>>PREVIEW
SUN SPIRITS
Red Sky
High Performance Rodeo
January 26
Jack Singer Concert Hall
(Epcor Centre)
There’s been a lot written about the fact that this year’s High Performance Rodeo contains several shows meant for family audiences. Here’s one more show that fits that bill and has delighted audiences worldwide. Red Sky’s Sun Spirits, which is coming to the Rodeo for one evening performance, has already been seen at The Dreaming, Australia’s international indigenous festival, and other venues.
Children and adults may laugh at the same point in Sun Spirits but, according to Red Sky artistic director and actor Sandra Laronde, they do so for entirely different reasons. The show is layered and nuanced, she says. "It simultaneously appeals on different levels to both groups."
Sun Spirits is comprised of two separate pieces: Raven Stole the Sun and Caribou Song. In many ways, the two works could not be more different. One (Raven) is set in the summer and revolves around the sea and flight. The other (Caribou) takes place in the winter and is land-based. The dichotomy is intentional and a hallmark of Red Sky’s performances. Laronde says that she wants the audience to experience the broad diversity of contemporary aboriginal theatre and dance. "In this show, we have both the old and new together. There is also myth and a ‘true story,’" she says.
Raven Stole the Sun was commissioned by the Toronto-based Red Sky company and is essentially a creation story. It’s based upon a traditional tale of the Tlingit (a West Coast people who inhabit parts of B.C., the Yukon and Alaska), which has been dramatized by acclaimed playwright Drew Hayden Taylor. Raven is a trickster figure, a curious character that often gets into mischief. Red Sky’s performance is based on a traditional "crow hop" and has been set to contemporary hip-hop rhythms by composer Donald Quan. The fusion of the two just seemed like a natural leap to make, says Laronde.
Caribou Song, on the other hand, is a fictionalized retelling of an actual event that happened in the 1960s. It’s based on a story that the late dancer René Highway told his brother, novelist and playwright Tomson Highway, about a time when their family was following a caribou herd in search of food. They were travelling by dogsled and René ended up being trapped in a tent during a stampede. Eventually, Tomson wrote down the story, by which time, according to Laronde, the playwright had internalized it to such an extent that he had unconsciously placed himself in the tent with his brother. When Laronde later adapted the story for Red Sky, she changed the story further, so that the two children were a boy and a girl. She says she made the change out of esthetic and audience considerations – she wanted the story to be more inclusive – and yet managed to unwittingly make the story reflect reality more accurately. Tomson Highway later realized that he had not been in the tent with René, but that his sister had.
The process of creative transformation resonates within the story in another way, says Laronde. "The transformative power of love is at the heart of Tomson Highway’s story. The two children are transformed into caribou and manage to escape being trampled."
The play’s intricate choreography is based on a traditional "deer dance" and is meant to evoke the spirit of the caribou. In writing the original music for this performance, Rick Sacks attempted to create the sonic effect of a stampede by relying heavily on marimba, guitar and various percussion instruments. He will also be among the musicians performing the show.
Red Sky is a young company that’s only five years old. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, it’s managed to generate a lot of critical acclaim and position itself at the leading edge of contemporary aboriginal theatre. To judge from the troupe’s reputation, Sun Spirits could be one of the must-see shows at this year’s Rodeo. |
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