Youth choir members raise their voices

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The lights in the theatre dimmed, the audience hushed and spotlights lit the aisles as the Dwae Na Ga Das First Nations Youth Choir entered the theatre.

Winding their way down the aisles whispering "Dwae Na Ga Das"-Raising Our Voices in the Cayuga language-in the ears of the audience, the choir made its debut at the Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts on Saturday, Feb. 18.

It was a long road to the stage of the Sanderson Centre for the choir, based at Six Nations of the Grand River. Choir members attended weekly choir practices, rehearsed with a choreographer on weekends and worked hard to prepare themselves for the performance. By night's end, they had successfully completed their first professional performance in front of hundreds of patrons in a theatre where the likes of Blue Rodeo, Colin James and the Harlem Gospel Choir have performed.

The idea to form a community youth choir was first put forward last spring and a core group of community members soon joined to form a team to help put that idea into action. A mission statement for the choir was developed, stating that "Through song and music, Dwae Na Ga Das First Nations Youth Choir will raise their voices in celebration of their musical heritage and traditional languages."

Auditions were held in June 2005 and 16 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 were selected to be a part of the choir. Auditions were open to any First Nations youth. Although boys were encouraged to join, none came out to the first round of auditions.

Two week-long choir camps were held over the summer months to introduce choir members to such areas of study as voice care, nutrition, voice exercise and musical theory. Since music hadn't been taught in elementary school on Six Nations since 1990, organizers knew the camps were necessary, as an entire generation of children had not had the opportunity to study music in the classroom.

A choir director joined the project in the fall and began to teach choir members a selection of seasonal songs that were to play on the local radio station. The choir recorded three songs for airplay and just before Christmas they gave a mini- concert at the local nursing home, Iroquois Lodge.

Early in the New Year, the choir began rehearsals for "Raising Our Voices." The show, directed by Tom Hill, featured a variety of local performing artists and told the story of the strong musical history that exists at Six Nations and New Credit. Brass bands, smoke dancers, bluegrass, country, blues and rap were all part of the evening's entertainment.

The choir performed "Creation Sings!" an original piece of spoken word, music and dance developed specifically for them by three local artists and sponsored by the Ontario Arts Council. The piece celebrates the gift of music and dance given by the Creator. They also performed a rattle song and joined the entire cast in the finale, which brought the house down.

The creative team that oversees the choir will hold more auditions in March to see if any males are interested in joining. The choir members will then begin to prepare for the next big performance at Six Nations Community Awareness Week coming up in May, where the choir will perform a community concert as part of the annual event.