MOVE IT

The Red Sky Performance contemporary indigenous dance company has three new works premiering this fall. We asked founder Sandra Laronde for a preview of one, Backbone, which is at the

Canadian Stage in Toronto from November 2 to 12. “It’s about the electricity, the impulses and the dynamism of the earth’s spine, which is the Canadian and American Rockies and the Andes. Mountains are often perceived as being inanimate or just for human viewing consumption, a postcard, but they’re so much more than that. People who have seen it say to me ‘I don’t know how dancers can move like that and still be alive’ or ‘I never saw a back dance before,’ and then they say ‘I can really feel my spine.’ That’s wonderful because they’re making the connection between us and our earth mother. All of our works are about creating those kinds of stories of sustenance that nourish people’s hearts and minds.”