Kelowna ballet troupe hires Indigenous choreographer to mark its 20th anniversary

A major professional dance company in B.C.'s Interior is marking its 20th anniversary by showcasing performances by an Indigenous choreographer throughout its 2022-2023 season.

Ballet Kelowna, which was founded in 2002, announced in August that Tla'amin First Nation member Cameron Fraser-Monroe will be its first artist-in-residence — and this weekend, one of his pieces is being showcased at the Kelowna Community Theatre. 

Originally from the Okanagan, Fraser-Monroe studied at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. 

Since graduating, he has performed with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada, and contemporary Indigenous dance companies like Red Sky Performance in Toronto and Dancers of Damelahamid in Vancouver.

As a choreographer, he has also worked on commissions from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Ballet Kelowna, and the Winnipeg Summer Dance Collective — to name a few — where has has served as artistic director for the past four years.

Over the past decade, dance troupes across Canada have been incorporating more Indigenous elements to the art form to demonstrate commitment to reconciliation.

Inspired by a traditional Coast Salish story

This Friday and Saturday, Ballet Kelowna will be showcasing taqəš (pronounced "taw-KESH") choreographed by Fraser-Monroe, as one of three performances in the dance program Aspirations.

Taqəš means "to return something" in Ayajuthem, a language used by Tla'amin and other First Nations.

Fraser-Monroe said the dance is based on Raven Returns the Water, a traditional Coast Salish story written by B.C. novelist Anne Cameron about a raven trying to get water back from a greedy frog, who has drunk all of it.

"It's really beautiful —  in all of these stories, there are messages that can be applied to the modern day, to even our contemporary lives, about greed, about hoarding resources, and about how even one person controlling all of the resources is not good for the community," he told CBC's Dana Kelly.

Fraser-Monroe premiered taqəš last season, but due to COVID-19 restrictions it was performed virtually. This time, his dance will be performed in-person at the Kelowna Community Theatre downtown.

He said the audience will have many messages to take away from the performance.

"We're talking about land rights, and I think we need to expand that conversation to water rights — there are First Nations people across Canada who don't have access to water, and that's purely and simply unacceptable in Canada."

As part of his artist-in-residence commission, Fraser-Monroe will also premiere a dance titled ʔɛmaxʷiygə next February, and another dance performance in May. 

Indigenous voices in ballet

Fraser-Monroe thanked Simone Orlando, Ballet Kelowna's artistic director and CEO, for offering him the artist-in-residence position.

"It's really important that you find a mentor that you can connect with," he said. "It can be difficult in a Eurocentric art form like ballet to find someone that you can connect with."

Orlando said it's important for Ballet Kelowna to elevate Indigenous voices like Fraser-Monroe's in an artistic field that is still Eurocentric.

"In our efforts with regard to equity [and] with our efforts in terms of diversity, equity [and] inclusion, I just felt that if we are going to bring an artist-in-residence into this environment, it needs to be an Indigenous person," she said.

Aspirations, which will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Kelowna Community Theatre, will also feature Bolero choreographed by Guillaume Côté of the National Ballet of Canada, and the world premiere of In the Light of the Waking Sun choreographed by Robert Stephen, also of the National Ballet.