Cameron Fraser-Monroe returns to the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre May 21. (Submitted photo/Facebook)

By Pete McIntyre

Local dancer comes ‘full circle’ with return to Vernon

May 17, 2021 | 6:00 AM

It’s a homecoming for a rising young talent in the performing arts.

Cameron Fraser-Monroe, who was raised in Vernon, attended Seaton Secondary, and grew up dancing at local studios, is the choreographer of taqəš, which will have its world premiere in a live-streamed event for Ballet Kelowna from the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre this Friday (May 21) at 7:30 p.m.

“It’s so nice to be back. I grew up dancing at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre from probably the age of four, and it’s really full circle to be back and dancing in my community in a different way,” Fraser-Monroe told Beach Radio’s Brian Martin and Rebecca Barton in an interview.

In his first work for Ballet Kelowna, Fraser-Monroe brings his classical ballet training, knowledge of traditional Coast Salish, Grass, and Hoop Dance, and experience as a contemporary dancer to taqəš, which means “to return something” in Ayajuthem, the language belonging to the Homalco, Klahoose, K’omoks and Tla’amin Nations.

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“It’s drawing on my knowledge of Coast Salish and grass dance and hoop dance, as well as my ballet training and my contemporary experience, so it’s a mix of three styles that are unique to myself.”

(Photo credit: Ballet Kelowna)

Set to several songs by Polaris Prize-winning composer and singer Jeremy Dutcher, taqəš follows the traditional story “Raven Returns the Water,” centred around Raven and Frog.

“It is very important that First Nations Peoples tell our own stories,” Fraser-Monroe, a member of the Tla’amin First Nation in Powell River, added. “While our stories do not have morals, they do communicate our ways of life, and I found messages about water, greed, community, and justice to be relevant today.”

Cameron Fraser-Monroe talks with Brian Martin and Rebecca Barton from Beach Radio below.

Fraser-Monroe, who is a professional dancer with the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada, says while he’s missing the energy of a live audience at performances, live-steaming is “the next best thing.”

“Our solution to theatres being closed is to perform in a theatre like we normally would and broadcast it live, and it really gives you that theatre feeling,” he said in the interview.

The event this Friday is the season finale for Ballet Kelowna, and billed as ‘A Tribute to Canada’s Health Care Workers.’

Friday’s bill also includes the world premiere of Stolen Tide, a new ensemble piece by Seiji Suzuki, and the return of Guillaume Côté’s Bolero, which Fraser-Monroe will dance in.

The performances will be live streamed on May 21 and then can be watched afterwards, offered free or by donation.

You can find out more at ticketseller.ca.