When Gerry Morita, artistic director of Mile Zero Dance, was programming a theme for the December Salon series slot, she went out of her way to avoid angels and jingle bells in favour of something more commonplace and everyday.

With the theme of The Red Thread, she hit the mark. On the one hand, it’s void of Christian and Christmas symbolism, but it’s charged with a whole other world of meaning.

"It ended up being really loaded," Morita explains. "I didn’t realize it at the time, but I’ve been doing more reading about it, and it turns out the red thread is strongly tied to Zen Buddhist ideas of sexuality, as in resisting the red thread, which was the garter on Chinese courtesans.

"So we have this event which is really supposed to be all about the senses, paired with the Buddhists–the kings of denial!" she laughs.

As part of the Ce N’est Pas Une Pirouette Salon series, The Red Thread evenings are designed to get artists and audiences out to see short, mixed media performance pieces and to to try new things and respond to ideas in the beginning creative stages–stuff you wouldn’t normally see on anyone’s mainstage, what Morita describes as a "variety show sampler." It’s interdisciplinary on purpose, "to get dancers out there with the larger arts community. There’s so much talent out there, but as cities get bigger, artists and audiences alike become more clique-y."

Morita says she never knows just what to expect from a particular Salon until the first night goes up. Sometimes the Salon’s theme serves as the jumping off point for the performances; often it’s disregarded all together.

The Red Thread, emceed by Brenna Knapman, "a young hippie spoken word anarchist," features short performances from dance artist Katrina Smy, actor/dancer Jason Carnew, "music machine" TIPPY AGOGO, a video installation from Philip Jagger, and folk pop from Candace Burns, a high school singer/songwriter.

Saturday night includes Lance Maclean presenting performance art involving cars in the parking lot. And for Friday, Gerry Morita will join bassist Tom Golub for a duet.

"Me and Tom have been working since September on a body of improv work–improvised fairytales," Morita explains. "We recently received an Edmonton Arts Council grant to further develop that, trying to find the vocabulary between my movement and Tom’s bass, a character he calls Bella–she’s so sexy!"