heryka miranda • dance artist
“I often ponder about my identity as an ‘artist’. My lack of motivation to my personal dance practice due to injuries and my essential worker role at my job has made me question my commitment from time-to-time. The #IAmStillAnArtist hashtag has become my mantra, reminding me of my connection to my creatrix essence. Although I am limited in my mobility, I have found moments to explore my relationship to spaces in my home, to food, my dog, plants and learning and being in relationship with the land through movement and dance. I also facilitated gentle dance wellness programming online and now, in person for older adults, people with limited mobility and newcomers. Along my path in February 2021, a cello with an accompanying teacher came along and I have been learning to play the cello and read music ever since.”
Heryka Miranda is the daughter of beloved Guatemalan immigrants to the United States with Mayan and European heritage. She was born and raised in the Wappinger – Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking territory also known as White, Plains, New York until the age of 11 and then spent about 10-years in Pascataway and Susquehannock territories also known as Baltimore, Maryland. Before moving to Kanata she lived in Washington D.C. for 15-years, which sits on the ancestral lands of the Anacostans (also documented as Nacotchtank). Falling in love is what brought Heryka to el mas norte ‘more north’ to Kanata. For almost 15-years, she has been living in the traditional territories of the Mississauga of the Credit, Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples.
Heryka is a community cross-cultural educator who uses ecological land dance practices and expressive arts therapeutic approaches in her work with institutionally vulnerable communities. Her education on storytelling and ecological land dance practices has been shared with her in the oral tradition and on site specific locations throughout Turtle Island from Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Metis, and International Multi-Media Indigenous Artists, Knowledge Keepers, including Migrant Farm Workers for whom she offers ALL her deepest appreciation. Currently Heryka works as the Community Action Coordinator at Neighbour-2-Neighbour, Hamilton Community Food Centre. She also provides sessional instruction in the Faculty of Education and Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at Brock University. Courses she has taught are the Arts in and Across the Curriculum (dance and drama) to second-year Ontario teacher candidates and Dance as Cultural Reflection to undergraduate students. She is collaborating with Hemantika Mahesh Kumar in the development and delivery of a new dance and wellness course at McMaster University in winter 2022.