High Performance Rodeo shifts into top gear

For most, the month of January might be little more than the cold, dreary follow-up to the festive, holiday-filled December. For fans of the performing arts, however, that is not the case.

January is the month of High Performance Rodeo, an annual, international festival celebrating all disciplines of performing arts in Calgary, such as theatre, music, dance and comedy. This is the festival’s 27th year, running from Jan. 3 to Feb. 3 and bringing performing arts to Calgary in a big way.

Spread across 13 venues across the city, High Performance Rodeo, which is the largest festival of its kind in Western Canada, offers something for everyone on any budget.

If you’re looking to experience the Rodeo on a tight budget, there are plenty of free or pay-what-you-can performances happening, such as Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir’s Infra-Loop that sees the TRUCK Contemporary Art’s gallery space transformed into a room full of paper thin walls and projected lights, or the Year of the Snake +15 Art Parade, which promises “a visual cacophony [that] travels through the Plus 15 skywalks, giving our downtown pedestrian commuters a big, happy surprise.”

There is also a series of lunchtime performances as a part of ProArts@Noon at the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer.

However, if you’re looking for something a little bigger, High Performance Rodeo has you covered. Now approaching the second half of the festival, some of the more-anticipated events are beginning to kick off, and here is a preview of what’s to come:

Atomic Vaudeville (above) performed Jan. 9 - 12 at the High Performance Rodeo. Photo courtesy Atomic Vaudeville

Up Close

After selling out their 100-seat performance in just a single day, the Alberta Ballet is back with Up Close, a series of three programs choreographed by Yukichi Hattori, Alexandrous Ballard, and Calgary’s Denise Clarke, featuring all 31 dancers of the company.

Up Close runs at the Martha Cohen Theatre from Jan. 15 to 19.

Look Mummy, I’m Dancing

In this emotional monologue, Belgian artist Vanessa Van Durme shares her struggle and experience as a transsexual woman as she “slowly but resolutely peels off her sixty-year-old skin until we find ourselves face to face with the reverse side of her soul.”

Look Mummy, I’m Dancing runs on Jan. 16, 18 and 19 at the Engineered Air Theatre.

This is What Happens Next

In this autobiographical adventure, Daniel MacIvor returns to the stage to take us on a comedic adventure filled with “the dark forest of addiction, divorce, The Little Mermaid and the life of John Denver.”

Created by Daniel MacIvor and Daniel Brooks, This is What Happens Next runs from Jan. 23-27, and again Jan. 29 to Feb. 3 at the Martha Cohen Theatre.

People You May Know

In this marriage of multimedia and live performance, three performers appear as a whole community in this comedy about a financial scheme gone wrong. Though the performances are live, basic video and projection equipment results in a “digital puppet chorus: victims and villains, the venal and the virtuous.”

People You May Know, put on by One Yellow Rabbit, runs Jan. 16-19, Jan. 23-26, and Jan. 30 to Feb. 2 at the Big Secret Theatre.

Whether you’re a music fan, or theatre buff, comedy lover or dance enthusiast, High Performance Rodeo has something for you. Information on the calendar, lineup, and ticketing is available at www.hprodeo.ca.