Actor/ dancer forms new dance group

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How many people get to meet and work with Pierce Brosnan from 007 fame? The manager of a newly formed dance group has.

Thirty-five-year old Vernon Cardinal is from the Saddle Lake Reserve in Alberta. Cardinal's resume as an actor and extra includes working in the films, Legends of the Fall, Last of the Dogmen, Convict Cowboy and Grey Owl. Pierce Brosnan played Grey Owl, aka Archibald Belaney, who came from London in 1906 and lived among the Ojibway in Northern Ontario. Cardinal was an extra in the movie. He played the part of a powwow dancer. His career as a machinist was cut short when he started to work as an extra in films.

"I would like to do more work in films. I want to do commercials as well," he said.

He recently moved to Edmonton from Calgary. While living in Calgary he worked with the Red Thunder Native Dance Theatre. In the early 1980's he traveled and danced with the White Braid Society dance group, a group of dancers from Edmonton who performed for audiences as far away as Austria, Japan and Turkey. Cardinal taught traditional dancing to the youth at the Canadian Native Friendship Centre in Edmonton, however he plans to spend more time traveling this summer with the newly formed dance group First Nations Native Dance Theatre from Edmonton.

"The group plans to perform at schools, festivals, and community theatres," said Cardinal. "I really like to dance and give the public a message that it is alright to learn your dance," he said.

During his dances he uses traditional sign language.

"It makes a better impact in communicating with others," he said. "A long time ago, a lot of tribes did not understand each other so they would communicate to each other through traditional signing."

Cardinal is learning to play the flute and he includes that during the dance performances with the group.

"We do different dances in the group, the chicken dance, fancy dance or traditional dancing. We also have a hoop dancer who is part of our group," said Cardinal.

"There are 10 to 13 dancers in the group so far," he said. His goal is to become more involved in acting and theatre and to give other people a chance to improve their dance skills. Cardinal feels that self-discipline and hard work has helped him to be who he is.