TONO
Director & Concept: Sandra Laronde
Choreography: Sandra Laronde, Roger Sinha
Music: Rick Sacks with Tuvshinjargal, Batmend, and Bat-Orshikh
Lighting Design: Kimberly Purtell
Set & Costume Design: Julia Tribe
Tono is a visually brilliant dance and live music creation that connects the world Indigenous cultures of Canada, Mongolia, and China. Tono is heavily grounded in the theme of horse culture, spanning Plains traditions of North America and Asia with a storyline about shamanism and the creature universally regarded as the epitome of strength, grace, and beauty.
Tono is the winner of a 2010 Dora Mavor Moore Award and two awards at the 2010 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards.
Commissioned as part of the 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival in celebration of the Banff Centre's 75th Anniversary Celebration and by Luminato: Toronto’s Festival of Arts and Creativity.
- World Premiere at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, July 2008
- China Premiere at the Beijing Cultural Olympiad, 2008
- Toronto Premiere at the Luminato Festival, 2009
- Vancouver Premiere at the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad
- World Expo in Shanghai, 2010
- Shanghai International Arts Festival, 2014
- 6 dancers, 5 musicians, 3 crew
- Second day open (same day by arrangement)
- 60 minutes running time
REVIEWS OF TONO
"Tono is a ravishingly beautiful dance work. The dancers recreate a stampede that builds with excitement...absolutely stunning stretches and body twists. A wonderful achievement."
– Globe and Mail
"Vividly and viscerally illustrates Laronde's discoveries of meeting points among indigenous cultures."
– Dance International
"Tono is an extraordinarily beautiful show: stunning music, extreme athleticism, gorgeous images and wit."
– Ric Knowles, Canadian Theatre Review
"Fascinating Tono is a polished work by eloquent artists."
– Montreal Gazette
"Highly polished and impeccably timed. The work has a distinct vocabulary ...above all Tono celebrates beauty and power."
– Plank