On Wednesday, October 1, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet premiered \u2018Going Home Star \u2013 Truth and Reconciliation\u2019 an original ballet about residential school history in Canada. I attended the ballet that day in many roles \u2014 as an Aboriginal person who has seen first hand the lingering impact on First Nations, Inuit and Metis families whose relatives attended residential school; as a mother who strongly empathizes with parents who were forced to send their young children to residential school; and finally, as a Canadian who shares the shame of this history with everyone in our country.<\/p>\n
I attended the ballet, like everyone else in the audience, not knowing what to expect. Would the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, a company with no Aboriginal dancers on its roster, miss the authenticity boat? Would it be a sentimental, apologetic performance that would feel only vaguely Aboriginal? Would the creators be too worried about social correctness to tell it like it really was for children at residential schools \u2013 disturbing, violent, agonizing? Would it even be possible for a Euro-centric dance style to adequately tell the story of two cultures colliding?<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve read the reviews, the ballet was an unquestionable success. The Winnipeg Free Press said it \u201cmight well be the most important ballet produced by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 75 years.\u201d The CBC\u2019s reporter Robert Enright wrote, \u201cI have never seen the RWB dance better.\u201d The Globe and Mail said, \u201cthe music for \u2018Going Home Star\u2019 may be the best ballet composition ever created in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea for an Aboriginal ballet was planted more than ten years ago by Mary Richards, an Anishnaabe Elder who regularly attended the company\u2019s performances. She approached Andre Lewis, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet\u2019s artistic director, and asked him to consider creating an Aboriginal ballet. In fact, the company had produced a ballet once before \u2014 the \u2018The Ecstasy of Rita Joe\u2019, a play by George Ryga. Many years later, \u2018Going Home Star\u2019 began its journey with a grant from the legacy fund of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.<\/p>\n
Andre Lewis brought together a renowned team of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal writers, choreographers and composers to create what might well be the most challenging commission of their lives. A ballet that tells the story of the Aboriginal experience in Canada\u2019s residential schools. The creative team is like a who\u2019s who in the Canadian cultural world \u2014 author Joseph Boyden, composer Christos Hatzis, choreographer Mark Godden, musician Steve Wood, singer Tanya Tagaq, scene designer KC Adams, costume designer Paul Daigle, lighting designer Pierre Lavoie and projection designer Sean Nieuwenhuis. Navigating between the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Aboriginal community was Tina Keeper, the Associate Producer. This Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal team created a heart-wrenching and stunning ballet that is both true to its European dance form and respectful of the people and history it represents.<\/p>\n
Justice Murray Sinclair, who chairs the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, summed it up this way, \u201cThis is not only about the experience of those who were students in the school. This is also the story about Canada\u2019s experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can a ballet help heal a Nation still haunted by the legacy of Canada\u2019 s residential schools? I think everyone in the audience on opening night will agree. Absolutely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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