High Performance Rodeo kicks off in Calgary with The Storyville Mosquito

It’s not mosquito season outside, but it will be Wednesday night onstage at the Bella Concert Hall at Mount Royal University.

That’s where multi-media artist and DJ Kid Koala will be onstage, performing a family-friendly show called The Storyville Mosquito.

Koala’s show, which blends miniature sets, live puppetry, cinematography and live music performed by Koala and a string trio, tells the story of a young mosquito who leaves a small town in the country to seek fame and fortune in a big city.

The mosquito’s dream, it seems, is to play in one of the greatest jazz bands ever at Sid Villa’s Music Hall.

It’s a live, real-time performance of an animated graphic novel, which is a follow-up to his Nufonia Must Fall Live stage show.

It explores themes of honesty, improvisation, our “internal monologue," style and collaboration.

It’s also one of the opening shows of the 2024 High Performance Rodeo, kicking off three weeks of international performing arts projects that range from The Storyville Mosquito, to two solo shows (Buddy Cole, Dark Purple Slice) by a few of the Kids in the Hall, to an award-winning magic-comedy show (Apres-Lucy) to new shows from Decidedly Jazz Danceworks and Making Treaty 7 and a re-imagining of the Oedipus myth starring goblins, as envisioned by the creators of Blind Date, Rebecca Northan and Bruce Horak.

The High Performance Rodeo runs from Jan. 15 through Feb. 3 at a variety of venues in the city, including Arts Commons, the Grand Theatre, DJD Dance Centre, the Bella, and elsewhere.

In addition to The Storyville Mosquito, Kid Koala is hosting a Robot Dance Party Saturday at the Grand Theatre downtown. That is also a family-friendly event that will allow kids to build their own cardboard robot costume and then hit the dance floor while Kid Koala DJs.

For more about the High Performance Rodeo, go here.