In her dance performances Emily Johnson doesn’t actually strap fish to her arms and legs, but instead uses film to project those images onto a screen. An award winning choreographer/dancer, Emily will perform at the Arrowhead Center of Arts (ACA) October 24-25.
An award-winning dancer, choreographer, writer, teacher, and artistic director, Emily Johnson, a native of Alaska who is 1/8th Yup’ik, brings her unique brand of storytelling through dance to Cook County.
No, she didn’t grow up living in an igloo, even though she gets asked that a lot. And yes, she misses Alaska but admits to liking the urban setting she found when she moved to the Twin Cities more than 15 years ago to attend college.
Johnson, who is no stranger to Cook County, is bringing her Catalyst Dance Company back to the Grand Marais Arrowhead Center for the Arts on October 24 – 25 for four performances of The Thank You Bar.
Combining music, movement, light and interweaving story, The Thank You Bar is about an hour long and blurs the lines between performers and audience.
“I just want people to know that there may only be room for 20-25 people for each show,” said Johnson. “So people need to get their tickets well ahead of time so they don’t miss the performance.”
The reason seating is limited is because audience members will be on stage with Johnson and in a limited way, be part of the show. Her husband, James Everest (guitar) and fellow musician Joel Pickard (steel guitar) will play for the show and perform a concert on October 25 after the dance.
“They play original music, improvised sets about 45 minutes long,” Johnson said.
Johnson was born in Soldotna, Alaska and grew up in Sterling, Alaska. A tomboy, she hunted, fished, played basketball, and ran long distance for her high school track team.
“I also danced on the dance line in high school, but didn’t take it seriously,” said Johnson.
After high school Johnson attended the University of Minnesota with the intention of getting a degree in physical therapy. A cancelled class led her to take a dance class instead and from there her future was set. But it wasn’t until many years later that Johnson began incorporating her heritage, her ancestor’s native language, and the culture of the Yup’ik people.
In 1998, after graduating with a degree in dance, Johnson formed Catalyst Dance Company. Since then she has created 22 original performance pieces and collaborated on several other works with other artists. She has won many awards, grants and honors and her work continues to grow in scope, originality, and beauty. She travels from one end of the country to the other to perform, teach, and conduct workshops.
When asked where she got the idea to create The Thank You Bar, Johnson said, “My grandmother owned the Que-Ana Bar, down in Clam Gulch for many years. Because my grandma and my grandpa also lived there, the Queana is where we went for Sunday sourdoughs and Thanksgiving dinner. It also served as our fishing and hunting headquarters. I have probably spent about a million hours tying fish strips and cleaning clams there at grandma’s!
“The bar had a jukebox filled with real country music—my brothers and I kept it well supplied with quarters—and this music serves as the soundscape to my memories of family and food rituals. Making a dance about home and displacement, it seemed necessary to me to name it after this place. I also feel the name ties to language— Que-Ana, Quyanna— means thank-you.”
The Thank You Bar is the first in a trilogy. Niicugni (nee-CHOOG-nee), which means, “listen” or “to pay attention to,” is the second part of that trilogy, and will be performed at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts in February.
Johnson will also conduct workshops around that performance and teach people how to make handcrafted fish-skin lanterns. One of the features of Niicugni is the 51 hand crafted fish-skin lanterns that will hang throughout the stage area. Johnson said people in her workshops have been making them throughout the past year.
In addition to her dance performance, Johnson has also been in contact with the Cook County Community YMCA in Grand Marais and may hold a dance workshop (or two) there this fall.
“I’m playing phone tag with them right now,” she said. “I’m not sure yet, but I’m hoping to have a couple of workshops there this fall.”
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