A year of celebrations and partnerships

by Debra Hornsby

Throughout 2008 The Banff Centre will mark its 75th anniversary with celebratory events in Alberta and across North America. 2008 is also a year in which the Centre is reaching out through partnership agreements with arts organizations across Canada — strengthening old friendships and initiating new ones.

Brian Webb can attest to the enduring value of those partnerships. Webb is artistic director of the Canada Dance Festival (CDF). The CDF and its co-producer, the National Arts Centre, annually commission a dance work in partnership with The Banff Centre. In 2008, it was Les Ballets Jazz de montréal [bjm_danse]’s Jack in a Box, developed by Alberta choreographer and Banff Centre Fleck Fellow Aszure Barton during a May residency in Banff. The previous commissioned work, Crystal Pite’s The Stolen Show, went on to tour the world for two years, during which it was presented more than 230 times — more than any other Canadian dance work has been performed worldwide.

“The relationship that the Canadian dance community holds with The Banff Centre is absolutely crucial to the development of new work,” says Webb. “Choreographers are given the opportunity to collaborate with professional set and lighting designers, and have access to full technical potential in the theatre during the creation of their works. This is unique in Canada.”

During 2008, the Centre announced many new arts partnerships, including:

• working with Canada’s top ballet companies to revision the Centre’s Professional Dance Program;
• the launch of the Banff/Citadel Professional Theatre Program with Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre. The program features master classes in acting, singing, voice, movement, dance, text, and script analysis, culminating in a Banff Summer Arts Festival presentation of Pride and Prejudice (August 21–23) that will go on to open the mainstage series at the Citadel Theatre;
• the creation of a Performing Arts Production Residency in partnership with the British Columbia Arts Council. The three-year partnership will offer a two-week residency for up to 12 B.C. artists each year, allowing a B.C. performing arts company the time, space, and support to refine the production elements of a new work in dance, music, opera, theatre, or interdisciplinary practice;
• the commissioning of a public art work in honour of the Centre’s 75th anniversary in partnership with the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA). The AFA has committed up to $100,000 toward the commission, which will be chosen from an invitational competition, and an additional $50,000 to assist artists in developing proposals. The new work will be unveiled as part of the 2010 opening of the new Kinnear Centre for Creativity and Innovation;
• the commissioning of a new violin for the Centre’s instrument bank by Samuel Zygmuntovich, one of the world’s most respected violin makers;
• the commissioning of a new string quartet by celebrated composer John Adams in partnership with The Juilliard School and Stanford Lively Arts.

The Centre is also partnering with organizations across Canada and the United States to create 75th anniversary celebratory events and performances, including sponsorship of Alberta Theatre Project’s Enbridge playRites Festival Blitz Weekend, the presentation of Christos Hatzis’s Constantinople by the Gryphon Trio at One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo, a 75th anniversary tribute concert at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, a three-day celebration of Banff Centre alumni entitled Rocky Mountain High at Toronto’s Harbourfront World Routes Festival (presented by Banff Lake Louise Tourism), and events at the Canadian embassies in Seattle and Los Angeles, and at New York’s Americas Society.

75th anniversary programs and events are generously sponsored by The Kahanoff Foundation and 75th lead corporate sponsor Chevron.