The dancer and festival director of the 19th Annual Coastal Dance Festival Margaret Grenier discusses what to expect this week (03-08 March 2026) at the Anvil Centre and the Museum of Anthropology, with Joseph Planta.
Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.
The 19th Annual Coastal Dance Festival starts tomorrow (03 March 2026), which in stories, song and dance, honours the Indigenous cultures along the Northwest Coast, as well as across Canada and around the world. Joining me now is Margaret Grenier, who is the festival director, and a member of the award-winning group Dancers of Damelahamid, who will be performing a mountain goat transformation mask dance. I’ll ask Margaret about the festival, and the performance she’ll be part of, and the other highlights Tuesday (03 March 2026) at New Westminster’s Anvil Centre, and 04-08 March 2026 at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology. Among other highlights include a preview of Tasha Faye Evans’s full-length work Cedar Woman, as well as the Sámi singers Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska and Lawra Somby, who’ll present their traditional Sámi culture from Norway. The festival will also feature a film screening of the documentary So Surreal: Behind The Masks, a film by Neil Diamond and Joanne Robertson. Margaret Grenier has created and run the festival for 19 years now, and she continues the legacy of her mother, the late Elder Margaret Harris, who played an important role in the resurgence of traditional cultural practices among different Indigenous groups across the Northwest Coast. Visit www.damelahamid.ca for tickets and the full program. We taped this interview last week. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Margaret Grenier; Ms. Grenier, good morning.
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