Local Ynklude performers will be joined by a pair of special guests at two live performances at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Whitehorse United Church.

Ynklude, a local women's performing group which includes women with disabilities, will perform with a rhythm and blues singer named Kazumi Tsuruoka and pianist Sageev Oore.

The pair travelled to Whitehorse all the way from Toronto to perform in these two concerts, which will be part of the Pivot Festival this weekend. The festival will feature unique theatre performances from across Canada.

Tsuruoka, who has cerebral palsy, and Oore comprise a two-man show called CP Salon.

David Skelton, the artistic director for Nakai Theatre, said in an interview Tuesday he first approached CP Salon with the possibility of coming to the Yukon.

Skelton said he is "totally thrilled" that CP Salon is participating, adding this is the first time something like this has been shown in the Yukon.

"Anytime someone goes on stage, they're always taking a risk," said Skelton. "(But) when I hear how Kazumi (Tsuruoka) expresses himself and how beautiful it is, it doesn't seem like a risk."

Skelton compared the experience to a country music fan hearing opera for the first time.

"You may be a little shocked at the beginning. But it's extremely affecting and moving."

Fides Krucker, the director and producer of CP Salon, said that "working with Kazumi has opened my eyes, ears and heart to an even wider range of vocal expression that I had imagined despite years of experimental and interdisciplinary work in opera.

"It takes the audience three or four songs to understand what they are experiencing and then Kazumi's charisma, voice and story enraptures them," she added.

Joanne Stope, president of the Yukon Council on Disability and the Yukon Association for Community Living, said CP Salon's act "is a weave of music and stories of love, in song and monologue."

Julie Robinson, director of Ynklude, said she's been concentrating on the group members' writing and performing skills recently and that they are working toward completing a full-length production.

Robinson said Ynklude was formed in 2006. It was largely inspired by a wheelchair dance troupe from San Francisco who made an appearance in Whitehorse.