Throngs of people gathered in the Brock Street parking lot Thursday night to take part in a free public performance.
Nogojiwanong: Rite of spring was presented by Public Energy and the Chanie Wenjack school of Indigenous studies at Trent University and it delved into some Indigenous history in the region.
As more than 35 performers, ranging from community members with little to no dance experience to professional artists, all teamed up and spent the last six weeks rehearsing and putting their own twist on the classic 1913 Rite of Spring ballet through an Indigenous focal point.
“A lot of the community has come together to support this project and probably more than I can name,” said Brian Solomon, lead choreographer and artist in residence, visiting from the Shebanoning-Killarney region.
Solomon is not only the choreographer and performer but also acted as instructor, working with not only the cast and dancers but also putting on workshops and sharing lessons into the choreographic process with people of all ages.
“Peterborough has an incredibly active arts community and indigenous arts community here and so I’ve come through many times to work here,” said Solomon.
When looking for a site to put on the performance, Solomon says the location at Brock Street was suggested by fellow performer Patty Shaughnessy and, as it turns out, the parking lot was an ancient Anishinaabe burial ground.
They discovered the burial grounds in 1960 when excavators were doing work and dug up the skeletal remains of a man who lived in the area more than 2000 years ago.
“They also found some artifacts, which is not a nice word,” said Solomon. “What they really found was the man and his belongings that were buried with him and then they continued to build a parking lot.”
In 1991 the Anishinaabe man’s remains were buried at Curve Lake First Nation reserve as part of a five-day sacred ceremony, Solomon says part of the public performance this week aims to raise awareness about the site.
“People will never look at this parking lot the same way again after you see this performance,” said Victoria Mohr-Blakeney, performance curator with Public Energy.
“It takes fragments of stories, there’s characters, there’s movement and there’s incredible live music,” said Mohr-Blakeney. “It’s so rare for that to happen in a spontaneous spot that’s just a part of people’s every day. And what we found yesterday when we were just rehearsing, was people started to gravitate and began to form a crowd, because they weren’t used to seeing this display in a parking lot.”
The dance performance, which is described as a modern twist on ballet, saw nearly 100 people take in the event as the performers transformed the concrete lot into an outdoor theatre.
The final Nogojiwanong: Rite of Passage show will take place on Friday at 6 p.m. in the Brock Street parking lot.
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