Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s National Tour of Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation Comes to Toronto

Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet returns to Toronto with its highly acclaimed production, Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation, a unique ballet that represents the many stories, both told and untold, by survivors of the Indian Residential School system.

This powerful ballet will be performed at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m., February 5 and 6. Tickets go on sale on August 12. For tickets and information, visit ticketmaster.ca or call the Sony Centre box office at 1-855-872-7669.

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Cited quite possibly as “the most important work in its 75-year history” (Holly Harris, Winnipeg Free Press) Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation is a labour of love and passion; a risk-taking venture into unknown, unfamiliar and troubled territory.

“Ultimately this ballet is RWB’s expression of reconciliation,” shares RWB Artistic Director André Lewis. “We hope that through this work, we would be able to help open dialogues, recognition and understanding about the history and legacy of this part of Canada’s history.”

The ballet explores the world of Annie, a young, urban First Nations woman adrift in a contemporary life of youthful excess. Annie feels strangely disconnected within her superficial loop. But when she meets Gordon, a longhaired trickster disguised as a homeless man, she’s propelled into a world she’s always sensed but never seen. Together, they travel the streets of this world but also the roads of their ancestors. Together, both Annie and Gordon learn that without truth, there is no reconciliation.

Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation is choreographed by Mark Godden (Angels In The Architecture, Dame Aux Fruits, Sheperd’s Wake, Dracula), in collaboration with acclaimed author Joseph Boyden (The Orenda, Three Day Road), associate producer Tina Keeper and with the guidance of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and members of the Aboriginal community. The creative team also includes Canadian multimedia artist KC Adams, accomplished costume designer Paul Daigle, lighting design by Paul Lavoie and projection design by Sean Nieuwenhuis. The unique soundtrack was created by Juno Award-winning composer Christos Hatzis and features the music of Polaris Prize-winning Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq, Steve Wood and the Northern Cree Singers and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. The show was inspired by the late elder Mary Richard.