Can we allow ourselves to be carried away from the need to categorize, organize or control what comes within us and in front of us.