The culture of violence is not unique to "other places." What is the difference between a child soldier and an urban gang member? Both believe that it is cool to kill. - Rolf Wallin, composer, Strange News

Soundstreams presents the Canadian premiere of Strange News, a 30-minute multimedia work, which bears witness to the plight of child soldiers.

Composed by Norwegian Rolf Wallin - who will be in attendance - with text by Belgian actor/director/writer Josse de Pauw, the work is narrated by the young Ugandan actor Arthur Kisenyi. Strange News combines the spoken word with chamber orchestra and overhead projections to explore lives lived in cruelty and the possible future for these stolen, scarred children.

Miss Ruby Jones is heart broken. Her "babelicious" Stephen Harper has betrayed her.

Wearing a blue shirt and black cardigan with her red-brown hair spread around her shoulders, Jones stood on the stage of Toronto's Theatre Passe Muraille at this year's Fringe Festival, looked out to a sold-out crowd and professed her love for Harper's steel grey eyes and how, "he never actually looks at you." He spends millions on "that terrorist war" but never takes Jones out to dinner.

In "Harper Girl Does Canada," Miss Ruby Jones (aka Rusa Jeremic) uses extreme sarcasm and wit to let the world know how "Harpercritical" Canada's Prime Minister is.

Evening performances will feature the innovative contemporary ballet, Coppélia.  This whimsical presentation begins when Dr. Coppélius creates a beautiful life-sized dancing doll.  The comedic love story unfolds with local villager Nathanael becoming so infatuated with the doll that he casts aside his sweetheart Klara, who enacts her revenge by dressing as the doll and pretending to come to life.

The young people's production The Emperor's New Clothes is a delightfully humorous retelling of the well-loved fairytale, and the daytime performances are an excellent introduction to ballet for little ones

WHITE HOT, this year's annual fundraising gala for The National Ballet of Canada, takes place on Thursday, June 18, 2009. The evening begins with a one-hour performance of short works selected by Artistic Director Karen Kain including a new work by Matjash Mrozewski and a special performance by retiring Principal Dancer Chan Hon Goh.

All guests are invited to a special post-performance celebration featuring cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Gala guests then take to the stage for a gourmet dinner by celebrity chef Mark McEwen followed by an evening of dancing with the National Ballet dancers.

Surrender to the seduction. Carmen will be performed from June 6 - 14 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Italian choreographer, Davide Bombana, re-invents Carmen while staying true to Bizet's opera. Bombana sheds superficialities and draws from the narrative to animate pure, naked emotions with fresh ideas about movement and staging. See how fate, violence, love, and destruction collide in Carmen.

Skin Divers will take you on a spiritual journey. Augmenting her choreography with spoken word and ephemeral visual projections, Canadian choreographer, Dominique Dumais, explores the concept of "the body as a living archive of experience, or a museum of memory."