René Highway was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 dancer and actor of Cree

Cree

The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...

 descent from Brochet, Manitoba

Brochet, Manitoba

Brochet is an unincorporated community located in Northern Manitoba near the Saskatchewan border . There is no year round road service to the mostly Cree people. A winter road is in place only a few months a year. Air service at Brochet Airport is the main link outside the community...

. He was the brother of playwright Tomson Highway

Tomson Highway

Tomson Highway, CM is a celebrated Canadian and Cree playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is the author of the plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, both of which won him the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Floyd S...

, with whom he frequently collaborated during their time at Native Earth Performing Arts

Native Earth Performing Arts

Native Earth Performing Arts is a Canadian theatre company located in Toronto. Founded in 1982, it is the oldest professional Aboriginal performing arts company in Canada...

 in Toronto, and the partner of actor and singer Micah Barnes

Micah Barnes

Micah Barnes is a Canadian pop singer-songwriter. He has performed both as a solo artist and with the bands Loudboy and The Nylons....

.

Highway studied dance at the Toronto Dance Theatre

Toronto Dance Theatre

The Toronto Dance Theatre is a Canadian modern dance company based in Toronto, Ontario. Described by The Canadian Encyclopedia as "one of the foremost modern-dance companies in Canada", the company tours nationally and internationally and regularly performs at the Harbourfront Centre and Winchester...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

's Tukak Theatre, and at the Native Canadian Centre in Toronto. René Highway helped to create the role of Nanabush in his brother's play The Rez Sisters

The Rez Sisters

The Rez Sisters is a two act play by Cree Canadian writer Tomson Highway, first performed on November 26, 1986 by Act IV Theatre Company and Native Earth Performing Arts....

(1986), and was the choreographer for Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing

Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing

Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing is a play by Tomson Highway, which premiered in 1989 at Theatre Passe-Muraille in Toronto.Set in the fictional Wasaychigan Hill reserve in Northern Ontario, Dry Lips is a companion piece to Highway's earlier play The Rez Sisters...

(1989).

He died of AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

-related causes in 1990. Native Earth Performing Arts

Native Earth Performing Arts

Native Earth Performing Arts is a Canadian theatre company located in Toronto. Founded in 1982, it is the oldest professional Aboriginal performing arts company in Canada...

 started the René Highway Foundation in his memory.

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