Dance

Please review each article prior to use: grade-level applicability and curricular alignment might not be obvious from the headline alone.

Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun Lynnianna Swan scrapes a bison hide during a family wellness day of cultural and entertainment activities at Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Friday, for families displaced by fires.
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Hotel-weary evacuees guests at powwow

Connor McDowell 3 minute read Preview
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Hotel-weary evacuees guests at powwow

Connor McDowell 3 minute read Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025

SIOUX VALLEY DAKOTA NATION — Evacuees displaced from their communities in northern Manitoba were invited to Sioux Valley Dakota Nation on Friday for what the chief called a mental health day.

A hundred people were at the afternoon event when the Brandon Sun visited.

The event, which included live music, games and children’s entertainment, was a way to give a day of fresh air to evacuees, Chief Vince Tacan said.

“We thought we’d give our relatives from the north a mental health day, because staying in hotels gets hard after a while,” Tacan said.

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Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025
This grab taken from video shows performers dancing as they hold raw, plucked chickens wrapped in diapers, inside Paderborn's cathedral, Germany, Friday May 16, 2025. (RTL via AP)
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A show inside a cathedral featured raw chickens in diapers. The German president was in the audience

Stefanie Dazio, The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview
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A show inside a cathedral featured raw chickens in diapers. The German president was in the audience

Stefanie Dazio, The Associated Press 2 minute read Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

BERLIN (AP) — A performance inside a Catholic cathedral in Germany earlier this month that featured raw, plucked chickens wrapped in diapers onstage — and the country's president and the local archbishop in the audience — has prompted the church and municipal leaders to apologize that the show “hurt religious feelings."

The show, "Westphalia Side Story,” was part of a May 15 celebration to mark the 1,250th anniversary of Westphalia, a region in northwestern Germany.

Video footage shows one woman and two shirtless men singing “Fleisch ist Fleisch” (“Meat is meat”) — apparently spoofing Austrian band Opus' 1984 pop song “Live is Life” — with scythes and dancing with the dead chickens on a stage in front of Paderborn Cathedral's altar.

Performance company bodytalk said in a statement Friday that the show featured work-in-progress excerpts from “Westphalia Side Story" — which references the American musical "West Side Story."

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Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025
Members of K-pop band Big Ocean, Jiseok, PJ and Chanyeon, from left to right, participate in an interview with The Associated Press in Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Juwon Park)
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Big Ocean breaks new ground as K-pop’s first deaf group

Juwon Park, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview
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Big Ocean breaks new ground as K-pop’s first deaf group

Juwon Park, The Associated Press 4 minute read Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Big Ocean, a three-member K-pop group composed entirely of artists with hearing disabilities, is redefining the limits of music and performance — one beat at a time.

When Big Ocean takes the stage, they seamlessly incorporate sign language into their performances. But their polished shows are built on extensive preparation using high-tech tools born from necessity — vibrating smartwatches that pulse with musical beats and LED visual metronomes that flash timing cues during practice sessions. This technological approach represents significant progress in South Korea’s entertainment industry, where career opportunities for people with disabilities have historically been limited.

The trio, PJ, Jiseok and Chanyeon, made their debut in April 2024 and recently wrapped a solo European tour marking their first anniversary. The band performed in four countries, including France and the U.K., while promoting their second mini-album, “Underwater,” which dropped on April 20.

PJ rose to prominence as a YouTuber who educated viewers about hearing disabilities. Chanyeon previously worked as an audiologist. Jiseok was a professional ski racer.

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Friday, Oct. 10, 2025
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Rhea Rodych-Rasidescu (centre) and others run through a scene on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. An all-woman cast and crew are behind the upcoming Winnipeg Studio Theatre-Rainbow Stage presentation of Miss Shakespeare. For arts story. Winnipeg Free Press 2024
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Miss Shakespeare turns gender bias on its ear

Holly Harris 6 minute read Preview
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Miss Shakespeare turns gender bias on its ear

Holly Harris 6 minute read Sunday, Sep. 29, 2024

Winnipeg Studio Theatre kicked off its season with the guts and glory of female empowerment in its all-women-led local premiere of Miss Shakespeare.

The two-hour musical — directed by company artistic director Erin McGrath and presented by Rainbow Stage — runs through Oct. 5 at the University of Winnipeg’s Asper Centre for Theatre and Film. Saturday night’s crowd eagerly lapped up its feminist ethos.

Its quasi-historical protagonist, Judith Shakespeare (played by a spunky Rhea Rodych-Rasidescu), is the Bard’s real-life daughter “born with a poetic soul.” Judith lives in the shadows of her famous father during the repressive 1600s, when women were relegated to becoming wives and mothers, rather than pursuing their own passions.

Judith yearns for her own identity as a self-actualized creative powerhouse, and cobbles together the “Gossips,” a merry band of like-minded women who surreptitiously meet each week in the bowels of The Cage tavern to create a play. They spar, share stories, and dream, risking public humiliation if they’re discovered treading the boards like their male counterparts.

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Sunday, Sep. 29, 2024
Supplied Larry (Toby Hughes, left, with Melanie Whyte and Lisa Bell) delves into our health care.
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Satirical musical tackles health-care woes in bite-sized chunks

Thandi Vera 5 minute read Preview
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Satirical musical tackles health-care woes in bite-sized chunks

Thandi Vera 5 minute read Thursday, Apr. 18, 2024

They say laughter is the best medicine. Throw a little song-and-dance into the mix and you get Larry Saves the Canadian Healthcare System — an 11-part web microseries that humorously addresses Canada’s ailing medical system through music and satire.

Sara Kreindler, a professor of community health sciences at the University of Manitoba, spearheads the show, drawing from her extensive research.

“It’s about starting a conversation,” says writer-composer Kreindler, who has a PhD in social psychology. “Whether you’re a health-care provider or just someone curious about the system, I want viewers to come away feeling empowered to hold our elected leaders accountable for addressing the underlying issues.”

Through the character of Larry, played by Winnipeg actor Toby Hughes, viewers embark on a journey navigating the complexities of health-care policy.

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Thursday, Apr. 18, 2024
CAMILLE SÉGUY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS À 95 ans, Hortense Sabourin danse toujours, malgré la perte de sa vue.
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Danser à 95 ans

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Danser à 95 ans

CAMILLE SÉGUY 4 minute read Saturday, May. 5, 2012

L

E 9 avril dernier, la Franco-Manitobaine Hortense Sabourin a célébré ses 95 ans.

Un âge avancé qui ne l’empêche pas de poursuivre sa passion, la danse, malgré la perte de sa vue depuis plus de 15 ans.

“Quand, vers l’âge de 75-80 ans, mon médecin m’a dit que je devenais aveugle, c’était une triste nouvelle mais je n’ai jamais pensé abandonner la danse,” affirme Hortense Sabourin. “C’est un bon exercice et c’est bon pour le moral. On n’a pas besoin des yeux pour danser, mais des oreilles.”

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Saturday, May. 5, 2012