Behind every good ballet is a good story.
In this case, however, the good story came from a bad place in Canadian history - the residential school era.
The story is called Going Home Star - Truth and Reconciliation, based on real emotions and experiences of some residential school survivors and their families.
Justice Murray Sinclair, who is chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, served as advisor for the ballet, set to open Oct. 1.
"If you look at the residential school themselves from the very moment of their creation, their very existence was not really about education. It was about taking children away from their parents that the government felt were not going to raise them properly," said Justice Sinclair.
Sinclair said the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is educating people he and the commission may never reach.
None of the dancers are of First Nations, Metis or Inuit heritage. But each of them have had a chance to meet a residential school survivor and heard their stories from that era.
Associate Producer Tina Keeper said what's important to remember about this ballet is that the stories of residential schools are not only the stories of indigenous people, but a story all Canadians share.
"It is a reality that Canada is indigenous and non-indigenous and reconciliation speaks to looking at the truth of our history and trying to figure out a process of moving forward,” said Keeper.
Keeper hopes the ballet brings home the sense of loss, pain and trauma felt by many residential school students.
The idea of Going Home Star began more than five years ago.
Many of the creative talents behind the scenes of the production come from an indigenous background.
