Ballet Kelowna: taqəš and Other Works

The taqəš and Other Works program features a stunning lineup of signature works from Ballet Kelowna’s contemporary ballet repertoire. With Cameron Fraser-Monroe’s powerful and compelling taqəš [tawKESH], Guillaume Côté’s mesmerizing Bolero, and Fraser-Monroe’s satirical The Cowboy Act Suite, this high-energy program promises to please a wide range of spectators.

Cameron Fraser-Monroe brings his classical ballet training, knowledge of traditional Coast Salish, Grass, and Hoop Dance, and experience as a contemporary dancer to taqəš [tawKESH], which means “to return something” in Ayajuthem, the language belonging to the Homalco, Klahoose, K’omoks and Tla’amin Nations. Set to several songs by Polaris Prize-winning composer and singer Jeremy Dutcher, taqəš follows the traditional story “Raven Returns the Water,” centred around ῤoho (raven) and walθ (frog).

Next, National Ballet of Canada Choreographic Associate Guillaume Côté brings strength and fragility to a fascinating interpretation of the beloved Boléro by Maurice Ravel, one of music’s most famous and identifiable melodies. A “riveting tour de force” (Dance Magazine), Bolero (2012) features breathtaking lifts and virtuosic choreography.

Rounding out the program, audiences will be transported to the Wild West in Cameron Fraser-Monroe’s The Cowboy Act Suite, a work that explores the dichotomy between “Cowboys and Indians” set to music by Mohawk singer/songwriter Tom Wilson. While these caricatures have been portrayed on pages, stages, and in films, they are often penned from a colonial perspective. Fraser-Monroe’s intuitive take on the swashbuckling strut of the Cowboy informs this intellectual unpacking of a one-sided lens and flips the script to ask, what happens when an Indian directs the Cowboys through their history?