Ballet Kelowna
Cikilaxʷm: Controlled Burn & Vividus: Full of Life
Photo by Emily Cooper
Artist Pitch
Dance
National Arts Centre
Tuesday, December 2
11:00 a.m.
Founded in 2002, Ballet Kelowna is the sole professional dance company in BC’s Interior. The organization is committed to its role as a leader in the region through encouraging, promoting, and developing Canadian dancers and choreographers. The company performs annually for more than 12,000 audience members in Kelowna and on tour and provides unique dance training opportunities and outreach programs. Its Artistic Director and CEO, Simone Orlando, is an award-winning choreographer and former dancer with Ballet BC and The National Ballet of Canada. Under Orlando’s direction, Ballet Kelowna was named the 2024 Artistic Company of the Year by the BC Live Performance Network (formerly the British Columbia Touring Council) and was an organizational recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Arts and Music Award in 2022.
Cikilaxʷm: Controlled Burn
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Cikilaxʷm: Controlled Burn is a full-length narrative ballet by choreographer Cameron sinkʷə Fraser-Monroe that moves fluidly between time, tradition, and imagination. Set to an original commissioned score by Cree cellist and composer Cris Derksen, the work blends contemporary ballet with Indigenous storytelling and visual design. Projections by Euro/Omushkego Cree artist Andy Moro conjure both sterile cityscapes and scorched forests, while costumes by Navajo/Cherokee designer Asa Benally wrap each character in layers of cultural history.
Set in a dystopian future where wildfire season never ends, the story follows Nathan, a young Indigenous firefighter whose worldview is transformed after meeting Mothkʷ—a fierce guardian of ancestral knowledge who practices cultural burning. The title, cikilaxʷm [tseekiLAHkwum], means “prescribed fire” in nsyilxcən, the language of the syilx (Okanagan) People, referring to traditional fire stewardship that restores the land and revitalizes community.
“This is not a tale of apocalypse, but of perseverance. Of memory that survives and endures. Of land that remembers how to heal.” — Cameron sinkʷə Fraser-Monroe
Developed in collaboration with the National Creation Fund at Canada’s National Arts Centre,Cikilaxʷm: Controlled Burn is both a cultural reclamation and a vision of resilience, rooted in Indigenous knowledge and artistry.
Vividus: Full of Life
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The Vividus: Full of Life program features a stunning lineup of signature works from Ballet Kelowna’s contemporary ballet repertoire. With Cameron sinkʷə Fraser-Monroe’s compelling taqəš [tawKESH], Alexis Fletcher and Sylvain Senez’s daring still before, and Guillaume Côté’s electrifying Le Carnaval des Animaux, this high-energy program from Canada’s leading dancemakers promises to please a wide range of spectators and bring audience members to their feet.
Cameron sinkʷə 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).
Vancouver-based Belle Spirale Dance Projects' Artistic Directors Alexis Fletcher and Sylvain Senez bring their celebrated artistry to still before, a work that explores the fleeting nature of time. Their visceral and emotionally-driven movement brings to life the urgent desire to grasp hold of the present as they explore the paradoxical pull of past and future. This gripping piece features an original composition by Ben Waters.
Rounding out the program, Guillaume Côté, Principal Dancer and Chorographic Associate with The National Ballet of Canada, applies his fresh, artistic vision to a jovial rendition of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Le Carnaval des Animaux, regarded as one of the French composer’s best-known works. Full of whimsical ornamentation, this upbeat ensemble piece pushes the limits of contemporary ballet and promises to delight audiences with its exuberant energy of frolicking and fun.