Friday, September 5 · 7:30 p.m.
Eric Harvie Theatre · The Banff Centre
Adult $26, Senior and Student $21, Child $16, Arts Lover Passholders Free
Banff Centre Box Office: 1-800-413-8368 or 403-762-6301
Presented as part of the 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival
A preview of the extended version of The Fiddle and the Drum, Alberta Ballet’s collaboration with renowned singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, will wrap up the 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival at The Banff Centre on September 5. Additional compositions and choreography, including four new songs and imagery, will transform the 48-minute ballet into a full-length work with a running time of 92 minutes. The Banff audience will also have the opportunity to participate in a question-and-answer session with the ballet’s creative team following the performance.
The Fiddle and the Drum is a contemporary work that pairs Mitchell’s songs and artwork with choreography by Jean Grand-Maître, artistic director of Alberta Ballet. The ballet is set amid projected images of war and ecological meltdown while the dancers depict characters found in Mitchell’s lyrics. Mitchell has added songs including “Ethiopia,” “The Reoccurring Dream,” “Woodstock,” and “Shine,” introducing ideas around Africa, the hunger of materialism, the dream of a better place, and a contemporary reality check, to a ballet that explores the human spirit’s contradictory potential to create and destroy, its ability to love and hate, and its capacity for war and peace.
Since its world premiere in the winter of 2007, The Fiddle and the Drum has enjoyed a sold-out theatre screening in New York City, a national television broadcast, and a 10-performance run at Toronto’s Luminato 2008 as part of the National Ballet of Canada’s summer season. After its preview at The Banff Centre, the extended version will embark on an international tour. The first Canadian dates are Medicine Hat, Regina, Saskatoon, and Lloydminster beginning in January.
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More information about the 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival.
