Split Tooth: Saputjiji extends the world of her acclaimed novel Split Tooth into a performance shaped by throat singers, musicians, movement artists, and the raw electricity of improvisation. Tagaq describes the piece as one of the most creatively challenging steps of her career, a place where sound becomes structure, memory, landscape, and instinct. At its centre is Saputjiji, a designated protector born from her desire to shield rather than strike.

Ahead of the premiere, she spoke with RANGE about collaboration, creative risk, and witnessing something entirely new.

Split Tooth is such a visceral, mythic, and deeply personal work. What was the spark that made you want to return to this world and translate it into a staged performance?

All forms of expression can live in multiple mediums. They grow with each leap from medium to medium. I enjoy piggybacking for creative growth.

How would you describe the language of this new Split Tooth performance? What does it allow you to express that the book and your albums could not on their own?

This is the most challenging and creative step of my career, to marry the electricity of improvisation with the skeletal infrastructure of sound bones, trickling blood, capillarous.

Your work has always intertwined the physical, the spiritual, and the land itself. How do music, memory, and landscape interact in this performance?

This is a difficult question to answer since all my artwork is basically an exhaust pipe, the waste from witnessing and processing life and humanity.

Split Tooth, your novel, moves between reality, dream, and the supernatural with complete fluidity. How does that mythic realism translate on stage, especially with throat singers, musicians, and movement artists in the mix?

You’ll have to come see. We don’t know that yet! 

This premiere brings together a collective of performers. What was important to you about collaboration for this work, and how did you choose who would help bring this world to life?

I chose these performers in the same way you would choose the ingredients for a very important meal. The best, freshest, loving forged, naturally occurring sound lovers. I wanted to see what alchemy would transpire with them. We shall see!

The title of the show is Split Tooth: Saputjiji. Can you share who or what Saputjiji is within this world, and how this figure or idea emerged for you?

Saputjiji is a designated protector. The earth needs protecting. Humans need protecting from the capitalist machine. Humans need protecting from other humans. I would rather be a shield than a sword. Saputjiji can take it.

Your performances often carry a powerful emotional intensity. What do you hope audiences carry with them after experiencing Split Tooth: Saputjiji for the first time?

Hopefully all of their belongings and they didn’t leave anything behind.

PuSh Festival is known for bold cross-disciplinary work. What excites you most about premiering this piece here, and what does a “world premiere” mean to you at this moment in your life and career?

I’m simply thankful. Grateful. Thrilled. Excited. Anticipatory glow. Soft hesitation. Solid confidence that people will respond well, simply because this has never been done before and there is childhood joy in witnessing new things.

Presented by PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, and Music on Main, Split Tooth: Saputjiji will have its world premiere in Vancouver, BC on Feb. 5, 2026.

Tickets are on sale now at pushfestival.ca