Calgary Olympic Arts Festival Clothed in Canadian Talent

Most people involved in the running of a $10-million arts festival would groan when told that the most talked-about entertainment event in town was a Miss Nude Olympics contest being held at a strip emporium across the street from Olympic Plaza.

Harvey Chusid, supervisor of media relations for the Olympic Arts Festival, roared with laughter.

“That is not an arts festival event,” Chusid said. “But it sounds good. I may have to skip this dance program tonight.”

There is room for a little of everything during the 16-day Winter Games being held in, around or within a couple of hours of this windy city in the plains of southern Alberta.

Calgary, its sleek skyline belying its proud cow-town image, has been energized by the Olympics, and residents of the region are turning out for almost anything that seems to celebrate the occasion.

The strip contest at Banana Maxx, less than a curling toss from the Olympics medal stand in downtown Calgary, actually owes its success to the International Olympic Committee.

When Banana Maxx proprietor Benjamin Zamanowitz held a Miss Nude Olympics contest a week ago, the humorless IOC threatened legal action if Zamanowitz didn’t drop the copyrighted name.

Zamanowitz complied by changing the title to Miss Nude O-Word, and a local tradition was born.

Banana Maxx is smack in the midst of an area that is drawing as many as 40,000 revelers a night. They come downtown for Olympic medal presentations, to watch the nightly fireworks show and--yes, Chusid assures us--to attend official Olympic Arts Festival events.

In fact, for a city with a metropolitan population of only 665,000, the winter arts festival is doing huge business.

With eight days remaining of a five-week schedule, Chusid said more than 130,000 tickets have been sold to festival performances. That’s a ratio of about one ticket for every five residents.

With eight days remaining of a five-week schedule, Chusid said more than 130,000 tickets have been sold to festival performances. That’s a ratio of about one ticket for every five residents. Chusid said that 85% of all festival tickets were sold to Albertans.

For the organizers of the 1984 Los Angeles festival to have done that well proportionately, they would have had to have sold about 2 million tickets. Fewer than 400,000 tickets were sold to performing arts events in Los Angeles.

A quick scan of the Olympic Arts Festival schedule suggests some strong similarities between the Calgary and Los Angeles events. Both blend formal stage performances--dance, theater and music--with visual arts exhibitions and community projects.

But Calgary differs in one major way. Where Los Angeles went primarily for strong international attractions, the Calgary festival has gone decidedly Canadian.

“We have really abided by the Olympic charter,” said Calgary festival director Michael Tabbitt. “The charter stipulates that the arts component (of the Games) should primarily demonstrate the host country’s own culture.”

So, Canadian it is, with talent drawn from Vancouver to Nova Scotia. There were symphonies by the Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary orchestras. Dance performances by the National Ballet of Canada, the Alberta Ballet Company and Montreal-based La La La Human Steps, a hit at last September’s Los Angeles Festival.

One of the highlights during the opening weekend of the Olympics was Michel Lemieux, a Canadian avant-garde multimedia artist, who gave back-to-back performances in English and in French.

Calgary has managed to create a Canadian connection even for its apparent imports. Performances by America’s Joffrey Ballet featured one dance choreographed by Canada’s James Kudelka, and the music for the entire program was provided by the Calgary Philharmonic.

An appearance by the Soviet Union’s Capella Banduristiv folkloric troupe was united for two performances with the Ukranian Shumka Dancers from Edmonton.

The most international event on the arts festival schedule was in fact the snow-sculpting competition held earlier this month. Teams from 22 countries participated.

Chusid, who keeps a breakdown of statistics from the Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival at his fingertips, says average attendance for Calgary events virtually matches the 81% for performing arts events achieved in Los Angeles in 1984.

As much as Chusid enjoys the comparisons to Los Angeles (“L.A. had 33 music performances to our 40, but they had twice as many dance programs”), Calgary is definitely a festival of a different color.

For one thing, it is the proverbial camel designed by committee. Tabbitt, who acknowledges a longing for autonomy given to Los Angeles Olympics Arts Festival director Robert Fitzpatrick, created the Calgary program from proposals made by dozens of Canadian committees.

“I don’t know that it would have been a better festival (without committees),” Tabbitt says. “All I know is that getting here was not half the fun, and it should have been.”

Calgary itself is a city of contrasts--a prairie town with an urban beat. Its skyline, set off by the space-age Calgary Tower and the gleaming Petro-Canada Building, is set in barren rolling hills 3,200 feet above sea level 70 miles east of the Canadian Rockies.

This is Old West Country--home of the Calgary Stampede--and as viewers of the televised Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Games must have noticed, Calgarians are proud of it.

“The Western dancing and music was totally appropriate (for the Opening Ceremonies),” Chusid said. “That is an important part of the identification of Calgary. To put down the cow-town image is wrong.”

The Opening Ceremonies were not part of the Olympic Arts Festival, but the festival has plenty of its own Western elements. The Olympic Eve Gala, attended by Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, was a country concert hoedown, and all next week, arts medals will be presented to winners of bull riding, bronco busting and other events in a special festival rodeo.

“Calgary without a stampede would not be Calgary,” said Chusid, who is from Toronto.

Tabbitt, from Ottawa, says the Calgary Olympic Arts Festival is the biggest festival ever held in conjunction with the Winter Games, and it may be the biggest ever held in Canada.

Seventy percent of its $10-million budget was put up by the government. Ticket sales will just about cover the difference. Over at Banana Maxx, where “no cover, no minimum” has special meaning, the Olympics--rather, the O-Word--has brought clear profits.

Zamanowitz says business has never been better.