when I’m dancing I try to get myself
into this imaginary time it’s coming
from the suppose that has inspired me
all my life it’s coming from the soles
of my feet because that’s my connection
to earth mother Marlene Miller and
Philips poor pay homage to
multi-talented Byron chief moon bringing
to the screen the unique life and times
of this exceptional artist welcome to
watchmojo.com i’m your host Laila let’s
check out what Marlene Miller has to say
gulf and i wrote in vancouver about six
years ago we were doing research for
another film series we were doing on
choreographers from across Canada so we
were just about to leave Vancouver and
then somebody mentioned Byron who’s a
dancer I mean he’s many many other
things as well so we went over to his
apartment and he was laid up on the
couch he had injured his back you know
but he knew we were coming over and he’d
gotten sort of all dressed up he had
this like nice house coat on with this
Ascot and he was just so charming and so
fascinating he invited us into his house
not knowing us he was living there with
his mother he only speaks Blackfoot his
three adopted children and his boyfriend
who at the time was working as a truck
driver he shared all this artwork with
us we did a short portrait FM it was six
minutes long but I’m the moment we met
him we just figured he warranted
something more in-depth he’s inspired a
lot of people how has he inspired you
his way that he’s able to handle so many
I guess to the challenges in his life
and he just does it with such grace he
comes from an extremely traditional
upbringing he was raised on the blood
reserve he lives in Vancouver stills a
strong connection with his family on the
reserve and yet he has all these great
people that he works with in Vancouver
in the contemporary world my
grandparents know I am of two spirits I
have within me the spirit of woman and
man I also have the bloodline of two
rival nations of blood in the Cree so I
come to you from various angles Byron
that calls himself a too spirited
man is an interesting term because while
we were doing the film we kept asking
all these different people what the
definition of it is and to some people
being a chi spirited means you have a
complete balance of the masculine and
the feminine you it doesn’t necessarily
mean that you’re gay to younger
Aboriginal man it means you’re gay and
Aboriginal to the scholars it’s more of
the people within the community that
took on rules of being like doctors and
caregivers and and they would stay with
the women when the men went off to fight
so Byron is a queer man and is too
spirited and a lot of that identity is
discussed in the film it seems like a
very deep subject dealing with rights
and rights of passage hot what were some
of the challenges of getting that across
on film he acknowledges that the fact
that there is so much less read of
passage for young men so in his dance
work that’s what he tries to bring out
he’ll work with Aboriginal and
non-aboriginal men but he really tries
to take them on this journey to
reconnect them not only with their
feminine side but with mother nature and
because he works as an actor and he had
a long career as a stuntman a lot of
young guys that wouldn’t necessarily be
interested in the dance work that he
does are really drawn to the fact that
you know he’s played like these cowboys
and like he’s really rough and tumble
characters in the medicine lodge treaty
we were promised a land of our ancestors
so because of that they’re like really
open to working with him so then he’s
able to introduce them to this whole
other world of dance
you
into this imaginary time it’s coming
from the suppose that has inspired me
all my life it’s coming from the soles
of my feet because that’s my connection
to earth mother Marlene Miller and
Philips poor pay homage to
multi-talented Byron chief moon bringing
to the screen the unique life and times
of this exceptional artist welcome to
watchmojo.com i’m your host Laila let’s
check out what Marlene Miller has to say
gulf and i wrote in vancouver about six
years ago we were doing research for
another film series we were doing on
choreographers from across Canada so we
were just about to leave Vancouver and
then somebody mentioned Byron who’s a
dancer I mean he’s many many other
things as well so we went over to his
apartment and he was laid up on the
couch he had injured his back you know
but he knew we were coming over and he’d
gotten sort of all dressed up he had
this like nice house coat on with this
Ascot and he was just so charming and so
fascinating he invited us into his house
not knowing us he was living there with
his mother he only speaks Blackfoot his
three adopted children and his boyfriend
who at the time was working as a truck
driver he shared all this artwork with
us we did a short portrait FM it was six
minutes long but I’m the moment we met
him we just figured he warranted
something more in-depth he’s inspired a
lot of people how has he inspired you
his way that he’s able to handle so many
I guess to the challenges in his life
and he just does it with such grace he
comes from an extremely traditional
upbringing he was raised on the blood
reserve he lives in Vancouver stills a
strong connection with his family on the
reserve and yet he has all these great
people that he works with in Vancouver
in the contemporary world my
grandparents know I am of two spirits I
have within me the spirit of woman and
man I also have the bloodline of two
rival nations of blood in the Cree so I
come to you from various angles Byron
that calls himself a too spirited
man is an interesting term because while
we were doing the film we kept asking
all these different people what the
definition of it is and to some people
being a chi spirited means you have a
complete balance of the masculine and
the feminine you it doesn’t necessarily
mean that you’re gay to younger
Aboriginal man it means you’re gay and
Aboriginal to the scholars it’s more of
the people within the community that
took on rules of being like doctors and
caregivers and and they would stay with
the women when the men went off to fight
so Byron is a queer man and is too
spirited and a lot of that identity is
discussed in the film it seems like a
very deep subject dealing with rights
and rights of passage hot what were some
of the challenges of getting that across
on film he acknowledges that the fact
that there is so much less read of
passage for young men so in his dance
work that’s what he tries to bring out
he’ll work with Aboriginal and
non-aboriginal men but he really tries
to take them on this journey to
reconnect them not only with their
feminine side but with mother nature and
because he works as an actor and he had
a long career as a stuntman a lot of
young guys that wouldn’t necessarily be
interested in the dance work that he
does are really drawn to the fact that
you know he’s played like these cowboys
and like he’s really rough and tumble
characters in the medicine lodge treaty
we were promised a land of our ancestors
so because of that they’re like really
open to working with him so then he’s
able to introduce them to this whole
other world of dance
you
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