Media Release

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For immediate release
July 10, 2006

Banff Centre hosts radiant Canadian-Australian collaboration in Aboriginal dance

Red Sky Performance: Shimmer – July 14, 15, 16 – 7:30 p.m.
Margaret Greenham Theatre – The Banff Centre
$15 adult · $12 student / senior · $8 child
Tickets and information: 403.762.6301 · 800.413.8368
Presented as part of the 2006 Banff Summer Arts Festival

The acclaimed theatre and dance company Red Sky Performance returns to The Banff Centre this weekend for a three-night presentation of their most recent contemporary dance creation, Shimmer. A luminous and mesmerizing show, Shimmer is a groundbreaking mix of Australian and Canadian Aboriginal dance, drawing together traditional music, innovative lighting, and contemporary movement that displays both a fluid athleticism and a deep pride in traditional creative forms.

Choreographed by Cree dancer/actor Michael Greyeyes, and Albert David, one of Australia’s most innovative performers/choreographers from the Torres Strait Island, Shimmer is set to the music of composer John Gzowski and Eya-Hey Nakoda, a drum group from Morley, with live accompaniment by didgeridoo player Arthur Tamwoy, who is on stage in traditional body paint through much of the performance. The piece’s lighting evokes a variety of natural forms, from a desert campfire to the vast expanse of the northern lights.

David and Tamwoy are joined onstage by champion Ojibway grass dancer Matthew Pheasant, Mixteco dancer Carlos Rivera, and Earl Rosas, Yidinji/Gugu-Yimithirr from Queensland. In contrast, Oneida/Odawa fancy dancer Nigel Schuyler takes the stage in full regalia, backed by traditional drumming and singing. The mix of cultures is startling at times, seamlessly blended at others, but translates meanings and themes easily, even for audience members unfamiliar with traditional and contemporary Aboriginal dance.

Under the direction of artistic director Sandra Laronde, Toronto-based Red Sky Performance is quickly making a name for itself among Canada’s top contemporary dance and theatre companies. After a 2005 / 2006 sold-out tour of western Canadian theatres, the company has spent the spring perfecting and performing Shimmer. The work was commissioned by the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa in early June, before having its run at DanceWorks in Toronto later that month, with additional performances in Vancouver. The company’s stop in Banff has included a three-week production residency at The Banff Centre.

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High-resolution, downloadable images from Shimmer.

More information on the 2006 Banff Summer Arts Festival.