Ballet dancers return to the stage at Calgary's Jubilee Auditorium
Alberta Ballet is back after a forced hiatus due to the pandemic and it's starting with a fan favourite, Swan Lake, that opens Oct. 21.
It tells the tale of Prince Siegfried and the Swan Queen and is considered a hallmark of classical ballet.
The ballet company had originally intended to perform Swan Lake in its 2019/20 season and the empty seats at the Jubilee will be filled with many patrons who purchased tickets as far back as the summer 2019.
Co-artistic director Christopher Anderson says society has been without the emotional power of live performance a long time and Swan Lake is deeply expressive and passionate.
"I would say that the version that we are sharing now is a far more intimate and vulnerable interpretation but it's really living and breathing with them, I see myself as a guide more than anything," said Anderson.
He's been challenged preparing for the show by pandemic restrictions.
"We've been everywhere from our studios closed to open for single dancers," he said. "We've recorded a series of classes that they can access digitally and then we've gone from working in groups of two to three to four and then eventually before we came into the Jubilee, we were all the way up to groups of 15."
This iconic production also ushers in a new era for Alberta Ballet that includes a new vision to create impact all over the province and an endowment campaign to support these goals.
"Arts organizations needs an endowment," said co-artistic director Jean Grand-Maître. "Because they're saying in the coming decades hundreds of us will disappear without those endowments so it makes us very vulnerable to the future."
Grand-Maître says the campaign kicked off with a $3 million donation from supporter Barbara Palmer.
"We were asking some of our major donors during the pandemic to sustain us," he said. "I think something happened magical throughout all the hardships of the pandemic, it opened the hearts of a lot of people and so donations have been coming in, in the way I haven't seen in 20 years."
As a resident company of the Jubilee Auditorium, Alberta Ballet is following the Jubilee’s COVID-19 health and safety policies. The facility will operate at full capacity for performances under the Restriction Exemption Program and will follow all requirements, municipal and provincial, for in-person events.
"Come in show either your proof of vaccination or the QR code, we are set up to scan, or a negative rapid test, if that's the route that you that you're going and then line up at the bar, grab a drink, go to your seat and enjoy the show," said the Jubilee's acting general manager Scott Mctavish.
Alberta Ballet has also implemented a Relaxed Refund Policy for the duration of the 2021-22 season to give patrons greater flexibility as they consider returning to live events.
Swan Lake will run at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary from Oct. 21 to 30, and in Edmonton at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium from Nov. 5 to 7.
Tickets are available at AlbertaBallet.com.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by N.Y. appeals court
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimore
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.