Procession
Creative
A community-making initiative
How do we storyshape across communities, arts practices, and cultures?
Procession — Creative gathers and connects people through a co‑creation model, immersing Migration Dance Film Project’s Québec‑based performers alongside interdisciplinary artists and everyday community members globally. Intergenerational body and vocal percussion inhabit urbanscapes and rural landscapes — meshed in thoughtful creativity — observed, participatory and regrown.
Montreal
Tiohtià:ke/Montreal is Procession — Creative’s inaugural edition. Community formed through “incubator labs,” pairing emerging artists in vocals, circus arts, dance, and screendance film mentees with MDPF mentors in a cyclical nature of artistic reciprocity. Its impetus sprung in the face of the pandemic: how do we impart a sense of journeying f o r w a r d in a motionless state of pause?
Revealed is a flexible and unified rhythm of — movement through “grounded” journeying — negotiating spaces in our homescape. Home.
Offering
Director / Screendance Mentor
Marlene Millar
Choreographer / Composer Mentor
Sandy Silva
trailer — OFFERING creates a meaningful convergence between body percussion mentors and emerging artist mentees from dance and circus arts. The choreography uses the power of procession in Montreal’s borough of Little Burgundy to amplify its storyline of (re)imagined homescape in the era of mid-pandemic. The procession intertwines and unfolds through the neighbourhood and articulates the spatial array of stillness of movement — taking refuge in its powerful migratory patterns traced across our urbanscape.
Producers: Marlene Millar, Sandy Silva, Kathy Sperberg
Flux
Director / Screendance Mentee
Saria Chatila
A film inspired by Procession — Creative, Flux explores the story of two people who share an effortless connection that inspires freedom. Interspersed through the rehearsed choreography are moments of spontaneity which reflect the consequences of familiarity. As the pair flow between improvisation and choreography, their bond is maintained even in moments of uncertainty.
Director’s approach —
Weaving in Sandy Silva’s choreography to Mathilde and Joel’s acrobatic solos felt very spontaneous, yet effortless. That inspired me to explore the bond that can be created between the pair if they flowed in and out of the choreography together through unplanned movement, their natural instincts connecting them in moments of uncertainty.
Dandelions
Director / Screendance Mentee
Kyana Lyne
Two sisters revisit their childhood dance as a ritual of connection.
Director’s approach —
Seeing Rachel and Sana interact together throughout rehearsals inspired me to document the nuances of their sisterhood. Much of my approach was simply spending time getting to know them, exploring how Sandy Silva’s choreography could act as a bridge to honour their unique bond. I envisioned the film as a visual invitation into their ritual of connection.
Mini-doc
H O M E S C A P E
Director / Screendance Mentee
Pablo Córdoba
Rhythm is the conduit articulated throughout singing spaces in this impressionistic filmic journal.
H O M E S C A P E takes us through behind-the-scenes of the Procession — Creative year-long rehearsal process. Participating guest performer-mentor Omari ‘Motion’ Carter shares his perspective.
Director’s approach —
My vision was to convey the overarching feelings of what it was like to bear witness to all the rehearsals that took place in open spaces across Montreal culminating to create OFFERING. My intention is to showcase the synergy of the group across the expanse of time. Seeing everyone coming together to give their focused attention in the co-creation of music and movement was beautiful to watch, and had an impact on my direction.
Discover
Collaborate=Community
Collaborate
Migration Dance Film Project collaborates with arts organizations across the globe, and together, work to bring processional workshops to communities and / or ignite new co-producing partners for the co-creation of a new film.