MICHELLE OLSON is a member of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation and the Co-Artistic Director of Raven Spirit Dance. She studied dance and performance at the University of New Mexico, the Aboriginal Arts Program at the Banff Centre and was an Ensemble Member of Full Circle First Nations Performance. Michelle works in areas of dance, theatre and opera as a choreographer, performer and movement coach and her work has been seen on stages across Canada. Selected choreography/theatre credits include Gathering Light (Raven Spirit Dance), Salmon Girl (TYA – Raven Spirit Dance), Map of the Land, Map of the Stars (Gwaandak Theatre), Frost Trees Exploding Moon (Raven Spirit Dance), Mozart’s Magic Flute (Vancouver Opera), The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (Western Canada Theatre/National Arts Centre), Death of a Chief (Native Earth Performing Arts/National Arts Centre) and Evening in Paris (Raven Spirit Dance). She was the recipient of the inaugural Vancouver International Dance Festival Choreographic Award. She graduated as a Certified Movement Analyst from Laban/Bartenieff and Somatic Studies Canada and is currently teaching at Langara’s Studio 58.
STARR MURANKO is dancer/choreographer, Mother and Co-Artistic Director with Raven Spirit Dance. As a choreographer she is most interested in the stories that we carry within our bodies and Ancestral connections to land that transcend time and space. Her work has been shared locally and nationally including the Dance Centre, Talking Stick Festival, Coastal Dance Festival, Dancing on the Edge, Native Earth Performing Arts, Weesageechak Begins to Dance, Impact Festival and InFringing Dance Festival. Featured works include Chapter 21, Spine of the Mother and before7after as well as recent collaborative work Confluence and her current research for a new piece Tracing Bones.
A proud company dancer with the Dancers of Damelahamid since 2005, she has toured across Canada and internationally and trained under the guidance and mentorship of the late Elder Margaret Harris. She is currently Artist-in-Residence at Ballet BC alongside colleague and longtime collaborator Margaret Grenier. Starr has facilitated workshops through ArtsStarts, Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre, Native Education College and Vines Art Festival and holds a BFA in Dance from SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts. She honours and celebrates her mixed Ancestry of Omushkegowuk Cree (Moose Cree First Nation – Treaty 9), French and German in all of her work.
Organisation/Company
Name: Raven Spirit Dance
My Role: Co-Artistic Directors
Raven Spirit Dance creates and produces contemporary dance that is rooted in Indigenous worldviews and honours the communities and artists we work with. We share stories through Indigenous perspectives and practices and create opportunities for others to do the same.
The company works from the following values: Generosity, Integrity, Honoring and Courage.
Creative Philosophy:
The moment of an impulse is the collision of inherited worldviews, traditional and urban cosmologies, and personal and collective histories. From this place, one dances and creates and it is how one arrives at an expression that is distinct. Raven Spirit values how indigenous expression is realized through contemporary dance in this way. It values creating an environment for dialogue and critique and values pushing the boundaries of the work and our cultural selves.
Iwi affiliation
Michelle Olson is from the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation in the Yukon, Canada.
Starr Muranko is from the Moose Cree First Nation in Northern Ontario, Canada.
Rohe
Raven Spirit Dance gratefully works on the unceded ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh) First Nations also known as Vancouver, BC on the West Coast of Canada.
Frost Exploding Trees Moon
Artform: Dance
Development Status: Tour Ready (We are currently planning an international tour to New Zealand in May/June 2025. We look forward to collaborating with presenters who would like to be a part of this tour.)
Pitch Video
Media Uploads
Trailer
Full Length
Synopsis
Frost Exploding Trees Moon is a solo piece following the journey of a woman traveling her trap line. She finds a place to set up camp, builds her temporary home, and settles into the centre of her world of breath and perception.
The piece tracks a physical human journey as well as a spiritual one. It asks: How does one house one’s spirit? What keeps us close to earth and what makes us long for stars?
Creative Team and Crew
CO-CREATED BY: Floyd Favel and Michelle Olson
PERFORMED BY: Michelle Olson
*ALSO PERFORMED BY: Jeanette Kotowich
VOCALS: Kelly Daniels
MUSIC: Meewasin Oma
MUSIC COMPOSITION: Wayne Lavallee
LIGHTING DESIGN: John Carter
COSTUME DESIGN: Jules Francisco
Number of People in the Touring Party
1
Previous Seasons
Frost Exploding Trees Moon has been shared across Canada at festivals and gatherings including performances in Vancouver, Nanaimo, Toronto, Kitchener, Whitehorse, Dawson City as well as internationally in Australia.
Technical Rider & International Touring Info (if applicable)
- View/download document #1 here
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