Filming The River’s Edge with Cotee Harper

Standing on the frozen banks of the river, we gathered to film a new scene for The River’s Edge with our special guest, Indigenous dance artist Cody Harper. The air is crisp, snow settles quietly around us, and we truly are on the river’s edge—held between stillness and movement, history and the present moment.

Cody, a Krishani Potawatomi dancer from Missawata, Saskatchewan, has been dancing for over 25 years. In this piece, she dances the fancy shawl style on traditional territory, surrounded by ancient petroglyphs that echo the footsteps of her childhood. Returning to this land, she reconnects with where she once stood as a young dancer and where she stands now as an artist, carrying her community’s stories forward.

This collaboration is more than a performance; it’s a conversation between movement, music, land, and lineage. The music weaves together threads of North Indian classical traditions, jazz, and orchestral textures, mirroring Cody’s own blend of tradition and contemporary expression. As she dances and the music unfolds in real time, both artists lean into improvisation—into vulnerability, trust, and the simple act of letting things flow.

Through this process, The River’s Edge becomes a living metaphor. Like water, art finds its way through barriers, creating paths for collaboration that once felt impossible. Together, we explore how history grounds us, how tradition shapes identity, and how the arts can carry those stories into a modern context without losing their roots.

In the middle of snow, laughter, a few technical glitches, and the quiet power of the land itself, we create new footsteps—honoring the old ones while pointing toward the generations to come. This is a celebration of collaboration, of Indigenous artistry, and of the arts as a vessel for connection in a world that deeply needs it.