“Kramer stages an embodied deceleration of another meaning for native girl syndrome: a way of searching for presence in the wake of over-determination that is, part of an aesthetic strategy of slowing down and stalling the momentum with which narratives of indigenous assimilation infiltrate Canadian settler-colonial culture.
Moving away from this narrative-based expression, Native Girl Syndrome’s slow and non-linear choreography of embodied movement reveals a disjointed and censorial treatment of inter-generational violence.” ~Lilian Mengesha, PROJECT MUSE | Deceleration as Decolonial Intervention in Lara Kramer’s NGS: Native Girl Syndrome, /Journal, Volume 4, Number 3, September 2019, pp. 575-600 (Article) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press
NGS (“Native Girl Syndrome”)
Lara Kramer’s creation NGS (“Native Girl Syndrome”) dives into street culture, as enacted in a raw theatrical performance by Karina Iraola and Angie Cheng. Their drug filled, disassociated personas take the audience on a dynamic journey of addiction, loss and alienation.
NGS (“Native Girl Syndrome”) is inspired by the experience of Kramer’s own grandmother of having migrated from a remote First Nations community into an unfamiliar urban environment as a young woman. The piece explores the effects of cultural disorientation, assimulation and the self-destructive behaviour she endured.
With the support of Canada Council for the Arts + Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec + Canada Dance Festival
Creative Residencies Espace Marie Chouinard + Project pilote de résidences de création pour la relève dans le cadre d’ORAM (Outiller la relève artistique montréalaise) in collaboration with Conseil des arts de Montréal (CAM), Forum Jeunesse de l’Île de Montréal (FJÎM), Conférence régionale des élus de Montréal (CRÉ), + Cirque du Soleil.
Premiered at Tangente, Montreal on November 7th 2013
