Chris Walker’s “Banana Man” will be performed by Amansu Eason at the Moving Inspirations Dance Festival at the Gas Station Arts Centre in Winnipeg on Feb. 29.
Walker is a professor with the School of Education’s Dance Department.
The Moving Inspirations Dance Festival is a gathering of dance makers or dancers of African, culturally diverse, and contemporary dance traditions. Walker’s is one of 17 choreographic inspirations internationally and across Canada.
In addition, Walker’s collaboration with Kevin Ormsby’s KasheDance Company, “Facing Home: Love and Redemption,” will be presented in Toronto at the Robertson Theatre March 5-6.
The body of work is a contemporary dance investigation of the global impact of Bob Marley’s music – it’s expression of humanity’s struggle and inspiration toward love, redemption, and hope and the West Indian paradox that allows for liberation (found in Marley’s music) alongside the deep-rooted homophobia in Jamaican/West Indian culture. Since 2015, the project has toured in New York, previously in Toronto and Markham (Canada), Kingston (Jamaica), and Chicago, among others.