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.
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.
photo Yvonne Chew
website Deanna Peters/Mutable Subject