Ballet Kelowna presents Cikilaxʷm: Controlled Burn May 1 + 2, 2026 Friday at 7:30 PM/ Saturday at 1:30 PM and 7:30 PM

Ballet Kelowna gratefully acknowledges our 2025/26 season sponsor:
The Thomas Alan Budd Foundation.

Choreography: Cameron sinkʷə Fraser-Monroe
Composer: Cris Derksen
Projection and Lighting Design: Andy Moro
Costume Design: Asa Benally

Cameron sinkʷə Fraser-Monroe returns with his newest work for the company, Cikilaxʷm: Controlled Burn, a full-length narrative ballet that blazes across time and tradition and is set to original commissioned music by Cree cellist and composer Cris Derksen. Projections by Euro/Omushkego Cree artist Andy Moro will bring to life sterile cities and scorched forests, while costumes by Navajo/Cherokee designer Asa Benally layer each character with rich histories.

Set in a dystopian future where wildfire season has no end, a young Indigenous firefighter’s beliefs are challenged when he meets Mothkʷ, a fierce protector of ancestral knowledge who carries out cultural burns.

The word cikilaxʷm [tseeLAHkwum] means “prescribed fire” in nsyilxcən, the language belonging to the syilx (Okanagan) People. It relates to traditional burning practices that nourish the land and community, bringing healing and rejuvenation.

“This is not a tale of apocalypse, but of perseverance.
Of memory that survives and endures.
Of land that remembers how to heal.”
- Cameron sinkʷə Fraser-Monroe

Developed in collaboration with the National Creation Fund at Canada’s National Arts Centre.

Subscriptions on sale until November 8, 2025. Single tickets on sale September 15, 2025.

Ballet Kelowna tickets and their applicable fees are non-refundable.