CarliAnn Forthun Bruner

CarliAnn Forthun Bruner is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and multi-disciplinary storyteller. She is of Syilx (Okanagan) band of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Secwepemc (Shuswap), and mixed-European descent. Bruner received her BFA in dance from Simon Fraser University in 2012 and her MFA in dance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2021. Since receiving her formal education, she has been on a journey to more fully understand her Indigenous heritage, using dance and embodiment to uncover ways of knowing the world that were once taken from her ancestors. She often collaborates with artists of other disciplines, creating dance for film, theater, galleries, and performances. At the root, CarliAnn’s work is a physical investigation of relationships to nature, human beings, and spirit, and stories from the past and of the imagined future. One of her primary goals with her dance creations is for it to resonate with the audience and inspire self-reflection. Bruner has had residencies through James Ray Residency from Seattle International Dance Festival and Gonzaga University.