Every January, the High Performance Rodeo fills Calgary with three weeks of theatre, dance, music, comedy and immersive performance. Michael Green launched it in 1987, and One Yellow Rabbit curates it today.
The company behind it debuted at the 1982 Edmonton Fringe. Eight artists formed it, among them Gyllian Raby, who served as artistic director, and Michael Green, and they ran One Yellow Rabbit as a collective for the first six years.
A home in downtown Calgary
In 1987, the same year as the first rodeo, the company settled into what was then the Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts, later the EPCOR Centre, as its permanent home. A 60 seat Secret Theatre came first. In 1996 the two level, 200 seat Big Secret Theatre took over that space.
The building has carried more names since, a story we untangled in Six rooms, four names and one very busy arts centre.
The company calls the rodeo Calgary’s wildest winter festival of live performance, and says it has grown from an experimental gathering of artists into Western Canada’s largest international festival of contemporary performance. That is the company’s own claim, and a festival that mixes dance, comedy and immersive work earns a bit of swagger.
The next edition is already taking shape. The call for the 2027 Ten Minute Play Festival, which kicks off the rodeo, was open to indie companies and ad hoc groups of artists and closed on 9 October 2026.
If you like Calgary theatre with a mischievous streak, pair this with how Theatresports was born in Calgary and how the Calgary Fringe found its home in Inglewood. January dates live on the High Performance Rodeo page at One Yellow Rabbit, so check them before you plan, and dress warmly.
If this one hooked you, we think Shanghai Noon Turned Drumheller Into Nevada and Heartland Alberta Locations Turned High River Into Hudson are a good next read.
Quick answers
The High Performance Rodeo started in 1987, launched by Michael Green of One Yellow Rabbit. It runs every January for three weeks in Calgary, with theatre, dance, music, comedy and immersive performance from Calgary, across Canada and around the globe, curated by One Yellow Rabbit.
One Yellow Rabbit’s group of artists came together in 1982, and the company debuted at that year’s Edmonton Fringe Festival. It settled into the EPCOR Centre in Calgary in 1987 as its permanent home, and today it also curates the High Performance Rodeo.
One Yellow Rabbit has been based at the EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts in downtown Calgary since 1987. Its spaces there have included the 60 seat Secret Theatre and, from 1996, the 200 seat Big Secret Theatre, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Sources: One Yellow Rabbit, About; One Yellow Rabbit, High Performance Rodeo; The Canadian Encyclopedia, One Yellow Rabbit.
