Winter Moons by shalan joudry and Sarah Prosper
Tuesday, November 12th to Sunday, November 24th | 2PM (weekends only) & 7:30PM
Neptune Theatre – Scotiabank Stage
In Partnership with
Led by shalan joudry, this L’nu (Mi’kmaw) dance theatre performance follows the story of L’nu women surviving the three moons of winter together deep in the forest. This piece is beautiful collaboration with dance choreographer Sarah Prosper and Wapna’kikewi’skwaq (Women of First Light) grandmothers and cultural carriers. Through contemporary and theatrical movement and music, Winter Moons weaves cultural teachings and timeless stories. This hour-long cultural musical theatre was first crafted for fireside sharing in the round.
The story follows L’nu women who care for a fire ember through the winter season (December 21 – March 21). L’nu legends, star stories, and contemporary dance express the harsh realities of living off the land in a long-ago Mi’kma’ki winter. If the women were able to keep the ember alive until the Spring Equinox, there is a celebration to honour the women and the returning of summer.
shalan joudry
Director, Performer
shalan joudry is a L’nu (Mi’kmaw) narrative artist working in many mediums. She is a poet, playwright, podcast producer, oral storyteller, and actor, as well as a cultural interpreter. For over two decades shalan has brought her Mi’kmaw stories to a new generation of listeners, sharing her poetry, oral storytelling, and drum singing with numerous stages, events, schools, and organizations. Her unique specialty is performing for audiences around a campfire.
shalan has published two books of poetry: Generations Re-merging (2014) and Waking Ground (2020). Her poem, “Kmətkinu”, where she brings together a total of 13 different languages and voices to read her words, was featured at Nocturne (Halifax) as an audio installation in the Halifax Public Gardens. shalan is currently collaborating with Mocean Dance to re-vision the poem as a dance work. Her first full length play, Elapultiek, which tells the story of two contrasting ideologies around conservation and understanding of the landscape of Mi’kma’ki, was commissioned by and produced twice by Two Planks and a Passion Theatre (2018 and 2019). shalan acted a lead role in both productions. In 2021, shalan teamed up with theatre director Ken Schwartz and mask coach Ann Marie Kerr to stage her newest theatre piece, KOQM. This one-woman show recounting the strength of L’nu women over a 400-year period of colonization, premiered on the King’s Theatre stage in Annapolis Royal, NS and then later made a short tour around Nova Scotia during 2022. KOQM won the 2023 Robert Merritt Award for Outstanding New Play by a Nova Scotian.
Sarah Prosper
Choreographer, Performer
Dancer and Artistic Director of Samqwan, Sarah (Sali’j) Prosper is a L’nu woman from Mi’kmaq First Nation community Eskasoni (Wekwistoqnik ~ land of the fir trees). She holds a BSc in Therapeutic Recreation, is studying Indigenous ways of Healing through Movement in the Masters of Arts in Leisure Studies at Dalhousie University, and is ADAPT-Certified. Sarah has danced with Mocean Dance, Kinetic Studios, House of Eights, Painted Dance Co, and Nestuita’si.
An accomplished creator and leader in arts, dance, and culture, Sarah has performed, collaborated, co-created, and consulted in Indigenous-inspired multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational productions, most recently: KOQM (shalan joudry), Nutuwiek? (NS Choral Federation), Alan Syliboy & The Thundermakers (co-presented with Symphony NS), Fluid Forms ~ Utawtiwow Kijinaq (Mocean Dance & Sara Coffin), Ki’kwa’ju: Reimagining Prokofiev’s Peter & the Wolf (Fountain School of the Performing Arts, Christina Murray & Shelly MacDonald), and Lost Soul Rodeo (George Woodhouse & the Public Service). Sarah creates and moves through topics of intergenerational healing, history, health, wellness, and truth; through these elements and stories of our lives and the land, she hopes to incorporate Indigenous creativeness in movement of all forms, uplifting contemporary Indigenous artistry with an approach that is guided by Mi’kmaq spirituality.