16 days until… Little Women opens! YAY! Do you have your tickets????? I can’t believe it is July 20 already; where has the time gone. It has been very busy here during the first half of the program here in Banff. Let’s see if I can catch you up on a few of the things that I have been up to since my last post. Soprano Tracy Dahl (aka my voice teacher from WPG) was here for one week. I was lucky enough to have 3 brilliant lessons with her while she was around. We started regular movement classes last Monday and they will continue daily until this Saturday. I went for my costume fitting and found out I am wearing two BEAUTIFUL outfits – they remind me of something from ‘Gone with the Wind’. They have huge crinolines underneath, therefore we have started rehearsing in them so we know how to do all of our various staging ( running around the stage, climbing in and out – and on top of trunks… blindfolded at times…) I also have a pregnancy pad to wear… How often do you get to say that?? I have also really been enjoying driving home for my days off. How lucky am I!! More news to come as we approach opening night… stay tuned…

Middle of week 3 of the Opera As Theatre program here in Beautiful Banff – and today, summer decided to arrive! We have surpassed our high and have landed at a wonderfully warm, but not too warm, +23 and sunny!
Since my last post, things have really picked up here at the centre. Staging for Little Women is in full swing; lucky for us we have the actually stage and props to use from day one; the legendary ‘laundry scene’ is coming along – those who will be attending will find out what that means when they see it! I don’t want to give away too many secrets…
I have also been privileged to have 3 voice lessons with the wonderful Joan Patenaude-Yarnell!! She is a fountain of knowledge and know how on breathing, control, endurance, tone… I could go on.
We also enjoyed a full week of Viewpoints classes with the ever inspiring Michael Greyeyes; by use the 9 Viewpoints (awareness, tempo, duration, repetition, architecture, shape, gesture, floor pattern and kin-esthetic response) you create movement ‘pieces’ on the spot with up to 6 other singers. It kind of looks like modern dance/movement to those walking by.
But I found so relevant to what we do on the opera stage and so nice to get creative – but at the same time NOT think!!
Does that make sense?? If you ever see Viewpoints classes in your city – I urge you to have an open mind and give it a try.
As for wildlife, no encounters this week – although we were told that a cougar killed and ate a deer right on campus the other day…. yikes!! More news to come…

I arrived into Banff Sunday June 20th and I must say — my first week back at the Banff Centre has been very comfortable! I am enjoying getting to know all the singers (there will only be 15 of us this year), many not from Canada: Ireland, England, Washington, NYC. Some of things we have been up to these first 4 days include: Yoga, Improv, Opera Table work and coachings. We also had a nice BBQ on Monday night at Lake Minnewanka. It’s so beautiful there!! Me and two other singers went for a walk while there, and had a close encounter with a heard of Big Horned Sheep – they wanted to cross a small bridge we were on and we had no where to escape to. So we pushed ourselves up against the railing as much as possible, didn’t make eye contact, and tried to ignore them as they cautiously crossed only 2 feet behind us! I must say… I was holding my breath!!!
Stay tuned… more news from Banff to come…
Jennifer

We are now settled into our new place in Calgary. I have been busy working on Little Women for the Banff Opera as Theatre program starting June 21st. ( for performance times check out my calendar) Stay tuned as I plan to post weekly news from Banff like last year. AND a big THANK YOU to the Bow Valley Chorus for having me last month. What a great time and what wonderful people! Jennifer