A stunning dance creation conceived by artistic director Sandra Laronde and choreographed by Peter Chin, and music by Antonio Zepeda.

Dancing Americas is set to original, live music by world famous composer Antonio Zepeda, celebrated for his revival of Mesoamerican and pre-Colombian indigenous music from Mexico.

Dancing Americas explores the relationships of the First Peoples of the Americas through the metaphor of the Monarch butterfly that lives in south central Canada and migrates annually to Mexico. The piece draws on the possibilities of exchange along pre-contact trade routes. The Monarch is an inspired metaphor for migration, generation, metamorphosis and beauty. Four performers from Canada and four performers from Mexico combine forces to create and shape this contemporary stage phenomenon.

In addition to Dancing Americas, there is a 15-minute Grass Dance solo, choreographed and performed by Matthew Pheasant. Emulating a tradition that is centuries old, this dance form displays the traditional Aboriginal aesthetic, ethos and cultural pride of this land.

Dancing Americas, a 50-minute dance piece, closed the Canada Dance Festival at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on June 12, 2004, and premiered at the du Maurier Theatre Centre in Toronto from March 27, 28 and 29, 2003. All of the performances were sold-out to capacity houses.

Dancing Americas was rated in the Top Ten of 2003 by both the Globe & Mail and the Toronto Star, and was considered "one of the most exciting performances of the 10-day festival at the Canada Dance Festival in 2003" by the Ottawa Citizen.

"...magnificent in the scope of its imagination ...mysterious in its beauty and driving in its beat..." – Globe & Mail

"...makes and original statement about the continuity of continental cultures that speak to each other and to us, across the centuries." – Toronto Star.

	Photos by David Hou

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