Night/Shift 2023

Penny is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Aanmitaagzi, an Indigenous multi-arts company committed to community engaged projects that promote well-being, strengthen relationships with the land, and incorporate intergenerational approaches. In 2016, Penny received the K.M. Hunter Award for Dance through the Ontario Arts Council. Over the past 20 years, Penny has been a guest instructor at schools throughout Canada and the U.S., including the Centre for Indigenous Theatre, where she has been a faculty member and choreographer since 1998.

Christine is Anishinaabe Kwe, she is a proficient resilient Indigenous storyteller. She began her dance career with In the Land of Spirits in 1992 and has maintained a professional dance career for over 30 years, as a choreographer and director, developing solo work, commissioned work, youth creations and full-scale productions. In the past four years she has produced several dance films to broaden her audience and expand her potential. As a community activator she inspires gifts that awaken the connections to ignite the cultural wellness and traditions of our Anishinaabek community. Christine has developed and delivered strong community focused programs and gatherings for over 20 years.

Her company, Friday Creeations based on Bear Island Lake Temagami is a First Nations professional arts and culture-based community platform that encourages creative entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency that connects to land, empowerment and truth. She is in the process of launching her dream into reality with the grand opening of the Dance Studio Lodge and Outfitters Company the summer of 2023, inspiring and activating land based with professional performance and traditional artistic practices to awaken storytelling rooted in land and individual creativity, connection and healing. 

Her artistic research explores identity, memory, and grief—utilizing autoethnographic methodology to weave movement and literary choreographies to create live, filmed, and installation works. McDermott is currently an MFA candidate in Criticism and Curatorial Practice at OCAD University (Supervised by Dr. Andrea Fatona).