New Blood dancer performs her grandparents’ story

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Alayiah Wolfchild, a 17-year-old student at Strathmore High School (SHS), has been performing in the New Blood dance show since the show began a year ago.
Directed by Deanne Bertsch, and based on Peter Gabriel’s music by the same title, New Blood was first performed at SHS in the fall of 2014. Then the cast was invited to perform on the Siksika First Nation, and from there, to nine more venues and communities around southern Alberta.
The most recent performances was at Ernest Manning High School in Calgary on Dec. 10, as part of the school’s Culture Day.
New Blood features the story of Blackfoot Chief Vincent Yellow Old Woman’s residential school experience, and represents the story of all former residential students, including Wolfchild’s own grandparents. Wolfchild and her castmates are telling a story that’s too painful for many of them to share.
“It’s a big honor because it just means that our story, my grandparents’ stories, are being told,” Wolfchild said.
It was an especially great honor when her grandparents were in the audience.
“Just seeing them there, it touched me because I saw myself in them,” she said. “I tried to put myself in their shoes when they were in residential schools.”
Wolfchild’s father, Eddi Wolfchild, has also been performing in New Blood since the show began, playing the father whose son goes to residential school.
“The show has brought my dad and I closer,” Wolfchild said. “It means a lot to him, because his parents were both in residential schools.”
Her dad is also glad, she said, to see non-aboriginal and aboriginal students performing together, putting aside their differences and building friendships.
New Blood continues to receive performance invitations.
“We’re always listening to Peter Gabriel (music) and talking about how much further the show will go,” Wolfchild said. “I want to welcome (people) to the show, (for them) to know what happened in residential schools.”
When she considers the abuse her grandparents suffered, she said, “just imagining my two little sisters going to school in fear, it breaks my heart.”
You can follow performances and book tickets on the New Blood Facebook page or at newbloodthedanceshow.com.