Digidance Film Marks 20th Anniversary Of Indigenous Innovators RED SKY PERFORMANCE

DanceHouse, in partnership with Digidance, announces the Canadian digital broadcast of More Than Dance, We Are A Movement, streaming April 14-20, 2021.

The film marks the 20th anniversary of Toronto-based interdisciplinary innovators Red Sky Performance - showcasing excerpts of their award-winning work and the remarkable story of their rise to one of the world's most prolific and celebrated Indigenous performance creators. Playing out over three distinct parts, the 50-minute film will feature the exhilarating work Trace, interviews with Executive and Artistic Director Sandra Laronde and her company of collaborators, and Miigis - an exploration of unique connections to land and water, the environment and conservation.

The broadcast of More Than Dance, We Are A Movement is due to the coordinated effort of Digidance, a national initiative formed in response to COVID-19 between four of Canada's leading dance presenters: DanceHouse (Vancouver), Harbourfront Centre (Toronto), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and Danse Danse (Montreal), and co-presented with Springboard Performance (Calgary).

"Over the past two decades, the world has come to understand the wisdom, vision, and connection that are vibrant within Indigenous communities. As has always been the case, it is artists who are amongst the strongest voices in helping to amplify this culture's ideas and experiences," says Jim Smith, Artistic and Executive Director of DanceHouse and Digidance Partner. "As one of Canada's most prolific and acclaimed creators of Indigenous work, we are thrilled and honoured to celebrate Red Sky Performance. Through 20 years of impactful creations and monumental societal change, their dance, theatre, music, and media creations have opened the imaginations of hundreds of thousands of international audiences to the worldviews and messages of Indigenous creators."

Filmed in celebration of the company's 20th anniversary, More Than Dance, We Are A Movement captures the creative drive of Founder and Executive and Artistic Director Sandra Laronde and the exceptional artistic vision that propelled Red Sky Performance to prominence and critical acclaim. The film also contains extended excerpts from two of the company's award-winning creations, choreographed by Jera Wolfe: Trace, the recipient of two Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 2019, and Miigis, which received the Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation in 2018.

Trace is a highly kinetic contemporary dance work inspired by Indigenous (Anishinaabe) sky and star stories, offering a glimpse into Indigenous ancestral origins as well as the future evolution. Trace made its world premiere in Toronto at Canadian Stage in November 2018, before its international premiere at the iconic Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in the US in 2019.

Miigis represents the "the perfect breath" of life, a symbol that informs our origin story of travel from the Atlantic Coast to the Great Lakes. Fusing contemporary Indigenous dance with athleticism in an extraordinary form, Miigis explores the catalysts for movement, ancestral forces and living memory, and the cycle of life. Having premiered as a site-specific work at Fort York in Toronto in 2017 and toured to the Venice Biennale in 2018, the featured excerpt gives audiences an intimate view on the nuance and elaborate creation.

In the fall of 2021, Red Sky Performance will embark on their first international tour since the global COVID-19 pandemic, bringing Trace to cities across the US and Canada. This continues the company's extensive history of touring, which to date includes more than 2,750 performances in 17 countries and four continents, including two Cultural Olympiads (Beijing and Vancouver), the World Expo in Shanghai, and the Venice Biennale, among others. At the same time, Red Sky Performance remains deeply rooted and invested on a grassroots level, regularly performing in urban, rural, and reserve communities across Turtle Island.

For tickets and information on More Than A Dance, We Are A Movement and Digidance, visit: dancehouse.ca.

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