The Coastal Dance Festival is returning to New Westminster to honour Indigenous stories, song and dance from across Canada and around the world.
Dancers of Damelahamid is presenting the 18th annual Coastal Dance Festival in New Westminster. Following its March 4 to 6 events at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC in Vancouver, the festival returns to Anvil Centre from March 7 to 9.
“This year is a time of great celebration for the Coastal Dance Festival,” said Margaret Grenier, festival executive and artistic director. “After a six-year hiatus, we are thrilled to return to our original home venue at MOA, upon the completion of seismic upgrades to its historic Great Hall in 2024. At the same time, we treasure the relationships we’ve built with the communities surrounding our vibrant home at New Westminster’s Anvil Centre”
For 2025, Grenier said the festival wanted to honour both places, expanding its reach to a wider audience and allowing for an even richer exchange of knowledge and culture.”
The festival’s program at Anvil Centre will feature a series of daytime performances and one signature evening performance.
The Friday, March 7 matinee program includes the festival debut of local theatre artist and dancer Nyla Bedard, who will share her love for the popular powwow dance style, Fancy Shawl, and Dancers of Damelahamid.
Dancers of Damelahamid, an Indigenous dance company from the Northwest Coast of British Columbia, is founded upon more than five decades of extensive work of song restoration. It has produced the Coastal Dance Festival annually since 2008, presenting Indigenous dance artists from the B.C. coast, with guest national and international artists; the festival’s predecessor, Haw Yaw Hawni Naw, was produced in Prince Rupert, B.C., from 1966 to 1986.
Anvil Centre’s midday festival stage on Saturday, March 8 and Sunday, March 9 includes: dynamic dance group Chinook Song Catchers (Skwxwu7mesh, Nisga’a); the award-winning Inland Tlingit Dakhká Khwáan Dancers; mask-dancing groups Git Hayetsk (Nisga’a, Tsimshian) and Git Hoan (Tsimshian); a family group of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters, Chesha7 iy lha mens (Skwxwu7mesh, Stó:lō, Tsimsian); Yisya̱’winux̱w (Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw), a group representing many of the 16 tribes of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw people on Northern Vancouver Island; and a dance group formed in 1980 by Robert and Reg Davidson, the Rainbow Creek Dancers (Haida).
Anvil Centre’s signature evening performance will feature Git Hoan, Yisya̱’winux̱w and a special excerpt from Dancers of Damelahamid’s Raven Mother, showcasing a striking raven transformation mask that opens to reflect five generations of women in their family who are part of the cultural revitalization and innovation in the dance form.
Full festival details and tickets are available online.
