HEARTFELT BALLET PAYS TRIBUTE TO EXPERIENCES OF RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL SURVIVORS & OPENS IMPORTANT DIALOGUE ABOUT TRUTH & UNDERSTANDING
Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation plays the Royal Theatre April 1 & 2
VICTORIA, B.C. – Dance Victoria presents the Victoria premiere of the critically acclaimed and deeply moving classical ballet, Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation, April 1 & 2, 2016 at the Royal Theatre. A transformative tale of hope and understanding, this “inspired and inspiring” (CBC) production honours the many stories, both told and untold, experienced by First Nations Residential School Survivors and their families.
“Going Home Star is without question one of the most important productions in the RWB’s 75-year history. We feel immensely honoured to have been entrusted with this story – and to use the ethereal beauty of ballet to further an imperative dialogue around truth and reconciliation,” says André Lewis, RWB Artistic Director. “Born from a collaboration between some of Canada’s finest creative minds, it is a gorgeously raw, exquisitely honest work whose artistry and message will resonate in the hearts of all Canadians.”
First envisioned more than a decade ago by the late Cree elder and activist Mary Richard and Lewis, this tragic yet hopeful tale was lovingly crafted by a remarkable team of some of Canada’s top artistic talents, including award-winning novelist Joseph Boyden, acclaimed choreographer Mark Godden, and renowned composer Christos Hatzis, and features the powerful music of Polaris prize-winning Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq, and Steve Wood & the Northern Cree Singers.
Commissioned by Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, with the support of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation tells the story of Annie, a young, urban First Nations woman adrift in a contemporary lifestyle of excess. But when she meets Gordon, a mystical trickster disguised as a homeless man, she’s propelled into an otherworldly realm where the pair travels the roads of their ancestors, rife with injustice and abuse. As they learn to carry one another’s burdens on their journey through the past and towards a hopeful future, both Annie and Gordon learn that without truth there is no reconciliation.
Receiving widespread acclaim, Going Home Star is a powerful production that bravely faces the pains and atrocities of Canada’s past, while giving hope for healing and wholeness in our future.
Dance Victoria presents
Royal Winnipeg Ballet • Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation
April 1 & 2, 2016 • 7:30 pm
Royal Theatre
McPherson Box Office: 250-386-6121 or dancevictoria.com
Tickets start at $29
Join us at 6:50 pm each evening for a traditional welcome by Bradley Dick (see below)
At The Royal
Paintings made by students at the Alberni Indian Residential School in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s will be in the lobbies at the Going Home Star performances. In 2013, the University of Victoria repatriated the paintings to Survivors who had painted them as children. The paintings, along with the stories of Survivors who created them, will become part of a new permanent exhibition on Indian Residential Schools in Canada at the Canadian Museum of History in 2017.
In addition, Dance Victoria is pleased that Yuxwelupton (Bradley Dick) who is Lkwungen, Ditadaht, Mamalilikulla will make a traditional welcome before both performances at 6:50 pm.
Ticket Donation Opportunity
Dance Victoria is inviting the public to bring this production to Residential School Survivors. For every $74 donation, Dance Victoria will give two free tickets to a Survivor or to a child of a Survivor so he/she can attend this important work.