O.Dela Arts

The mandate of O.Dela Arts Society is to support Canadian Indigenous choroeographer, Olivia C. Davies, in the creation and production of choreography, community-engaged projects, creative collaboration projects and commissions. Since its inception in 2018, O.Dela Arts programming seeks to develop audiences for Contemporary Indigenous dance and multidisciplinary arts. The organization has built a solid foundation of peer exchange, professional development opportunities and performance series. In celebration of Indigenous women dancing stories of transformation and coinciding with National Indigenous Peoples' Day, we curated the first Matriarchs Uprising Festival in June 2019 to showcase works by Indigenous choreographers from Australia, Canada, and the US. The events solidified our goals of becoming an organization that supports many voices through our artistic curation. Invitations to bring our moderated conversation series, "Talking Truths", to inFringing Dance Festival and to Fluid Fest provided new ways to educate audiences to the nuances of Contemporary Indigenous dance practise. Davies' community engagement practice, "Home: Our Way", continues to be supported by O.Dela Arts, and has been offered through the Dance Centre, Crimson Coast Dance Society, Lester Centre for the Arts, and Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society since 2018. In February 2020, we partnered with Full Circle First Nations Performance to present the second edition of Matriarchs Uprising as part of the internationally-acclaimed Talking Stick Festival.

During our first two years, our organization has persevered in curating captivating live performance, creating and commissioning new works and fostering partnerships with other Indigenous and Non-Indigenous artists, presenters, and producers. We continue to build capacity in our administrative and fundraising efforts, and develop new goals and objectives for our future with live performance, online activation, and creative engagements with visionaries in the fields of music, dance, literature, and new media.