Caribou hooves and Raven's wings take to stage

Imagine what it would be like to be caught in the middle of 10,000 stampeding caribou. What would it sound like? How would you survive? Well, you don't have to imagine for very long. The stampede will travel to Vancouver when Red Sky, a contemporary Aboriginal performing arts company, brings the wildly successful Caribou Song to the stages of the Firehall Arts Centre Feb. 8 to 11.

Caribou Song is a story written by Tomson Highway, with original music by Rick Sacks. It comes from Canada's northern Cree territory and is a story about two children who get caught in a stampede of caribou and the magical way they find their way out.

"It's an adventure dance story for family audiences and really speaks to the transformative nature and the power of the natural world," said Sandra Laronde, Red Sky's founder and artistic director.
Caribou Song was created in 2003 and its first performance was at the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto with the 70-piece Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In one day, 5,000 people saw Caribou Song, but it was Laronde's goal to bring the beautiful story to audiences around the world.

The touring version of Caribou Song is scaled back to just three musicians, but that doesn't lesson the power of piece," said Laronde.

Musicians are used to create a sense of land, she said.

"You will hear wind, birds, we use different instruments to evoke that; things passing by, ice cracking...so when the stampede of caribou comes, you have percussion like crazy. But then we've also mixed into the soundtrack, to give the sense of urgency and the size of the stampede, we've mixed simultaneously a volcano, an earthquake and a stampede of horses, all mixed together to get that big thunderous feel."

This is Red Sky's first Western tour, but Caribou Song, and the accompanying piece, Raven Stole The Sun, has been seen in such far flung places as Switzerland and Australia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Washington, DC. The shows, which combined fall under the title Sun Spirits, if you're looking to purchase tickets, were recently sold out in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre.
Laronde said audiences can expect to see two very different stories performed onstage. Caribou Song, which is about winter and tundra and is earthbound, is contrasted by Raven, which is set in the world of summer and sea and flight.

"Raven is this fabulous, magical creature who has an insatiable appetite, can never get enough, always wants more, is curious, wants to know where everything is," said Laronde. "So he ends up bringing light to the people of the world. He steals the stars, the moon, and the sun... and brings light to the people of the world, because, at that time they were living in darkness."

While there is a multitude of Raven tales in Aboriginal storytelling, Red Sky's is based on a Tlinget story. Red Sky asked story keeper Maria Williams if they could conceptualize it and turn the Tlinget's Raven into a theatre production. Williams agreed, and playwright Drew Hayden Taylor was brought on board to write the story for the stage.

"It's a great story. It's funny, it's musical, and there's dance," said Laronde.

Together the performance pieces run 55 minutes and are suitable for adults and children four years old and up. Laronde is Teme-Augama-Anishnaabe from Temagami in Ontario. She travels with four other performers.