Children's Dance Theatre looks 'North' for inspiration

When discussing ideas for the upcoming Children's Dance Theatre performance, the artistic staff at the University of Utah's Tanner Creative Dance, which houses CDT, looked toward the North.

"We strive to have new ideas that will be appropriate and wonderful but also possess differences with qualities, colors and musical sounds," CDT artistic director Mary Ann Lee said during an interview. "So the idea with the Arctic and the aurora borealis seemed like a great idea."

The staff — which included CDT resident composer Tristan Moore, his sister Sadie Moore and Christina Young — found books with bits and pieces of the indigenous legends of Canada; however, the stories felt incomplete.

So, the Moores and Young took as many of the legends, which had the same theme, and put them together in an original story called "True North," Lee said.

"We felt there were so many rich and traditional stories from the First Nation's people that we should go from that," she said. "We wanted our story to have an authentic feel."

Lee and the staff knew they wanted a story set in the Arctic and subarctic that included the animals and indigenous people of the area.

"One of the amazing myths in this world is that the aurora borealis is the roof of the sky," Lee said. "And that it is the transition between the Earth and the sky. And we wanted to tell a story about it."

This story is about a little girl who falls from the sky and doesn't know where she is, Lee said. "She is taken in by this lovely Taku village, but she has this sense that she's not in the right place and actually comes from someplace else."

During her coming-of-age ceremony, the girl — whose name, Tula.aan, means "kindness" — meets a shaman, danced by Chara Huckins.

"The shaman tells her to look into the fire and relate what she sees," Lee said. "The girl says she sees colors and stars, and the shaman says follow your path."

The path leads Tula.aan to guides such as the Caribou chief Tuttuq, danced by Jasmine Crosby and Sedna, and the sea goddess, danced by Sadie Carhart. In between those landmark meetings, Tula.aan meets otters and spirits throughout the journey.

"It's a beautiful story they've written," Lee said. "It's different than the past two performances we have done.