This weekend will be filled with music and dancing for Yellowknife’s Northern arts and Cultural Centre.
On Saturday, April 15th, Aurora Chorealis and the Fireweed Children’s Chorus are putting on the Rhythm & Rhyme show. It will be a celebration of different rhythmic styles, though the use of songs, poems, and limericks.
The music itself is drawn from many different times and places across the world. The earliest pieces were written in the 1500’s, ranging into the 2000’s. Culturally, some of the music will be from Cuba, South Africa, India, and others.
Margo Nightingale, the Conductor from Aurora Chorealis, shared how much work has been going into this performance.
“We’ve actually been working on this repertoire since January, so we are building some individual bits to this as we go along by incorporating some drummers, some percussionists in the last few weeks. We’ve got some individual elements in that we’ve got some dancers who are joining us for one of the songs as well. As a group, we’ve spent months learning the music so that we can feel like we’re singing more as four voices, rather than thirty four voices.”
She added that the performers recently completed their final regular practice, and are feeling very excited for the final show.
“I would say we are ninety-three percent ready! We will probably find the last seven percent in the rehearsals we have leading up to the show itself.”
This will be the first of their shows in three years that will be performed without facemasks. COVID-19 precautions had prevented Yellowknife choristers from practicing and performing unmasked.
“I think for our singers, it was a real challenge because it makes it very different to hear each other because there is so much feedback that you’re getting from yourself. It makes it difficult to breath because there’s this barrier between open air and your mouth, which sometimes made some of the singing that we did very challenging.”
Nightingale adds that now that the masks are gone, it allows the singers full faces to be shown, enjoy the full presentation, and connect with the performers.
There will be two performers on Saturday. One will be held at 2:30, and another at 7:30.
