Erin Brillon & Andy Everson

Andy Everson is a dancer and artist who belongs to the K’omoks First Nation and is descended from the Kwagu’ł, Na̱mg̱is and Tlingit peoples. He carries the chiefly ancestral name Ḵ̓wa̱mxa̱laga̱lis, or Avalanching-Around-the-World, and has been initiated into the Hamatsa Dance Society with the name Tanis, or Cannibal Dancer. Obtaining his first dance through ceremony at the age of 10, ANDY has been dancing ever since. He joined his first traditional dance group as a teenager in the late 1980s and has been with the Le-La-La Dancers as one of their head dancers since 1992. This has enabled ANDY to travel the world, sharing his culture through song and dance. Twenty years ago, ANDY founded the Kumugwe Dancers in his home village of K’omoks and has acted as leader of the dance group during that time. Passing on his knowledge of traditional dance and contemporary performance, ANDY has guided both young and old alike to learn the dances of their ancestors. Outside of dance, ANDY is a culture keeper and researcher with a Masters degree in Anthropology and is a full time professional visual artist working in his ancestral art forms.