High-kicking video picks up award

Two Nunavik high-kickers helped a southern hip hop group win a music video award in Montreal earlier this week.

Kuujjuaq’s Alec Airo and Akulivik’s Aisa Pirti are both featured in the music video for the song Dekshoo, by New Brunswick trio Radio Radio.

Radio Radio: Dekshoo from Bonsound on Vimeo.

The video clip for the song just won a GAMIQ prize, short at the Gala de l’Alternative Musical Indépendante du Québec, which honours independent music in Quebec.

In the comedic track Dekshoo, the francophone group debates the benefits of penny loafers and deck shoes while Airo and Pirti are shown competing in a high-kick competition in front of a crowd in a school gymnasium.

Airo is wearing deck shoes and Pirti is in penny loafers, so the competition is a fun way for band members to decide which shoes they like the most.

Two of Radio Radio’s band members first saw the high-kick event when they participated in the 2008 Arctic Winter Games in Yellowknife.

Later, when the group wanted a theme that emphasized shoes for their video, they put out a casting call for young Inuit athletes to perform the high-kick. The video was filmed last April.

In a story that appeared in Aumaaggiivik’s newsletter last spring, both Airo and Pirti were said to hold the Nunavik record for the sport, which stands at 9’4’’.