May 5 & 6, 2023

Set to Ian Cusson’s Le loup de Lafontaine: Suite for Orchestra in Three Scenes, this new work by Wen Wei Wang is an Edmonton premiere of a co-commission from Dance Victoria and the Victoria Symphony, first performed with the Victoria Symphony sharing the stage at the Royal Theatre in Victoria, BC, in April 2023.

Cusson is a composer of art song, opera, and orchestral work. Of Métis and French-Canadian descent, his work explores the Canadian Indigenous experience including the history of the Métis people, the hybridity of mixed-racial identity, and the intersection of Western and Indigenous cultures. His musical composition is inspired by Le loup de Lafontaine by Thomas Marchildon, a cautionary tale that takes place in the small French-speaking Ontario community of Lafontaine in 1902. During the time of Marchildon’s story, various settler and Indigenous communities lived in close proximity, yet rarely intermixed. Each had a deep mistrust of the other. When a wolf arrives, they unite (but at a cost) with the common goal of ridding the community of the intruder.

“I have known this story all my life – the terrifying wolf and the frightened community,” explains Cusson. “But the story has always given me pause. The wolf isn’t quite the monster the people make it out to be. It is gentle with children, it keeps to itself, and except for killing sheep for food, it does no harm. The wolf is the feared and hated outsider – the ultimate scapegoat – whose expulsion from the community will be the means to the restoration of the divided peoples.”

Music: Le loup de Lafontaine
Composer: Ian Cusson
Costume design: Linda Chow
Lighting: Dorrie Deutschendorf
Performers: Full Company

Choreographer: Wen Wei Wang