Accounts of dramatic environmental change offered by Arctic Indigenous communities and international climate scientists have recently pointed to a profound sense of unpredictability generated by the rapidly disappearing cryosphere. There are reports of the unprecedented extinction of ice-dependent worlds and of increasing likelihood for thousands of towns and villages to be threatened by rising sea levels and loss of the sea ice. All of the above will only intensify in the course of the next couple of decades, with methane released by rapidly thawing permafrost. The continuous and rapacious extraction of subsurface resources makes it increasingly clear that an ice-free Arctic is no longer located in the distant future but is lurking just around the corner. This lecture will examine the ways Arctic/Siberian Indigenous communities respond to unpredictable climate events and the knowledge, strategies, and human-non-human collaborations they draw from to face environmental calamities.

Some words Sayan Ulturgashev, Indigenous Choreographer, about Dickinson’s Ballet Certificate Program’s performance of Eveny Melody:
My name is Sayan Ulturgashev, I am an indigenous classical ballet dancer and choreographer. It has been my huge honour to prepare and work together with Dickinson college on this special event – the ballet piece called “Eveny Melody” that will be performed in front of you right now. This event is special not only for Dickinson college but for all Siberian indigenous artists and especially for our native Eveny reindeer herding community. The entire project was completed in collaboration with indigenous artists and singers from Siberian Eveny community. The indigenous artist designed the costume for each dancer individually, the songs were performed by Siberian Eveny community members upon my request specially for this performance.

We, indigenous artists, worked together with the Director of Dickinson ballet program, Sarah Skaggs and stagecraft expert, Sherry McCombs, and everyone who were involved in production, especially brilliant students who worked very hard over last month to make sure the ballet performance happens tonight!

Their hard work is an act of solidarity with Siberian indigenous communities who suffered colonial violence and oppression for centuries. The silent genocide committed against them continues today. And the very fact that the performers whom I auditioned, interviewed and invited to dance in this ballet are the students of Dickinson college is very much a powerful expression of their support for all indigenous people around the world, indigenous arts and creativity.