Zoë Edwards delivers a reawakening through dance in her captivating Emancipation Day performance
'Our light is undeniable and we will always find a way to rise'
On August 1st, on stages across Ontario and Quebec, Black Canadian artists expressed what freedom means to them through music, poetry, performance and dance as part of FreeUp! Emancipation Day 2020, a program marking Emancipation Day, the day that slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire on August 1st, 1834.
Electricity, power, a rush of emotion: those are some of the sensations you experience when you watch dancer Zoë Edwards give a beautiful performance to Adria Kain's song "Sunrise." The performance was a collaboration with drummer Amina AbNa Alfred as part of the FreeUp! Emancipation 2020 day special.
"I decided to use Adria Kain's song 'Sunrise' because when I initially heard it, it felt almost meditative in its essence," says Edwards. "These last six months have been extremely trying for so many of us, so I thought I would create a moment of reprieve through dance and for me, the song provided that."
When Edwards was asked what she hoped people would take away from the performance, she replied, "I do hope that people — and specifically Black people — will remember that we have generations of people and ancestors who have come before us who, through their own creativity, were able to hold onto the light within them that is so often trying to be put out."
"This performance is a reminder that our essence is magical, our light is undeniable and we will always find a way to rise."
Watch Zoë Edwards and Amina AbNa Alfred's performance in the video above and stream the full special now on CBC Gem or YouTube.
