Keynote Speakers
Just Breathe, Okâwîmâwaskiy
Melanie Kloetzel
Sandra Lamouche
Melanie Kloetzel (she/her; MFA, PhD) is a settler performance maker, scholar and educator based in Treaty 7 territory (Moh’kinsstis/Calgary). Director of the dance theatre company kloetzel&co. and co-director of the art intervention collective TRAction, Kloetzel’s research work spans stage, site and screen. Employing practice-as-research methodologies, Kloetzel develops events, workshops and encounters in theatre spaces, alternative venues, spaces of public assembly, and online environments. Kloetzel is Professor and Division Lead of Dance at the University of Calgary.
Sandra Lamouche (she/her) is a Nehiyaw Iskwew (Cree Woman) from the Bigstone Cree Nation in Northern Alberta. She married into the Piikani Nation in Southern Alberta and is now a proud mother of two boys with braids. She holds a BA in Native American Studies from University of Lethbridge, and an MA from Trent University where she focused on Indigenous dance and health. Sandra is a multidisciplinary creator, artist, writer and storyteller, a Champion Hoop Dancer, an award-winning educator, and a two-time TEDx Speaker. She has performed, collaborated and trained with such Indigenous artists and companies as Rosalie Jones, Rulan Tangen, Yvonne Chartrand, Santee Smith, Raven Spirit Dance, O. Dela Arts, and Jack Gray, among others.
Just Breathe, Okâwîmâwaskiy is a collaborative project created by Cree artist Sandra Lamouche and settler artist Melanie Kloetzel. Developing from a shared concern regarding the state of the planet, Lamouche and Kloetzel came together to consider how to use an immersive and site-specific dance theatre experience to address the intersection of climate change, capitalism, Indigenous knowledge and mental health.
With support from the University of Calgary, Canada Council for the Arts, and Environment and Climate Change Canada (Mobilizing Alberta), multiple live presentations of the project occurred between January 2023 and January 2024. These presentations involved taking audience-participants (including full classes of students) on an immersive ‘tour’ through a site-specific landscape where they engaged in physical and state-based embodied tasks, faced a mock climate emergency, and experienced the sharing of Indigenous knowledge through a healing hoop dance. Each tour ended with a one-hour focus group conducted by a clinical psychologist, who helped the audience process the emotions of hope, fear, confusion and anger that emerged.
The project has recently been reconstituted as a 22-minute film that can be used as a springboard for discussion and facilitation around eco-anxiety, its roots and the paradoxes surrounding it. In this keynote address, we will share this film, along with lecture, imagery and discussion, as a way to explore how creative practice can support community wellness and catalyze cross-cultural and place-based learning.
Community-University Partnerships and Canada’s
Strategy for Social and Public Innovation and Prosperity
Speaker: Dr. Sandra Lapointe
Dr Sandra Lapointe is a Professor of Philosophy at McMaster University. She is a Commonwealth alumna, a Fellow of the Humboldt Foundation and an award-winning scholar. She is a past President of the Canadian Philosophical Association and a past member of the Board of Directors of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
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Dr. Lapointe’s current research agenda revolves around a series of action-driven projects in higher education policy, knowledge mobilisation and skills development for inclusive innovation and impact.
Dr Lapointe is the Director of The/La Collaborative, a multi-institution network led from McMaster University and funded by SSHRC, Mitacs and the Future Skills Centre and dedicated to enhancing social sciences, humanities and arts’ contribution to innovation. Dr Lapointe convenes the annual Canadian Forum for Social Innovation.
Special Events
Collaborative Music Performance:
A Model for Community-Engaged Artistic Scholarship
May 12th, 2025 | 5:00 - 7:30 PM | Triffo Theatre
Raymond Baril
Raymond Baril is Associate Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music at MacEwan University and was Director of the MacEwan University Jazz Ensemble for 37 seasons. Prior to his appointment at MacEwan, he taught with Edmonton Public Schools. He is in his 24th season as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Edmonton Winds. Raymond remains a much sought after national clinician and adjudicator as well as a featured guest speaker at music education conferences across the country. Raymond continues to work as a professional saxophonist and woodwind specialist for pit orchestras in local and touring productions. He was a regular member of the Tommy Banks Big Band for 25 years and has appeared with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions as a section member and soloist, as well as a guest conductor. He has released four CDs with the Edmonton Winds. In 2024, under his direction, the Edmonton Winds recorded their fifth CD to be released in the fall of 2025. In addition, Raymond has released CDs with the MacEwan University Generations Big Band and the MacEwan Big Band. Recently, Raymond received the Alberta Music Education Foundation recognition award for his longstanding contributions to music education in Alberta. In addition, he was inducted into Edmonton’s Cultural Hall of Fame 2018 and was recognized in 2016 with a Distinguished Teaching Award from MacEwan University. Raymond holds a graduate degree in conducting from Northwestern University and undergraduate degrees in both performance and education from the University of Alberta.
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Allan Gilliland
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Rose Ginther
Join us for a performance and panel presentation featuring the Edmonton Winds!
Community-engaged scholarship plays a pivotal role in bridging the gap between academic institutions and
community-based arts organizations, fostering mutual growth and understanding.
A community ensemble can provide the opportunity for a faculty to draw upon its resources with a primary focus on performing, visual and communication arts, and then to connect them with the outlet for participants to interact, learns and refine skills and share experiences that nurture a deeper understanding and respect by all parties involved. The faculty member or members have the potential to engage in meaningful research that supports their artistic scholarly activity, without altering their artistic practice.
The community-based music ensemble works collaboratively with the academy in artistic creation. There is also the potential for the student to be actively engaged in a work integrated learning environment that draws upon the mentorship from the academy and the community partner. It is the perfect tool for community engagement that creates a space where artistic expression, social interaction, shared experiences, and personal growth share the stage to create a positive outcome that builds valuable bridges between communities and the post-secondary academy.
MacEwan music faculty members Raymond Baril, Allan Gilliland and Paul Johnston, Associate Dean Rose Ginther, along with current students and members of the Edmonton Winds will speak to the value of their experience and conclude with a performance by the Edmonton Winds under the direction of Raymond Baril.
