OTTAWA - The National Arts Centre is bringing the North to the South this spring with a 10-day festival featuring northern artists, musicians, singers, chefs, writers and storytellers who blend the traditional with the contemporary.
Every two years, the centre showcases a region of the country. In 2011, it was the Prairies. This year, the North will be the focus from Thursday until May 4.
"We certainly do have probably the largest representation of artists from the North that's ever been brought together outside that region," said executive producer Heather Moore.
The festival features music and theatre, art and culture, food, film, fashion, fiddlers and folklore.
People will be able to sample smoked Arctic char tacos and elk poutine from a local food truck run by a former Yukon resident. Three northern chefs will be paired with three Ottawa chefs to try their own interpretations of char, reindeer and other northern fare.
As a whole, the Northern Scene offers a glimpse of an arts scene that many rarely see.
"I think people are going to be quite surprised at the scope and the variety and just how contemporary everything is," said Moore.
Some of the artists, such as Susan Aglukark, are household names, while others are unknown to people in the south.
"We've got very worldly people who have travelled everywhere and we've got some people who haven't been south of Fort Simpson" (in the Northwest Territories), Moore said.
Much of the attraction lies in the blend of yesterday and today, she said.
"Throat-singing is obviously a tradition, often the first thing people think of when they think of the North, and we've got this young kid named Nelson Tagoona who's a throat boxer ... he does beat-box stuff but he does it with throat singing, so he's taking this tradition and he layers his interpretation on top of it."
There are reinterpretations of two iconic black-and-white films from the 1920s.
"The Grub-Stake Revisited" was filmed in 1923 by Nell Shipman and tells of the Yukon of the Gold Rush, Moore said.
"A bunch of musicians and artists from Whitehorse decided that they would reinterpret that and they stripped out the subtitles and they created new dialogue that they sourced all from Shakespeare and they wrote a new score and they perform it all live with the black-and-white film in the background."
"Nanook of the North," the 1922 black-and-white silent movie that is considered by many to be the first documentary, is reborn with a new musical score of contemporary jazz free form performed by Tanya Tagaq.
In another presentation, a group of Greenlanders joins Canadian northerners to present "Tulugak: Inuit Raven Stories."
Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, one of the performers who is originally from Greenland, says it's a combination of music and theatre.
"We have original music that's written by people from our cast and we have storytelling from our mythology and storytelling from our contemporary lives," she said.
She said the mix of old and new is very much part of the North.
"It's the reality of our lives," she said. "For Inuit, we don't consciously separate the traditional from what's contemporary. It's always a mix of the two.
"We talk about the mythology of the raven, but use rap to make that message or we'll be wearing sealskin boots and talking about something that's happening right now."
Playwright-actor Renaltta Arluk, who founded Akpik Theatre in Yellowknife, is presenting a radio play called "I Count Myself Among Them." It's a work she adapted from a short story by northern writer Richard Van Camp.
Its also blends modern and traditional as the central character goes through a lost period, does time in jail and deals cocaine while in a personal quest for direction and meaning.
"He goes through this profound journey where he transforms out of the man he used to be," Arluk said.
In all, the festival features about 250 artists in more than 50 events. Moore said previous versions have attracted 50,000 people and she sees no reason this year should be different.
While some performances are already sold out, there are also free events, a family day and displays at other venues, including the National Gallery and the Museum of Civilization.
The arts centre itself, which sits on the bank of the Rideau Canal within sight of the Parliament Buildings, will be the main venue, from its foyer to its various theatres and studios.
———
If You Go...
For more information, visit http://nac-cna.ca/northernscene
