Artistic Director

Yvonne Chartrand is a contemporary choreographer and dancer as well as a national award-winning master Métis jigger. Her ancestors come from the Michif (Métis) settlement of St. Laurent, Manitoba. She is the Artistic Director of V’ni Dansi, whose name translates as “Come and Dance” in Michif. Dancers perform traditional Métis dance under the name - the Louis Riel Métis Dancers and contemporary works as V'ni Dansi. The company is dedicated to sharing the stories and culture of the Métis for Indigenous and audiences of all nations. Yvonne received the 2011 Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award from the Canada Council for the Arts. Yvonne's most recent creation "Eagle Spirit" premiered in Vancouver in November 2016. 

Managing Director

Aniria Sanz is an accomplished arts administrator with extensive professional experience in several arts organizations all over the world. Born in Spain, she moved to Scotland in 2013 to study a Masters in Festival and Events Management. After the UK, she lived in Australia for a couple of years where she worked at the Sydney International Piano Competition. Aniria moved to Vancouver in 2017 and since then, she has worked for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Alzheimer Society of B.C., Turning Point Ensemble and now, Compaigni V'ni Dansi Society.

Event Coordinator

Perelandra Waddle is a proud Métis citizen whose family history hails from Red River Manitoba and the St. Louis Métis settlement of Saskatchewan. She is an interdisciplinary performing artist with an extensive background in ballet, tap, contemporary, modern, lyrical jazz, hip-hop, musical theatre, and classical and contemporary western theatre performance. Having grown up as a guest on Urban Coast Salish territory she has only begun reconnecting to her cultural heritage in her adolescence and hopes she will be able to share and pass on the oral histories and traditions that she is now learning from fellow company members to future generations of Métis youth.