Outside Looking In - www.olishow.net


	Wednesday June 23rd, 2010 : St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts - Bluma Appel Theatre (8:00 pm)

To provide opportunities for self-expression to Indigenous youth through the arts and for Canadians to learn about Indigenous people through performance.

Outside Looking In (OLI) was founded by Tracee Smith in September 2007 as a sole proprietorship. After their first successful show in May 2008, charitable status was sought in July 2008, and OLI became an official charitable organization in February 2009. (Charitable Status #81551 7099 RR 0001). Outside Looking In was created to give Indigenous youth an opportunity to express themselves through the arts while giving Canadians the opportunity to learn more about Indigenous peoples beyond what they see and read in the media through OLI’s annual multi-media performance in downtown Toronto. This experience and performance is about give and take. Canadians will have an opportunity to look inside Indigenous communities, while the Indigenous youth will get to see beyond theirs.

What We Do:
We begin our process with our chosen Indigenous communities and their education staff in the beginning of each academic year. Before we start engaging in artistic activities, OLI meets with the school and community leadership to ensure everyone understands and can prepare for the busy year ahead. With the main art discipline being dance, every other week a professional dance teacher will work with the youth of the community for 2-3 days bi-weekly for a period of 6-7 months. In between these visits, the teachers and volunteer community members rehearse with the youth to ensure they improve day by day. The main goal the youth are striving for is to maintain in good academic standing and attending all of their OLI rehearsals in order to travel to downtown Toronto from their home communities to perform in front of sold-out audiences at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Bluma Appel Theatre. Youth also engage in photography, videography, painting, journal writing, choreography etc, that all contribute to the final performances in Toronto.

Criteria:
Each individual community is different and unique. But OLI maintains that every community must agree and maintain a strict policy that only youth who have good attendance; good standing as students; and attend all rehearsals will be allowed to perform in the culmination event in Toronto. OLI believes in hard work, dedication and a passion to succeed. Only through full commitment by the students, will they succeed with not only OLI, but any endeavour they face throughout their lives.

Community Participation:
Indigenous communities can apply to have OLI work with their community for upcoming academic years at any time. Any community who applies must become a sponsor of the OLI event in order to qualify.

TRACEE SMITH
(President / Founder)

Tracee Smith is a member of the Missanabie Cree First Nation in northern Ontario. Ms. Smith holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Dance and has danced professionally in NYC, and LA with the top choreographers in the world of concert and music videos. She was recently named one of Canada's 50 most celebrated artists by the Canada Council for the Arts 50th Anniversary, and was the first dancer to ever perform at Rideau Hall for the Governor General. She will be one of 16 Aboriginal artists featured for APTN's ArtSayer series which will air during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Ms. Smith also holds an MBA specializing in Indigenous Economic Development. In the world of business, she has completed Indigenous strategies and implementation in corporate Canada with BMO Financial Group and TE WEALTH. At the Assembly of First Nations she led the first national conference on landless bands and the Governance and Strategic planning initiative for Missanabie Cree First Nation. She is currently Associate, Private Trust at TD Waterhouse, Wealth Management.

She is apart of the Women's Executive Network Wisdom II Mentorship programme and is the recipient of numerous artistic and academic scholarships including Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, the Foundation for the Advancement of Aboriginal Youth, BMO Capital Markets, ScotiaBank, National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, and was one of 230 leaders chosen to participate in the Governor General's Canadian Leadership Conference.