While much of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad programming focuses on Canadian performers and productions, the arts and culture component of the Games also has an international element. Canada and the world will both be in the spotlight on Sunday (Feb. 14) at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre (SLCC) when two First Nations dance groups showcase their talents.

The connection between a family dance collective from northwestern B.C. and a Maori troupe from New Zealand might seem distant at best, but the two groups have been in contact for almost two years.

Turanga Ararau Kapa Haka, the dance group from Gisborne, New Zealand, is in B.C. as part of a cultural exchange with the Dancers of Damelahamid, a First Nations collective from the Gitksan Nation. The two groups first connected when the Dancers of Damelahamid toured New Zealand two summers ago, said Margaret Grenier, executive and artistic director of the B.C. group.

Members of the Dancers of Damelahamid invited the Maori group to come to Canada to participate in workshops and learn from each other in a cultural exchange, she said.

“It has been part of a collaboration,” Grenier said. “We’re just inspired by the work that is being done there and the art.”

Being able to present the two groups to an international audience during the Games allows people to experience the beauty and richness of different First Nations cultures that’s been maintained through generations, she said.

“We would like people to see the diversity of our dances,” Grenier said. “It’s an opportunity to open their hearts and start to bridge an understanding between cultures.”

The First Nations dance, song and storytelling performance is the first of many special programs at the SLCC through February. Admission to the First Nations cultural centre is by donation until March 21 and all special performances are included with one’s admission.

Storytelling, traditional dance, music, Inuit circus performers, theatre and more are included in the lineup. As well, master carvers from the Lil’wat and Squamish nations will be creating four pieces live in the Great Hall, and other artists will demonstrate their craft daily.

The Damelahamid performance is an integration of story, song and dance, with stories and songs that are thousands of years old and have been passed down through Grenier’s family lineage, she said. Some of the individual dances are dramatic representations, while others are styles of dance that depict welcoming or blessings, she said.

The group of about 10 dancers wears distinctive masks and blanket regalia for each piece. Grenier said the masks signify the ancestors that are central to the stories, and the masks and regalia help to tell the stories.

“It’s all meant to be a very elaborate presentation,” she said.

Grenier introduces each dance in a storytelling style to provide context, and she is also one of the dancers.

Grenier’s parents, Chief Ken Harris and Elder Margaret Harris, started the Dancers of Damelahamid professional dance group in the 1960s after learning the family’s traditional dances from her grandmother, she said.

Since 2003, Grenier and her generation have worked to revive and maintain the Dancers of Damelahamid and the We yah hani nah Dance Festival in Vancouver. The Cultural Olympiad has allowed the group to revive the festival and get the momentum going again, she said.

The mandate of the group is to further cross-cultural acceptance and a greater understanding of the richness of First Nations culture. Grenier said by engaging an audience in the songs and dances, learning about First Nations goes beyond facts and figures.

“People will have an opportunity… to see a broader depth to what it means to be First Nations,” she said.

The Dancers of Damelahamid and Turanga Ararau Kapa Haka are set to perform at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday (Feb. 14). For a full schedule of the centre’s Games programming, visit www.slcc.com/whistler-2010.