High Performance Rodeo returns to Calgary with more than 30 productions

The High Performance Rodeo returns to downtown Calgary in January, bringing its 40th annual winter arts festival back to the city from the 13th to 31st.

The festival spans more than 30 productions across multiple downtown venues, with programming that includes theatre, music, cabaret, comedy, and hybrid performance.

Festival producer Oliver Armstrong describes the Rodeo as a way to animate the coldest stretch of the year.

“The winter month, warming up the winter month is a huge thing that makes us unique,” Armstrong says.

High Performance Rodeo operates as a curated festival rather than through an open submission or lottery model.

“We pick and choose these shows and we curate them specifically to find the variety, but also more specifically to find a really virtuosic performance,” Armstrong says.

Many of the productions have already toured or appeared at other festivals before arriving in Calgary, which Armstrong says allows the team to better assess what is being presented.

The result, he says, is a schedule that offers range without becoming overwhelming.

“We don’t feel that we have to get bigger and bigger every single year,” Armstrong says. “What’s important to us is the quality, the virtuosic performance.”

With dozens of shows spread across three weeks, Armstrong says the best way to approach the festival is not to try to see everything.

“Taking the time to take a deep breath and scroll through those shows on our website or in the guide, and just pick one thing that you think looks intriguing,” he says.

His practical advice is to start with availability.

“Pick what days you’re free,” Armstrong says, then build from there. “I might want to spend 90 minutes out in downtown Calgary tonight seeing this weird or crazy or interesting or beautiful performance.”

He adds that the festival is designed so audiences can make an evening of it, often seeing more than one event in a single visit.

A few places to start

The festival opens with Dream Machine, a One Yellow Rabbit ensemble production, running Jan. 14 to 24 at Big Secret Theatre. Armstrong describes the opening night as an opportunity to centre the company that produces the festival itself.

Early in the festival, Performs Tom Waits brings Quebec City’s L’Orchestre d’hommes orchestres to Calgary for a three-night run in partnership with Bella Concert Hall. Armstrong describes the show as physical theatre built using found objects and self made instruments.

Later in the schedule, Juliet: A Revenge Comedy arrives from Vancouver’s Monster Theatre, offering a comic reworking of Shakespeare’s ending.

“What happens if Juliet did not die in that, let’s face it, kind of silly way she dies at the end of Romeo and Juliet,” Armstrong says. “They are masters of comedy and improv.”

Juliet: A Revenge Comedy runs Jan. 21 to 24 at the Martha Cohen Theatre.

For audiences looking to extend the night beyond the performance itself, Armstrong points to the Laycraft Lounge, the festival hub.

“You can come before the show, you can stay after, and you always meet artists that have just performed in a show,” he says.

It is not required to enjoy the festival, he adds, but it is often where conversations start or continue after the curtain comes down.

“Just pick a night and come and join the party,” Armstrong says.

The full lineup at can be found here.