Ginny Gonneau (centre) teaches Métis dance steps to
students from Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School in
Toronto. (Source: Facebook)
Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) citizen Ginny Gonneau was delighted when she received an invitation to the official launch of Sylvie Roy’s book Let Me See Your Fancy Steps: Story of a Métis Dance Caller in Regina. She followed a link to Amazon.com and saw the book’s cover for the first time.
She was right there on the front with one of her dance mentors, Jeanne Pelletier.
Partial funding for the book was provided through the MNO’s Métis Culture Based Economic Development Grant (MCED), a grant whose objective is to support economic self-determination in cultural industries, such as the arts or culture-related careers.
The MCED is one of the many programs that make up the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy (ASETS) designed to help Aboriginal people, regardless of status or location.
The book chronicles the experiences of Pelletier as she shared
The book and DVD were officially launched on Monday,
September 21, at the Gabriel Dumont Institute Library in
Regina, Saskatchewan. her cultural knowledge and dance teachings with many youth, including Gonneau, and about her role as a Métis dance caller, a person charged with guiding dancers during Métis square dances and group dances.
“A few years back when I was living in Vancouver and doing some jigging with [fellow dancer] Yvonne Chartrand, I was part of a special Métis dance instruction video with [Pelletier],” Gonneau shared on her Facebook page.
The video, released on DVD, is called All My Relations and is also being officially launched with the book.
“I can still remember Jeanne’s voice shouting, ‘Let me see those fancy steps!’ [She’s] an amazing woman and dance caller. So cool that I’m on her book,” she said.
Published on: September 28, 2015