St. Albert residents will get to see the roots of Métis dance next weekend as this city’s annual spring festival goes multicultural. The ninth annual Métis Spring Festival Red-River-jigs its way into town next weekend. Some 400 people are expected to come to Servus Place to see about 70 fiddlers and jiggers perform traditional Métis songs and dances as they compete for roughly $30,000 in prizes. This year’s festival is meant to celebrate Canada’s 150th and give the Métis community, especially its youth, a chance to share their culture, said Donald Langford, executive director of the Métis Child and Family Services Society of Edmonton (the group behind the festival). “St. Albert is the traditional Métis homeland in Alberta,” he said, due to its long history of Métis settlement, which makes it a great place to hold this festival. Festival organizer Florence Gaucher has planned several new twists for this year’s event. Instead of bringing in celebrity dancers from out of province such as the Asham Stompers, this year’s square dances will feature all Alberta performers, including two new youth groups from Fishing Lake and Wabasca. “We have an obligation to promote our Alberta youth,” Gaucher said. It will be the biggest audience that Wabasca’s Northern Reelers have ever performed in front of, said group instructor Helen Brule. Most of their previous shows have been for small community gatherings. “We’re doing it for the community, especially the elders,” she said, who are big fans of the old dances. Gaucher had also invited Arlene Bain of Red Deer’s Bain School of Dancing and St. Paul’s Rhea Labrie to perform demonstrations of Scottish Highland and French Canadian step dancing, respectively, at the festival. Métis jigging has its roots in both these dances, Gaucher said. French Canadian step originated from Scottish and Irish step dancing and influenced that of the Métis, said Labrie, whose husband Calvin Vollrath will once again play the fiddle at the spring festival. You see a lot of the same shuffles, hops, and points in all three dances, but French step tends to be lower to the ground than Métis jigging. “A lot of it is in the music,” she explained. The festival will also for the first time open with the national anthem sung in Cree, Gaucher said. Singing will be 10-year-old singing/dancing sensation Christina Hollingworth of St. Albert. Gaucher said the festival will also feature an expanded Métis crafts market, two days of fiddling and jigging competition, and a talent show. The festival will be a fantastic opportunity for St. Albert residents to check out different cultures, Langford said. The festival runs from about 1 to about 5 p.m. on May 20 and 21. Tickets are $3 to $10. Call Gaucher at 780-452-6100 ext. 227 for details.
Métis roots
Métis dances, particularly the Red River jig, combine the fast footwork of First Nations ceremonies such as the chicken dance with moves from French, Irish, and Scottish dancing. See a documentary on this subject by the Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium at https://goo.gl/3KZj7k
