Tasha Faye Evans

bio

Tasha Faye Evans is a dancer, theatre artist, creative consultant, cultural programmer, and educator from Coast Salish, Welsh and European-Jewish grandparents. Her work is an integration of dance, theatre and culture driven by the sacred responsibility to care for the future of all our relations. Her dance practice is directly related to the land and the cultural teachings of the Ancestor’s Eye, a symbol of Coast Salish design and a core teaching of our culture.

"There is not a word in Coast Salish culture for art. Our art is functional. Our dances, prayers. Our songs, blessings. I am an artist because I love fiercely and creating work is my way of having hope, preserving the sacred and imagining a better future for all our relations." — Tasha Faye Evans

Tasha’s current projects include Cedar Woman, a dance honouring a legacy of Coast Salish women spanning all the way back to a tree in the Great Flood, and In the Presence of Ancestors, a life-long exhibition of five Coast Salish House posts being carved and raised in Port Moody.

An independent artist, Tasha is supported federally and provincially. She has been hosted by The Banff Centre, The Dance Centre, Shadbolt Arts Centre, plastic orchid factory and Dumb Instrument. Her work has been presented by various companies including Co.ERASGA, Raven Spirit Dance, and Dancers of the Damelahamid. Tasha was most recently awarded the 2023 Edge Prize for her leadership in cultural resurgence.

With decades of creation and production, Tasha has participated in performances and festivals nationally and internationally. Some of these experiences include, the International Women’s Festival of Art in Colombia, Coastal Dance Festival, International Sacred Water Festival, DIV and the 2023 Adaka Festival. She has performed in many different spaces including, the Belfry, the Stanley, Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre, La Candalaria, La Mascara, a barge in the Burrard inlet, and a warehouse basement in Vancouver.

Tasha’s most memorable performance was dancing Starr Muranko’s Spine of the Mother at the Museum of Anthropology.

dance

self-produced

Cedar Woman

The Prayer

Song of Me

La Violencia

She Stands Still

collaboration w/ Raven Spirit Dance

Confluence

Salmon Girl

Spine of the Mother

Ashes on the Water

theatre

creative collaborations

Midsummer Night’s Dream Bard on the Beach

Time Machine Radix Theatre

The Beginners Boca del Lupo

Bewildered Radix Theatre

Box Radix Theatre

selected credits

Child-Ish Pacific Theatre

Seventh Fire Neworld Theatre, Delinquent Theatre

Screen Door Off Limits

Reframed Electric Company

Vincent River Bob Frazer

Rez Sisters Belfry Theatre

Diary of Anne Frank Arts Club

Unnatural and Accidental Women Firehall Theatre

I Hate You on Mondays Chris Macgregor

community

self-produced

In the Presence of Ancestors

National Indigenous Peoples Day: Community Voices

Welcome Post Project

Walbran Witness

photo Yvonne Chew

website Deanna Peters/Mutable Subject