When Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancer Katie Bonnell first started learning the choreography for Going Home Star - Truth and Reconciliation, the 24-year-old admits she knew nothing about Canada’s residential school history.
Back then, in 2014, Bonnell was serving as understudy for the lead role of ‘Annie’ – a young, urban, First Nations girl who is living her life unaware of the decades of physical and cultural abuse that had been inflicted upon her ancestors. As the ballet goes, Annie is lost and disillusioned, until she meets Gordon, a residential school survivor who introduces her to truth of their shared history and helps connect her to her purpose.
Sensitive to the needs of this landmark, cross-cultural ballet – which was one of the first major artistic responses to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and created to commemorate RWB’s 75th anniversary season – choreographer Mark Godden began the Going Home Star process by making sure all his dancers were properly educated on this horrific chapter in Canadian history.
“Mark […] really stressed the importance that all of us be as educated on the subject as we could be,” says Bonnell, speaking by phone during a stop on the ballet’s 2016 national tour. “So we participated in a blessing ceremony and a sweat and a smudging [ceremony] with a group of Manitoba elders, and they really sort of took us in and guided us through this entire process. We’ve spoken to survivors of the residential school system,” she continues, “and we’ve heard their stories firsthand, which was quite heartbreaking. But it was really necessary for us to understand what these people had to go through, so that we can do our best to portray that on stage.”
Now sharing the lead role with RWB principal Sophia Lee, dancing as Annie for select tour dates, Bonnell says it’s those stories that fill her mind as she performs – sometimes still forcing her to hold back tears on stage.
Rather than trying to recreate all of the thousands of painful memories that came to light during the Truth and Reconciliation process, though, Going Home Star wisely condenses seven years of survivor testimony into a single fictionalized account. Through narrative flashbacks, the ballet conveys the broader residential school experience, journeying, as the name suggests, from despair and grief towards hope and acknowledgement.
And while it should be noted that RWB has no First Nations dancers on its staff, the company’s interest in telling First Nations stories began in 1971 with its adaptation of The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. A philosophical follow-up to that piece, Going Home Star endeavoured to involve as many key First Nations creative partners as possible, from Cree activist and former MP Tina Keeper, who served as associate producer and touchstone for the ballet, to Three Day Road author Joseph Boyden, who wrote the narrative, to set designer KC Adams, to musicians Tanya Tagaq and Steve Wood, who provided vocals for parts of the score.
According to Wab Kinew, a prominent First Nations speaker and honorary Truth and Reconciliation Commission witness, Going Home Star’s combination of classical European art form and powerful First Nations experience presents an opportunity to bridge a complex gap.
“I think reconciliation is one of the big challenges that our society is facing right now – reconciliation with indigenous peoples,” the hip hop artist and CBC radio host explains. “And I think that art offers a unique way to tackle the topic of reconciliation, because it allows people entry into experiences other than their own,” he continues.
Kinew wasn’t involved with the creation of Going Home Star, but attended the premiere and attests to the value of an institution like RWB taking on the residential school story, helping to embed the stories deeper in Canada’s collective awareness.
“I think it’s important because of the reputation of the RWB, and also the significance of the ballet in the arts scene – that they are taking a leadership role in engaging with truth and reconciliation,” Kinew says, adding that he hopes to see similar projects develop in the worlds of theatre, opera, and classical music.
“The residential-school era is one that is still playing out in the lives of people today – it’s one of the darkest years in Canadian history and yet its also one of the most important,” he adds. “Canadians ought to learn about it, and that should happen in schools and through books, but it should also happen through art.”
• Going Home Star - Truth and Reconciliation runs April 7-9 at Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Tickets from $29; RWB.org.
