On Monday evening, indigenous song and dance will take centre stage when the Living Legends dance company performs at the Merritt Civic Centre.

Living Legends is a troupe from Utah-based Brigham Young University’s school of dance.

The production celebrates traditional Latin American, Native American and Polynesian songs and dances that take the audience on a journey through times of celebration and strife for those populations.

“Traditionally, dances were about your life and your livelihood and your family, and you’ll see that through the dances,” said Vileena Peterson, a local woman who danced with Living Legends when she attended BYU. “You’ll see stories from people’s lives and things that they go through, whether it’s planting, caring for babies, also they have war, they have celebrations, and you’ll see all those things: the struggles and the joys come through in their dancing. It’s so beautiful.”

Peterson, who grew up in Utah and Arizona, tried out for the group in her first year at university in 1996, but didn’t quite make the cut.

“It’s really competitive and you have a lot of people who return and dance for consecutive years, so you don’t have a lot of openings,” she said.

Inspired by her love of her native American culture, Peterson tried again and made it in her second year, and continued dancing until she graduated in 2001.

“I had a love of my culture and for dancing, and my dad was actually part of it when he went to university,” she said.

All Living Legends performers are of Polynesian, Latin or Native American heritage.

“You have to be from those cultures to be able to even try out for the group, so they’re sharing something they have a big love for already,” Peterson said. “It really shows through from the stage and you can really get a sense for their joy and their love of their cultures and it’s contagious.”

Peterson said learning the different traditional dance styles showed her similarities and differences between the indigenous cultures.

“As a native dancer, you never shake your hips. For Latin American and Polynesian, you have to shake those hips,” she said with a laugh.

The Mormon university’s dance school has 44 members involved in Living Legends, with eight filling technical crew roles while the rest of the 36 perform in the show.

The students have the option of touring with the company through the summer months.

During her four years with the group, Peterson took part in several tours: two across North America, one in Scandinavia, and one around South America.

She said the dancers often billet when they travel, which can offer them a more authentic experience of the places they’re visiting.

“It was an amazing experience,” she said. “It really was a life changer.”

Peterson relocated to Merritt five years ago with her husband, whom she’d met at BYU and who hails from the area. These days, they run a garlic farm in the Nicola Valley.

Although she’s moved away from Utah, Peterson said she still checks on the Living Legends tours from time to time.

She said when she saw the group would be travelling to B.C., she saw the opportunity to bring them to Merritt.

“I got on the phone and said, ‘You have to come to Merritt!’ she said with a laugh. “I was just talking Merritt up and saying anything I could so they wouldn’t pass Merritt up.”

Monday’s performance will be Living Legends’ first in Merritt, and a rare opportunity for a world-class performance to be shared in town, Peterson said.

“It’s really a rarity for us to be able to have such a high-class college performance here,” she said. “People will be amazed to see the outfits, the colours, the time that went into doing all the clothing. A lot of the times, they’ll go to the sources and get the clothing and materials and they’re authentic.”

Their Merritt stop on Monday comes halfway through a seven-city B.C. tour before they head north to Alaska for more performances. Next year, the troupe will perform in the South Pacific islands of Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand.

Living Legends has been featured in TV broadcasts and tours around the world.

The lively show begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Civic Centre on May 4. Tickets are available at Black’s Pharmacy, Brambles and Home Hardware.