Circumpolar artists take over Arctic games in Nuuk

Yukon breakdancers and singers perform during an Arctic Winter Games showcase in Nuuk, March 9. (PHOTOS BY STEVE DUCHARME)

Alaskan baton twirler Heather Werning delights the AWG audience with glowing batons.

Half of the Inuksuk Drum Dancers perform in Nuuk, Greenland, during an AWG cultural showcase March 9. The other half were across Davis Strait in Iqaluit, performing at a showcase at Nakasuk School.

NUUK, GREENLAND — For a brief two hours, Arctic Winter Games athletes played second fiddle to circumpolar performing artists in the first of two slick gala shows March 9 at the Katuaq arts centre in Nuuk.

Visitors filed into the building’s largest auditorium to see the various performers who came to Nuuk to serve as cultural delegates for their respective regions during the games.

“This show is about youth and culture,” said Minik Hansen, one of the event’s emcees.

And with the exception of Tatyana Lar — Team Yamal’s veteran Siberian Nenet — that proved to be the case.

Half of the Iqaluit-based Inuksuk drum dancers represented Nunavut in the concert, playing about 15 minutes worth of songs from their extensive repertoire.

Those drum dancers who were absent took part in a satellite Arctic Winter Games cultural showcase, organized by Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory and the Alianait Arts Festival, held the same night in Iqaluit.

Despite a few early audio glitches, the Nunavut performers earned a warm ovation from the near-capacity audience crowding into the two-level theatre.

But perhaps the strongest reception, after the hometown Greenland troupe, was reserved for Nunavik teen-rockers Qulliq Band.

About halfway into the evening, a confused audience was asked to leave their seats and return to the Katuaq foyer.

Once outside, the six-piece band stunned onlookers with punky reinterpretations of classic Inuktitut music such as the self-titled song from the 1970’s Inuit band Sikumiut.

And a brief throat singing set backed by beat boxing — sometimes called “throat-boxing” — drew laughs and cheers from the crowd.

“Our languages are similar but some words can mean the opposite,” Hansen commented.

According to Hansen, asking “Are you feeling great?” in Nunavik’s dialect of Inuktutit could raise some eyebrows in Greenland.

“Because if you say it here, it means ‘Are you feeling sad?’”

Despite the young age of most performers, the showcase never lost momentum.

Breakdancers from Yukon — accompanied by singers — orchestrated a series of entirely unnatural maneuvers to a techno-folk soundtrack after the audience returned from Qulliq’s set.

A quartet of fiddlers representing the Northwest Territories had the crowd stomping and clapping along to that classic Canadian music

Other delegates for the evening included Heather Werning, an Alaska state champion in baton twirling.

The crowd hushed when Werning traded batons for knives during her second set, throwing the weapons high over her head and catching them without impaling herself.

And three female Sapmi singers performed a choral arrangement of joik and other Saami songs, accompanied on piano.

Other delegates chose more theatrical sets to represent their region.

Alberta North donned feathers and crow masks to symbolize that bird’s importance to northern communities.

And home-team Greenland dancers, who wore season-themed garb, preached to the strength of Inuit knowledge to expand and contract with available resources.

“The Inuit are ready for me,” said one Greenlandic performer dressed in a snow-white gown.

The ceremony ended with a haunting performance from Tatyana Lar, a Nenet from northwestern Siberia, who represented Yamal.

“To this day we still have the significant knowledge of surviving the Arctic,” said Hansen.

“Elders in our community are respected. There are things we cannot learn in school but we can learn from them.”

The second and final gala showcase will unfold March 10 at the Katuaq.

The 2016 Arctic Winter Games will continue until March 11, with the closing ceremony schedule for 8 p.m. that evening.