Laura Power
Northern News Services
Published Friday, September 21, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - After a few years operating out of his home, musician and recording artist Rick Poltaruk has moved Dancing Sky Studios to its own building.

Kelly Merilees-Keppel was one of the first people to record at Dancing Sky Studios' new location. Here she is shown getting ready to record on Jim Taylor's CD Tuesday night. - Laura Power/NNSL photo

"I looked at my living room one day and realized that I had no furniture left in it - it was all in my bedroom," he said.

Poltaruk has been in the music business for decades, and originally took an interest in recording during 1975, while laying down a few tracks at Colossal Studios in Winnipeg.

"I was a musician and I had a couple of songs everybody said I should record so I did," he said. "And they never did anything, but I did learn that I enjoyed the process."

Since his first brush with recording, technology has changed drastically but Poltaruk kept up. He bought a load of equipment when he lived in Vancouver about eight years ago and it kept getting bigger from there.

"The equipment grew and you know, I am sitting here with a room full of speakers staring at me all the time," he said.

Since moving to Yellowknife a few years ago, he has recorded six albums under the name Dancing Sky Studios, including albums for Northern Skies, Steve Kakfwi, Rick and the Relics and more. When he came across an available building on Kam Lake Road, he felt it was time to move the business out of his living room.

After six weeks of renovations, the spot has been transformed into a fully-functioning studio. Poltaruk is already working on recordings for Jim Taylor and James Boraski and said others are making plans for winter recording.

Taylor, who is working on a CD which blends studio and live tracks, said Poltaruk is a good friend of his and also a musician whose talent is trusted in the music community.

"Rick was probably one of the first musicians in the city to welcome me and help me out a little bit ...whenever he can he's supported me and I've got a lot of confidence in him," said Taylor. "He's been in the music industry for a long time on both sides of the microphone."

Dancing Sky Studios had an open house last weekend and is now open for business.