Cameron Fraser-Monroe and dancers from Ballet Kelowna working on a piece.

Image Credit: Ballet Kelowna/Abigail Sawchuk

Once a toddler learning Ukrainian dance in Vernon to a renowned ballet choreographer, this Indigenous dancer has come home to the Okanagan to premiere his latest work.

Cameron Fraser-Monroe is a member of the Tla'amin First Nation who has worked with iconic dance troupes from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet to the Dancers of Damelahamid in New Zealand.

Fraser-Monroe grew up in Vernon and his latest piece with Ballet Kelowna will be his fourth commission for the company. The piece titled pay?cot y?χ? which means “I always remember” in the Homalco, Klahoose, K’omoks and Tla’amin First Nations language Ayajuthem.

“This is really my artistic home as well as the place that I grew up,” he told iNFOnews.ca.

His latest work is part of Ballet Kelowna's Valentine’s show Ex Animo, alongside works from Alysa Pires and Robert Stephen on Feb. 14 and 15.

He pulls inspiration from more than just classical ballet. Fraser-Monroe trained in Ukrainian dance, and Indigenous hoop and grass dance from a young age before moving into ballet.

“Ukrainian dance was the first thing I started with when I was three years old,” he said. “I started with Elder Mollie Bono in the school system in Vernon when I was in grade one doing grass dance. In grade three, I started training with the world champion hoop dancer, Dallas Arcand, who actually lives in Kelowna now, which is really exciting.”

Ballet Kelowna was the first professional ballet company to commission a piece from Fraser-Monroe so he said the theme of the dance is fitting.

"The biggest teaching that I'm talking about in hoop dance is the way that a lot of the world can be viewed in a circular way instead of a linear way, whether it's seasons or friendships or even your journey in dance. So that's something that we're talking about in the piece... Pay?cot y?χ?t means, ‘I always remember.’ And you can see how this relates to the circularity of hoop dance and the way that we keep returning to friendships, we keep returning to dance, we keep returning to community,” he said. “How do we find the good in these cycles? We don't just keep coming back to the negative.”

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Fraser-Monroe said a recent project highlighting Indigenous artists with Royal Winnipeg Ballet was a great experience and that promoting Indigenous artists is something Ballet Kelowna puts effort into.

“Something that makes Ballet Kelowna really special, and maybe isn't talked about enough, is that they have featured Indigenous artists for the whole time I've been here. We have Indigenous dancers working full time in the company,” he said. “Many of my collaborators, whether it's music, lighting, projection, costume design, are Indigenous artists, and I think that's something that Ballet Kelowna does really well.”

The medium is dance, but Fraser-Monroe said he’s a storyteller.

“Increasingly my work is focused on story. And that doesn't always mean a beginning, middle, end of a fairy tale. Sometimes it just means structuring from the standpoint of, what are the intentions of these characters? What do they want, and what are their relationships? A lot of stories have blossomed from that,” he said.

He said his work as a choreographer is a collaborative storytelling process with the dancers.

“Working with the dancers that are there with me, not just imposing or being incredibly prescriptive with the work that I'm doing, but seeing what they have to offer, and seeing how the movement feels in their individual bodies,” he said.

He’s a busy guy, flying from Carnegie Hall in New York, to Winnipeg, to Kelowna to choreograph, and he has plans to take a trip to expand his storytelling toolkit in between rehearsal and the premiere later this month.

“I'm traveling back to the National Theatre School where I'm working on writing a play and I'm working with expanding my storytelling tools before returning for the premiere in February,” he said. “Working towards a longer work, an evening-length work.”

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Ballet can be intense and demanding so when Fraser-Monroe isn’t working he tries to take a step away.

“A big thing that I have to do while I'm creating work, it's all very cerebral, it's all in the studio, it's all indoors. I find the best way to unwind is to go out into the forest with my two dogs and unwind that way. Being in an open space, being in a place that doesn't require that same kind of thoughtful process,” he said.

He said travelling and working with dance companies thousands of miles apart is exciting and fulfilling, but it can be bittersweet.

“I think like any career, there's upsides and downsides. And I think that one of the greatest joys of choreographing is traveling, which means I get to meet many incredible artists and see the world through my career, but it can also be one of the tougher parts of it,” he said. “That can be very tiring to always be packing up, always living out of the suitcase. But for the time being, I'm really enjoying experiencing what I'm experiencing while I choreograph these dances.”

As far as advice for up and coming dancers, or folks of any vocation, he said it’s important to find people who will help guide you.

“This applies both to ballet and to traditional First Nations dances, find your community, find your advocates, people that will not only guide you along your way, but really support you and push you and help you find your direction and your voice,” he said.

“When I look back at my career, it was often individuals that really helped me along the way. I had many people who were dance teachers and were there, but there are a couple of key individuals who really pushed me as mentors and advocates. And those would be the people that I encourage you to find no matter what you're endeavouring to achieve.”

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