Saskatchewan Arts Board

Dana Claxton (danaclaxton.com) presents “The People Dance”, a surreal story about spirituality and infinity that blends traditional Lakota worldview and customs with new media art. By crafting surreal and esoteric imagery in The People Dance, Lakota filmmaker Dana Claxton tells the story of a deity appearing in modern times, and answering the question “would we listen, would we hear?”

Together a man and woman take a poetic journey into a deeper understanding of spirituality while they sit on a leather sofa and speak of their quest and its many questions. The images often convey an optimism where the characters celebrate through words and dance secure in the knowledge of the elders and the future of our children.

Dana Claxton works in film, video, installation, photography, performance, education, curation and aboriginal broadcasting. Her artistic career spans twenty years and her work has been shown and collected internationally. Her artwork engages the socio-political and spiritual. She has sat on numerous international panels regarding art and society including the Getty Institute in Los Angles (2009), and the opening week forum at the Sydney Biennale (2010). She has also been a jury member many public arts funding bodies across Canada and is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory. Born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, her family reserve is Wood Mountain Lakota First Nations.