Calgary

Poet Shane Koyczan, Kids in the Hall's Scott Thompson among headliners at High Performance Rodeo

The January festival, organized by theatre company One Yellow Rabbit, will feature more than 20 different performances from Calgary and around the world.

33rd annual festival features theatre, dance, comedy, music and multimedia works

The cast of Onegin, a contemporary re-imagining of the classic Tchaikovsky opera, performed at High Performance Rodeo 2018. (David Cooper)

Calgary's High Performance Rodeo announced its lineup Tuesday for the 33rd annual edition of the arts festival.

The January festival, organized by theatre company One Yellow Rabbit, will feature more than 20 different performances from around the world, including collaborations with Alberta Theatre Projects, Alberta Ballet, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and Decidedly Jazz Danceworks.

Highlights include:

'Joy of expression'

"We're focusing on the joy of expression in this go-round," said artistic director Blake Brooker in a statement posted to the festival's website.

There will also be returning favourites like the Veronicas — a sassy celebration of theatre artists in Calgary and an antidote to the Betty Mitchell Theatre awards — and the 10-Minute Play Festival, a series of plays that have just a single prop and line of dialogue in common.

The festival is the largest of its kind in Western Canada, and past iterations have featured artists like Philip Glass, Brian Eno and Young Jean Lee.

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High Performance Rodeo runs from Jan. 9 to 27, 2019, at a variety of venues around the city. Tickets are available on the festival's website.

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