![]() ![]() With so many online dance classes available, it's easy to explore different kinds and find your favourites. So if you find yourself regularly bopping along to songs or attempting every new TikTok dance, take it up a notch and let your body guide you into new forms of expression. Amateur dancing has also been reported to have a positive influence on self-esteem and social relations and to be a significant coping strategy for daily stress and difficult times. In adults, research has found that rhythmic movements and free flow can enhance happiness. Dance comes so naturally to us humans, in fact, that infants start rhythmically moving to music before they even learn how to walk. It's one of the most basic forms of human expression. ![]() “Eventually, you’ll be able to find the right resources if you keep looking, if you keep reaching out and searching for different things online or within the community.American modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham once said, "Dance is the hidden language of the soul." “Because we couldn’t afford that many dance classes growing up in my own family, I did also teach myself a lot of things from YouTube and the internet,” Komaksiutiksak said. The dancer’s advice for young people in Nunavut who want to pursue the art but don’t have easy access to studio classes is to seek out many different resources. “ just want other youth to know that they can make a living off of being an artist no matter which art form they choose,” Komaksiutiksak said. They also love watching kids discover an interest in dance and seeing “how happy they are when they’re dancing.” “Contemporary dance is not so common in the North, so being able to share what I love about dance and how it’s helped me on my healing journey ,” Komaksiutiksak said. One of Komaksiutiksak’s favourite parts about teaching dance in Nunavut is having the chance to share what they’ve learned about dance with other Inuit, they said. Iglulik High School student Scott Ipkangnak helps run the Arctic Rose Foundation’s Messy Book after-school program in Igloolik, preparing art, games and snacks for youth participants. Komaksiutiksak, who uses the pronouns they/them, will head to Chesterfield Inlet before the end of the year to teach another dance workshop, and said the program will hire another dance teacher which will allow more communities to get access to the classes. “I like organizing and helping the kids,” he said, like planning creative games for them, teaching them drawing and preparing snacks for them. ![]() When Komaksiutiksak and other guest artists aren’t visiting a community, local youth called community artist liaison and mentor workers, or “CALM” workers, facilitate the arts spaces for kids such as Iglulik High School student Scott Ipkangnak. Throughout the week, each class had between 20 to 25 kids, Komaksiutiksak said, which is a great turnout for a small community. It’s a good way for expression, but it’s also just something fun to do and to look forward to.” “We got really good feedback from the kids this year in Rankin Inlet and Igloolik. “The kids have been loving it,” Komaksiutiksak said.ĭancer Simik Komaksiutiksak teaches a hip-hop dance class to elementary school students in Igloolik on Sept. ![]() In Igloolik, the students learned a two-minute hip-hop combo to I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas. Then Komaksiutiksak teaches some hip-hop or contemporary choreography for a short combo, before finishing with a cool-down stretch. It’s the first time the program has run in the community.Įach lesson starts with a snack, a quiet meditation period to get focused, and a warm-up and stretching period. Since then, the program has expanded to more communities in the territory, including Igloolik where Nunatsiaq News joined Komaksiutiksak earlier this month to see the weeklong dance workshop at Iglulik High School. That dance background formed the basis for a new dance program in Rankin Inlet. Komaksiutiksak started dancing at age six and joined the Arctic Rose Foundation about a year and a half ago. Anything, and to help get that emotional artistic development with the kids,” said Komaksiutiksak, who grew up in Ottawa but was born in Rankin Inlet. “ teach whatever art want to teach, whether it’s beading, sewing, dance or drama. ![]()
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