Kiuryaq is an immersive circumpolar theatre performance that explores our relationship with the Northern Lights. It is a multi-disciplinary piece created in collaboration with sound composition, digital media and theatre artists from Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of Canada, Greenland, Sápmi territory and Alaska. We follow these northern stories of connection which inspire us through the aurora borealis, Kiuryaq in Inuvialuktun. These stories, frightening, spiritual, epic and playful, are situated in our memories of then and experiences of now. All are held in our vast cosmologies which converge in ways we discovered together through this journey.
Kiuryaq is about about two siblings born in the north with one being separated by adoption down south. An older sister and a younger brother. One raised under the aurora with her grandparents and the younger brother raised with no knowledge of his place of birth, yet under the ancestral connection of the northern lights choices are made that change their realities. Kiuryaq is a transformative performance work which brings the circumpolar region together to share some wisdom, warnings, and humour to all those who are curious. In form, Kiuryaq is a blend of theatre, with three performers embodying multiple roles; concert, with original music played by a live string quartet; and film, with expansive, immersive projections. It is designed to tour for impact in multiple performance venues: Indigenous communities, large concert halls, theatres, from planetariums to snow amphitheatres and, of course, northern centres.