Victoria May

Victoria May (Red River Métis-Michif) was born in Ottawa. She began her dance training at the School of Dance, and her early career started at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. She has performed with ballet and contemporary dance companies including Göteborgs Danse Kompagni and Danish Dance Theatre in Europe, and with various groups in Canada for over 30 years. Victoria is a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation, her grandmother was born and raised on the Road Allowance on Treaty 6 Territory, in a place known as the Fox Farm (now called Nordale) outside Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

Victoria has received The Duke and Duchess of York Award (CA), the Arnold Spohr Award (CA), The Young Performers Bursary Award (CA), Augustinus Fund (DK), Danish Actors Blankbandsmidler (DK), and the Toyota Fund (DK), as well as support from both the Canada Council and Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec.

She is currently a Ph.D. student in the INDI program at Concordia University in Montreal (Tio’tia:ke). She dances for A’nó:wara Dance Theatre (Barbara Diabo), Louise Bédard Danse, and more recently Tanya Lukin Linklater. She is currently collaborating internationally with Fijian director Nina Nawalowalo and her company, ‘The Conch,’ based in New Zealand. She is a founding member of Maqahatine, an Indigenous dance collective based in Tio’tia:ke. Victoria’s recent work, ‘Kiwaapamitinaawaaaw,’ is a poem and a love letter to her ancestors about embodying the Michif language and the dances that guided her home.