The Banff Centre: Communications

Banff Centre program puts young dancers through intense training in preparation for the ‘real world’

Choreographer Kevin O’Day’s career given boost by Baryshnikov

Review: Dance Masters offers mixed bag in Banff

Calgary Herald: “Sir Elton John has given Alberta Ballet’s Love Lies Bleeding two thumbs up and his blessing to take the show on the road. The critically acclaimed and hugely popular multi-media production, based on 14 Elton John songs and choreographed by Alberta Ballet artistic director Jean Grand-Maitre, premiered in Calgary in early May. A North American tour for Love Lies Bleeding is planned for September 2011.”

The Globe and Mail has more information.

Most of the costumes for Love Lies Bleeding were built at The Banff Centre’s theatre department.

St. Albert Gazette: Prescott has been with the Banff Centre’s theatre department for 13 years. He starts at the Arden on August 3.

CBC News: “Anyone Can See I Love You, a small-scale opera about the last days of Marilyn Monroe, gets its first workshop performance in Banff this weekend, with a performance by Faroese singer Eivor. The work is being composed by Gavin Bryars, a U.K.-born, B.C.-based composer who has straddled the pop and classical worlds.”

CBC Arts: “The Banff Centre in Alberta has handed out its first Koerner Award in Choreography to Kevin O’Day, the current artistic director of Ballett Mannheim in Germany.”

Calgary Herald: Bob Clark rates Love Lies Bleeding 5 out of 5. “Throughout, designer Marie Bertrand’s costumes [made at The Banff Centre] are fabulous.” Elton John was not present at the sold-out premiere.

Also see 

• Elton John ballet gets warm welcome in Calgary (CBC).
• Love Lies Bleeding: Ballet lite that crocodile rocks (Globe and Mail)

Calgary Herald: The costumes for Alberta Ballet’s Love Lies Bleeding, featuring music by Elton John, were designed by Martine Bertrand. “Bertrand chose the Banff Centre as the facility to assemble the team of experts from Europe and across Canada to carry out the various cutting, sewing, dyeing and accessorizing procedures necessary to have her costume sketches turned into a reality.”

See also Andrea Brussa Master Artist Endowment enhances costume build for Love Lies Bleeding.

Toronto Star: “Arnold Spohr, Royal Winnipeg Ballet artistic director emeritus and one of the best-loved figures in Canadian dance, died of chronic kidney disease in a Winnipeg long-term care centre early Monday morning. He was 86…. He headed the Banff Centre’s respected summer dance program between 1967 and 1981″

The Globe and Mail: Discussion of The Three Man Project: Full Bloom, wich premiered at The Banff Centre on January 9.

CBC News: “John Estacio of Edmonton, Peter Paul Koprowski of Ottawa, and Ana Sokolovic of Montreal are the winners of the National Arts Centre Awards, which encompass musical commissions and residencies valued at $75,000 each.”

Estacio has been a faculty member at The Banff Centre and was composer of The Banff Centre opera commissions Filumena and Frobisher.