Calgary's strength as a centre for new performance creation is not going unnoticed. One Yellow Rabbit has just wrapped up the High Performance Rodeo, ATP's playRights Festival is on the way, the premiere of Calgary Opera's Frobisher just closed and the Old Trouts Puppet Workshop has recently returned from their trek to New York's Under the Radar Festival. And now Alberta Ballet is getting international press coverage for their new work, Dancing Joni.

Check out this article in the New York Times on Alberta Ballet's collaboration with Joni Mitchell (and also this article from the Calgary Herald). The project began with what the NY Times calls "a curious letter" from Alberta Ballet artistic director Jean Grand-Maître that reads:

“Please forgive my somewhat imperfect English as I am a native of Quebec and I am still brushing up on this new language,” it read. “Next year will be Alberta Ballet’s 40th Anniversary Season and as Artistic Director, I would be enthused by the possibility of choreographing a ballet to your brilliant and profoundly moving music.

“I would really love to fly to Los Angeles,” it went on, “and meet you personally for a very short moment.”

We hear a lot about Calgary's risk-taking, entrepreurial spirit, and the evidence is mounting. Excellence and innovation are quickly becoming trademarks of Calgary's arts scene with a steady stream of world-class work coming out of this city.