Below please find press release announcing Toronto-based Red Sky Performance's acclaimed dance and music creation Tono heading out on a Canadian/International Tour that includes the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in February and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo in May.
Helmed by founding Artistic Director Sandra Laronde, Red Sky celebrates these milestones and kicks off a year of festivities for its 10th anniversary with a hometown concert. Tono: the music concert features Tono's live ancient music from the steppes of Mongolia with musician Rick Sacks, and 3 musician-singers direct from Mongolia at Toronto's Music Gallery on January 20 and 21.
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Red Sky Announces
Canadian/International Tour of acclaimed Tono
including
Cultural Olympiad of 2010 Vancouver Olympics
and
2010 Shanghai World Expo
Toronto, January 7, 2010 - On the cusp of its 10th anniversary, Toronto's Red Sky Performance proudly announces that its much-lauded Tono - a stunningly vivid dance and live music creation that connects the Indigenous cultures of Canada, Mongolia and China - will be a featured highlight at the Cultural Olympiad of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, running February 11-14 at the Vancouver Playhouse.
Red Sky also announces a Western Canada and international tour of Tono for 2010. The tour includes: Calgary's High Performance Rodeo (January 28-30), Edmonton's Arden Theatre (February 2-3), the Vancouver Olympics (February 11, 13, 14), and culminates with five performances at the World Expo 2010 Shanghai, China where Red Sky has the prestigious honour of performing at the Opening of the Canadian Pavilion on May 8.
Tono's inclusion in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and upcoming Western Canada and international tour to Asia are part of a year of celebratory events in honour of its 10th anniversary. To mark this milestone, Red Sky launches the festivities with two not-to-be-missed performances featuring the live music from Tono at Toronto's Music Gallery on January 20 and 21.
Conceived, co-choreographed and directed by Red Sky Artistic Director Sandra Laronde with co-choreography by Montreal's Roger Sinha, Tono speaks to the tribal identities of Indigenous peoples in North America and is heavily grounded in the themes of horse culture and shamanism, spanning plains traditions in North America and Asia.
The thundering images of horses on the move and visions of faraway cultures are magically conjured by six dazzling dancers, stirring long song and throat singers from the ancient Mongolian steppes and the haunting lilt of the morin khuur (horse-head fiddle). Tono mesmerizes audiences with this celebration of the creature universally regarded as the epitome of strength, grace and beauty.
Inspired by Laronde's travels to Asia in 2007, Tono was commissioned by The Banff Centre and Toronto's Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity. When Tono premiered as part of Luminato 2009, the Globe and Mail raved: "a ravishingly beautiful dance workŠ The dancers recreate a stampede that builds with excitementŠ absolutely stunning stretches and body twistsŠ a wonderful achievement."
"Dance and music have always played a vital role in Indigenous cultures," says Laronde. "It is a connection to our spirit, to the land, and a deep expression of our gratitude. Through dance and music we celebrate our traditions, our cultures, our innovation, and our gifts to the rest of the world."
Red Sky is one of the few companies to have two productions in the Olympics. Red Sky's family production, Raven Stole the Sun, will also be presented at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics on Granville Island, Vancouver and Whistler from February 20-25. Red Sky will tour Raven to 63 communities across Canada and the United States.
In ten short years, Red Sky has become a touring force of original Indigenous work across Ontario, Canada and around the world. It has earned a well-respected reputation; its productions are regarded highly and play to capacity houses wherever they go.
Renowned for its artistry and innovation, Red Sky Performance is a leading company that shapes contemporary world Indigenous performance in dance, theatre and music. It creates, produces and tours original work for adult and family audiences on local, national and international stages.
Bursting on to the scene in 2000, this Toronto-based company was founded by Artistic Director Sandra Laronde who hails from the Teme-Augama-Anishnaabe (People of the Deep Water) in Temagami, Northern Ontario. Described as an "Aboriginal wunderkind" and a "force of nature" by Dance International, Laronde is also the director of Aboriginal Arts at The Banff Centre, and divides her time between Toronto and Banff.
Red Sky Performance presents:
IN TORONTO
the live music from its highly acclaimed dance and live music production
Tono: a music concert
Wednesday January 20 and Thursday January 21, 2010, 8 pm
The Music Gallery, 197 John St. (inside St George-the-Martyr Anglican Church)
Tickets: $25 | Box Office: 416-585-9969
IN VANCOUVER
Tono
as part of the Cultural Olympiad of 2010 Vancouver Olympics
February 11 at 8 pm, February 13 at 8 pm and February 14, 2010 at 2 pm
Vancouver Playhouse | 600 Hamilton Street, Vancouver, BC
Tickets: $35/$45 | Box Office: 1-800-842-5387
For more info visit: http://www.redskyperformance.com/tono-canada-mongolia-china-dance
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TONO BACKGROUNDER
Red Sky Performance's TONO
Concept and Director: Sandra Laronde (Canada)
Choreographers: Sandra Laronde, Roger Sinha (Canada)
Composition and arrangement by Rick Sacks (Canada) in collaboration with the Mongolian musicians: Batmend Baashankhu, Tuvsinjargal Damindinjav, and Bat-Orshikh Bazarvaani (Mongolia)
Set and Costume Designer: Julia Tribe (Canada)
Lighting Designer: Kimberly Purtell (Canada)
Dancers: Morigen, Wei Jie, Cai Hong (Inner Mongolia, China)
Dancers: Jinny Jacinto, Carlos Rivera, Raul Talamantes (Canada)
Long Song Singers: Batmend Baasankhuu, Tuvshiniargal Damdinjav (Mongolia)
Morin Khurr (horse head fiddle) and Throat Singer: Bat-Orshikh Bazarvaani (Mongolia)
Inspired by Sandra Laronde's travels to Asia in 2007, Tono was commissioned by The Banff Centre and Luminato: Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity.
Tono's production history vaunts a world stage line-up of engagements. It was featured as part of the Closing Ceremonies of the cultural programming of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2008 Meet in Beijing Festival, the International Arts and Culture Festival in Inner Mongolia, the 2008 Summer Arts Festival in Banff, Alberta, and the 2009 Luminato Festival in Toronto. It will be a highlight at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, 2010 High Performance Rodeo in Calgary, the Arden Theatre in Edmonton, and will continue a high profile tour throughout Canada, the United States and overseas, including the Opening Gala for Canada at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China.
Laronde was inspired to work with Mongolia when Red Sky toured China in 2006. The images of the Mongolian mountains were in her constant vision from the distance of western China. The similarities between Mongolian and North American Indigenous peoples led Laronde to Mongolia in 2007, where her journey and experiences soon became the seed of her vision for Tono.
Laronde attended Mongolia's Naadam Festival, a national event that combines the cultural and artistic expression with the nomad Olympics in Ulaanbaatar. She then auditioned local musicians and dancers for Tono. She incorporated elements of traditional wrestling sequences and horse racing into the choreography, and enlisted a throat singer and two practitioners of a thought-to-be-dying style known as long song singing. Long song is traditionally used as a praise song for winners of horse races, and after watching five to eight year-olds fiercely riding their horses through one of the last wild grasslands left in the world, Laronde knew she had to include these dance and music elements in Tono.
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To hear/see an excerpt of Tono:
Some photos are available here. We have others on request:
http://www.redskyperformance.com/press-kits
Interviews upon request.
Media Refer: Dianne Weinrib, Vanessa Andres
DW Communications 416-703-5479 dw@dwcommunications.net
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Dianne Weinrib
Director, DW Communications Inc.
Communications for the Arts
54 Wolseley St., Ste. 204
Toronto M5T 1A5
416-703-5479
