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Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet brings GOING HOME STAR – TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION to the Sony Centre!

Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet brings GOING HOME STAR – TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION to the Sony Centre!

Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet
Embarks on National Tour with Critically Acclaimed
GOING HOME STAR
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION Choreography by Mark Gooden • Story by Joseph Boyden February 5 & 6, 2016 • Sony Centre For The Performing Arts

Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation, cited as quite possibly “the most important work produced by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in its 75-year history” (Holly Harris, Winnipeg Free Press), embarks on a national tour with performances across the country (January – April) including a stop in Toronto for two performances on February 5 and 6, 2016.

Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation, produced with the support of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), is a choreographic representation of the many stories, both told and still unraveling, by Indian Residential School Survivors and their families. The creative team that brought this story to life includes renowned choreographer Mark Godden, Canadian novelist and TRC Honourary Witness Joseph Boyden, Cree actor, former Member of Parliament, and TRC Honourary Witness Tina Keeper, Juno Award-winning composer Christos Hatzis, and Polaris Prize-winning Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq.

Boyden, who was recently appointed to the prestigious Order of Canada, understands the power of the arts as a healing tool. “Art is the way to allow Canadians to begin to understand something of such huge pain. I think stories, I think novels, I think film, I think dance, I think painting, all of this allows Canadians to absorb not just the pain and the anger but the beauty as well.”

Annie is a young, urban First Nations woman adrift in a contemporary life of youthful excess. She feels strangely disconnected. Gordon is a homeless First Nations man who escaped the Residential School system.  He possesses the magic and power of the trickster.  Gordon becomes Annie’s guide and begins to show her his devastating story of the Residential Schools. Propelled into the past, Annie realizes she shares Gordon’s burden, and those of her people, and prepares for her new destiny as healer. Gordon feels deeply the damage that has been done and the anger he carries inside. But the “going home star” is clear in the sky and Annie and Gordon both learn that without truth, even the most hateful truth, there is no reconciliation.

Commissioned by Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet (RWB) and Artistic Director André Lewis, Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation triumphantly opened RWB’s 75th season in October 2014. “Creating this ballet transformed the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as an organization,” shares Lewis. “Our experience went beyond the creation of a new ballet. It ultimately became our artistic expression of reconciliation which we would like to be able to share with everyone.” Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation is presented in memory of the late Elder Mary Richard (Ah Kha Ko cheesh) who inspired the RWB.

Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation, the full length production, will embark on a cross- Canada tour in with stops in Ottawa (January 28-30), Kingston (Feb 2), London (Feb 3), Burlington (Feb 4), Toronto (Feb 5-6), Brandon (March 21), Regina (March 22), Saskatoon (March 23), Banff (March 26), Kelowna (March 29-30), Victoria (April 1-2), Nanaimo (April 4-5) and Vancouver (April 7-9). For tour and ticket information, please visit rwb.org

About the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was established in 2008 to tell Canadians about the history of Indian Residential Schools and the impacts it has had on Aboriginal children who were sent to the school by the Canadian government and to guide a process of reconciliation between and within Aboriginal families, communities, churches, governments and Canadians. The TRC has a five-year mandate under the direction of the Chair, The Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair and Commissioners Chief Wilton Littlechild and Dr Marie Wilson.

About Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet

Founded in 1939, Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet holds the double distinction of being Canada’s premiere ballet company and one of the oldest ballet companies in North America. Versatility, technical excellence and a captivating style are the trademarks of Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, qualities that have garnered both critical and audience acclaim. RWB’s superlative standards keep the Company in demand around the globe as it presents more than 150 performances every season across Canada and in the United States, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, Japan, Asia and Mexico. Under the artistic direction of André Lewis for 18 years, the Company is said to have never looked more resplendent, more assured, and more ravishing.

Read Joseph Boyden’s first-hand account of creating the story for Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation in Maclean’s magazine.

Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet presents GOING HOME STAR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION
Choreography by Mark Godden • Based on a story by Joseph Boyden
Music Composed by Christos Hatzis. Performed by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and featuring the music of Tanya Tagaq and Steve Wood and the Northern Cree Singers Costume Design by Paul Daigle • Set Design by KC Adams
Lighting Design by Pierre Lavoie • Projection Design by Sean Nieuwenhuis

Sony Centre For the Performing Arts, 1 Front Street East
Friday, February 5, 2016 @ 7:30pm and Saturday, February 6, 2016 @ 8pm Ticket prices range from $54.24-$115.26 (plus service fees) and can be purchased at ticketmaster.ca, by calling 1.855.872.SONY (7669) or in person at the theatre box office

For more information www.rwb.org
@RWBallet #RWBallet •  FB/RWBallet

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About The Author

MUSKRAT Magazine

MUSKRAT is an on-line Indigenous arts, culture magazine that honours the connection between humans and our traditional ecological knowledge by exhibiting original works and critical commentary. MUSKRAT embraces both rural and urban settings and uses media arts, the Internet, and wireless technology to investigate and disseminate traditional knowledges in ways that inspire their reclamation.

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