For the 2022 Toronto Biennial, Ange and Jumblies Theatre & Arts, in collaboration with a team of artists, including choreographers, dancers and composers, have created DISH DANCES, which further expands on ideas about the governance and sustainability of the land. Like Ange’s previous work with Talking Treaties (2015-ongoing), this, too, is performed by an all-Indigenous cast, including familiar faces from prior creations working alongside students from the Centre for Indigenous Theatre. Filmed at Camp Naivelt on the Credit River, the project is presented as a video installation at Fort York.
DISH DANCES reanimates the Credit River, a place of council watching over the Dish with One Spoon agreement. This time-honoured concept is central to the relationship between Indigenous Nations in the Great Lakes region: Take only what’s required, and ensure that all living things can sustain their lives. The inevitability of greed and conflict signal a call to conversation about responsibility to land and its preservation for future generations. For the Biennial, the project will have a companion installation at Jumblies Theatre & Arts featuring historic texts providing information about the Dish with One Spoon concept, as well as props from DISH DANCES.
DISH DANCES (2022) is commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art in partnership with Fort York National Historic Site, Toronto History Museums and made possible with the support of ArtworxTO, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Women Leading Initiative.
Audio Didactic:
Bios
Ange Loft (Kahnawà:ke Kanien’kehá:ka, born in Kahnawake, Canada; lives in Toronto, Canada) is associate artistic director of Jumblies Theatre & Arts and an interdisciplinary performing artist and initiator practicing in Toronto. She is also a vocalist with the experimental music and performance art collective Yamantaka//Sonic Titan. Her collaborations use arts-based research, wearable sculpture and theatrical story-weaving to facilitate workshops and theatrical spectacle. Ange created the “Toronto Indigenous Context Brief” for the Toronto Biennial of Art’s Advisory Council.
Participated in the “Rabbit Hole: Pod Theory” Residency, 2020.
Jumblies Theatre & Arts (founded in 2001 by Ruth Howard and based in Toronto, Canada) makes art with, for and about people and places. Jumblies collaborates with diverse artists and community members, uncovering and expressing their buried and urgent stories, saying “everyone is welcome,” and creating transient utopias with lasting ripples.
Exhibition Site
Fort York National Historic Site, Toronto History Museums
250 Fort York Blvd
Toronto ON
M5V 3K9