Mamaawi: Together through the Fire

Overview

Mamaawi: Together through the Fire is a live VR dance performance created in collaboration with Indigenous choreographer Olivia C. Davies. Based on the Anishinaabe teachings of the Seven Fires prophecies, the piece explores themes of conflict and reconciliation through an Indigenous futurist lens. In-venue audiences are seated in a circle on stage wearing VR headsets, experiencing the world and each other rendered in a visual style inspired by Anishinaabe illustrator Joshua Pawis-Steckley. Remote audiences join via phones, tablets, or PCs as colorful hummingbird avatars, while two motion-captured dancers—embodying Wolf and Eagle—perform the story of how the world came to the brink of disaster and survived by remembering ancient teachings. As Creative and Technical Director, I was responsible for all digital content including characters, environments, and effects, as well as the multiplayer networking, real-time performance capture, VR streaming, and pixel-streaming infrastructure for remote audiences. The piece has toured across Canada and been featured at numerous dance festivals over the past three years—its powerful story of reconciliation through shared humanity and traditional teachings proving deeply relevant in these times.

Media

Learn More