All fired up for torch festivities
by Katherine Dedyna, Times Colonist,
October 25th, 2009
Victoria celebrates the start of the Olympic torch relay on Friday night with a magical, mega-scale party -- and everyone's invited.
The family-friendly Community Celebration will light up the legislature, Inner Harbour and Fairmont Empress Hotel grounds for an extravaganza unlike anything held before in Victoria. It boasts a panorama of performances, massive multi-media presentations and even pyrotechnics designed to reflect the local and Olympic spirit.
The $400,000 party is expected to attract 20,000 to 40,000 spectators. The televised festivities will also draw a national and international audience.
All should prepare to be "dazzled," says Alice Bacon, co-ordinator of the Greater Victoria Spirit Committee Society, which has worked for months to pull together 400 local performers into a tapestry of music, movement and artistry. Performances include as many as 100 aboriginal drummers in traditional costume and dancers forming the shape of a human heart.
"From the Causeway to the front of the legislature, it will just be a spectacular sight -- your jaw will drop," predicts committee chair Alan Lowe, no stranger as former Victoria mayor to big-time downtown events.
Instead of one performer after another, an all-star house band under the musical direction of Daniel Lapp will weave everything from jazz to folk, world to classical music into the show. Voices will include tenor Ken Lavigne, who will sing a lyrical work called Shine, composed by Victorian Tobin Stokes, in both English and French.
"It suits my voice down to a T," Lavigne says. "It's truly a beautiful song without being overly melodramatic or sappy. ... emblematic of the whole Olympic ideal of coming together and sharing."
When it comes to O Canada, you can sing along in English or French with Lavigne, or in Salish with operatic singer Carey Newman. Newman, who also created artwork for the Aboriginal Pavilion and Athletes Village, is proud to be performing in Salish along with his father, Victor, one of the aboriginal ceremonial drummers welcoming the torch on the inaugural leg of its 45,000-
kilometre journey across Canada -- the longest such relay in Olympic history.
When Jeneece Edroff, 15, takes her torch to light the cauldron on the celebration stage, a production number called With Glowing Hearts will resonate across the grounds: "It's a symphonic piece where all the elements are coming together, music, dance, drummers and visuals to create a crescendo for the arrival of the torch," Bacon says. "It's hard to describe, people just have to experience it."
Musical performances will dovetail with dance, theatre, and performances against a back drop of massive multi-media projections.
"It's totally original; it's going to be really exciting... very beautiful," Bacon says.
Artwork projections 75 metres wide will cover the exterior of the legislature in a musical and artistic depiction of the spirit of Victoria.
"We're going to transport people to other places," such as a B.C. forest, an Emily Carr painting or a Roy Henry Vickers sky, says artistic producer Tracy Summers of TNT Productions.
The intensely local production showcases "what an amazing community this is and the immense amount of world-class talent right here," Bacon says. "Never for a moment did we feel we had to import talent to give our community a show that they deserve."
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