welcome

After four years, the RUTAS international performing arts festival is back! Now in its 5th edition, the festival is stronger than ever. RUTAS will host artists and conversations that inspire us to envision together how we might go from where we are now to a world that includes all of us. International and local artists will infuse our city with fresh perspectives, with art from across the Americas and beyond.

When we sat down to imagine what kind of festival this could be, we knew we had to create a space that allows art to do what it does best – to inspire, to feed our curiosity, to transform and empower our collective consciousness and actions.  Art that speaks out and that helps us to re-think and remap the routes for our lives together in a shifting world.  This year’s amazing line-up of artists and performances delve into our role and responsibility in effecting change, in working together toward an equitable and inclusive world, in thinking about a collective approach to life.  These works are artistically compelling, and deeply engaged with social change.  They invite us to share, love, laugh, remember and celebrate our lives together.

Our city, Tkaronto, has been a crossroads for millenia. We wish to express our gratitude for the stewardship of unnamed generations past in tending this place and passing it forward, as we too aspire to do. We recognize the Haudenoshaunee, the Wendat, the Anishnabee, and the Mississaugas of the Credit as traditional keepers of this land.

We also wish to thank our Partners in this Festival: venues Theatre Passe Muraille and Factory Theatre, and Symposium partners York University, Hemispheric Encounters, The Space Between Us, aabijijiwan New Media Lab, Nuit Blanche, and the City of Toronto.