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NEIL HUTCHINSON review -

Our Canada” - Alberta Ballet - Calgary. May 5 2017.

Hi Gord fans - Here are my impressions and a set list from last night’s show. This is my personal take from a huge Gord fan who also likes ballet . I was fortunate to see this show - I live in Ontario but my sister is in Calgary so she got the tickets I arranged three days of business meetings in Alberta and my wife flew out to join us at the show.

This is the most recent in a series of shows done by Alberta ballet that celebrate modern, mostly Canadian, popular music. They started with Joni Mitchell, and have done Elton John, kd Lang, Sarah McLachlan and are tackling The Tragically Hip for 2018. Personally, I hope they are still touring “Our Canada” next year.

Act 1

The Old Man - a Calgary actor, Eugene Stickland, with a moustache and shoulder length, wispy hair, looks much like Gord does now, with a black Martin guitar case across his back wanders onto the stage - a large, high ceilinged room with 3 large doors - I saw it as a large room in Gord’s Rosedale house. The Old Man walks into and out of each song and interacts with the dancers. The silent narrator.

If I Could - what a pleasant surprise - I have always loved that song. I was not sure what I was going to see so I sat back and enjoyed.

Seven Island Suite - okay, I will stop saying it but this is one of my favourite songs - orchestral in sweep, like the Railroad Trilogy. The three walls come alive with projected images of Georgian Bay and colourful autumn forests and the troupe of dancers have lots of hedonistic fun - Gord in the 70s?

Beautiful - A playful couple dance a wonderful pas de deux in front of projected images of old Quebec City - very romantically done and the history of Quebec City makes it a very romantic place. I saw the Alberta Ballet’s Elton John show several years back where the sexuality was all raw humping between dancers and got tiresome - Gord has always been subtle in his writing of romantic love and this captured it “Beautiful” ly.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - I was nervous about how this would come off - no need - very well done. It starts with a black and white video of the launching. The ballet is danced against images of increasingly stormy waves on all three walls and the ceiling - at times the dancers are on the waves, at the end they are beneath them. The old cook dances through the crewmen handing out life jackets which are later shown floating on the waves. Towards the end a projected image of “The Old Man” (Gord) is seen surveying the scene from the top of the stage as video footage shows someone ringing a bell while another reads out names…

Affair on 8th Avenue - Great choice of a song and well suited for another pas de deux in front of an old bed in a tawdry apartment in some old high rise. Langourous and sexual. Worked very well.

Sundown - This was a surprise take on the story line. It starts with video footage of Pierre Trudeau (Our PM in 1970 and father of our current PM for our American followers)- invoking the War Measures Act - suspending freedoms nation wide to address a kidnapping and murder by separatists in Quebec. Two identically dressed dancers (in short satin dresses of course - they look alike and it took me a while to realize there were 2 - the program says they are sisters) ) take turns dashing in and out of the three doors and tormenting the male dancer - obviously they are jealous and angry at him - he is the two timing cad where, in the song, the woman is portrayed as the loose one. In the end they are both gone and he is left alone.

The Auctioneer - This is western Canada. The walls project a cow walking across a field as 40 some odd square dancers in western garb come on and do a square dance set, called by the caller over The Auctioneer. Of course we all remember that Gord got his start as a square dancer on CBC’s “Country Hoedown” in the early 60s don’t we? One male soloist takes front and centre stage on each chorus and does his solos - the first one an extended series of leg whipping pirouettes. It was a nice comic change - for the same reason I suppose that Gord uses the song in his set list. One dancer has his hair slicked back and looks very much like Gord on the cover of his first album.

Steel Rail Blues - one soloist dancing on a backdrop of a road in the country. Good but not much else to say about this - it would have made a great segue into “Carefree Highway”.
Pussy Willows Cattails - when I heard about this production, this was the first song that I thought would work well as a ballet - I think of it as Gord’s version of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” which is a classical ballet standard. Alternating pairs of two dancers (male and female) for each verse against photo backdrops of the different seasons.

Summer Side of Life - This worked well on its own but the meaning became more clear as it segued into “Waiting For You”. It was set in the Maritimes with 12 dancers coming on stage in “Riverdance” type Irish moves. Gord says he wrote “Summer Side of Life” about young men going off to Vietnam and, in concert, introduces “Waiting For You” as a song about “making babies in the north” so I was a bit confused to see it played against a backdrop if WW1 footage and men going off to war. Midway through the song (in which a clothesline of large white sheets on which the war images are projected appears), the men move offstage and the women are left to wait as the men, all but one, come back home in bandages to the domestic scene of the laundry and the women waiting. “Waiting For You” indeed.

The Last Time I Saw Her - another symphony waiting for the ballet. A pas de deux of two lovers remembering the times they enjoyed. She leaves the stage and, as he tries to pursue her is met at the door by The Old Man who clearly blocks his way - “You’ve lost her bud”.

Intermission - I notice the crowd has lots of young people - especially young women - dancers or Gord fans? I ask the young woman beside me (not the other youngish woman, my wife Barb, on the other side) and she says “Granddad”. She was a dancer but her granddad is a Gord fan who saw him solo in coffeehouses as an undergrad. Everyone is talking about how much they enjoy it and offering different interpretations and insights. One thing I liked was the music was loud enough to be powerful but not overwhelming. Gord’s concerts ( I’ve seen over 20 over the years) are always note for note perfect but I have sometimes thought a bit more volume and power would have been appreciated. But hey - I also went to concerts by Led Zeppelin, Dire Straits and U2 over the years, as well as many performances of Swan Lake -which also has incredibly powerful music.

ACT 2 - next post