Espoir DelMain

BA Dickinson College ‘21 Environmental Studies and Dance, Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate, Embodied Social Justice Certificate (‘22)  from Transformative Programs,  Curriculum in Motion Institute program with Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival (‘23), MN Master Naturalist

Wilderness First Responder since 2018, WMA & NOLS 

Espoir grew up in the twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul on Dakota territory in what is now called Minnesota, and is deeply rooted in the waters of the upper Mississippi River, Voyageurs National Park and Lake Superior. Throughout her life she has had the gift of finding and experiencing home in many other places as well. In a family of language educators she was taught from a young age the power of understanding those different from herself and finding shared understanding at language immersion summer camps in the northwoods. She works as an educator, dance/yoga teacher, baker, site-specific dance maker, as a wilderness canoe/kayak guide and as a farm worker along the Mississippi River in the Driftless Region where she currently lives in Wabasha, MN. Espoir is motivated to facilitate growing awareness of ourselves as guests and travelers when we explore, and how we can honor those that have been there since long before our time. She believes that change happens at the joints, the places where people and forces come together. We can change and be changed in these spaces where imagination is ripe to inform new ways of being. It is in these places where Espoir feels most alive and engaged in directing energy and momentum towards positive lasting change. Being involved in climate justice organizing in high school, a gap year in Senegal and community organizing in college brought Espoir into spaces where she was politicized and where her worldview opened up to patterns of intertwined injustices, inspired her and steeped her in traditions of resistance. She is always looking for ways to keep cultivating the middle of a venn diagram that combines her many varied interests, language teaching, dance making, spending time outside, growing organic vegetables, meeting new people and making something new in collaboration with community and the landscapes we inhabit.

Since her gap semester spent with Dragons in Senegal as a scholarship student in 2016, she has worked in Senegal, across the US and Mexico as an Instructor with Dragons semesters and partner programs. She also works for Concordia Language Villages and runs the 4 week french wilderness canoe program. Energized by the intersections of place and space and how they interact with landscapes of power and privilege, she seeks to cultivate communities where cooperation and collaboration are most valued. She is dedicated and curious to understand how we can push our economies away from extraction and exploitation, be it from people or land, or both. She sees experiential education, travel and community building as a process of learning to weave a web to hold each other and support a livable future. When she’s got free time she enjoys paddling, watercoloring, reading poetry, dancing, sharing music with friends and being outside in general, but particularly in snow and sunshine.