New blood adds live orchestra

By Melissa Piche Times Contributor

For one night only, June 15, New Blood Dance Show and the Calgary Civic Symphony will join forces for a very unique and special opportunity to perform at the Jack Singer Concert Hall with a live orchestra. 

“We are so thrilled and excited and just really looking forward to it,” said Deanne Bertsch, drama teacher at the Strathmore High School. 

The New Blood Dance Show has been performing for the past six years at various locations, including trips to both Winnipeg and Saskatchewan in 2022. 

Ever since its debut, Bertsch dreamed of having the show performed with a live orchestra. The stars aligned one night in Spring 2022 when the show was performed at Rosebud School of The Arts. 

“Someone in the audience at the talk back asked me what my dream for (New Blood Dance Show) was,” she explained. “And I said I think it would be amazing to do it with live music, ultimately with Peter Gabrielle, but with a live orchestra would be phenomenal.” 

In the audience that night was David Wartman who was, at the time, on the board of directors with the Calgary Civic Symphony; he heard this dream and decided it was his mission to make this happen. 

Later that summer, the conductor and artistic director with the Calgary Civic Symphony previewed New Blood Dance Show at Heritage Park and the rest is history. 

“And here we are a year later doing the show with a live orchestra,” Bertsch said. 

If you’ve never seen the New Blood Dance Show it has evolved since its start to include the stories that emerged of the residential schools and to shed light on this ever-present issue. 

“It’s exciting to see people being so moved by the story and how we tell it that they want to get behind it,” said Bertsch. “He (Wartman) felt that the work that we are doing towards reconciliation is really important and getting the story out about residential schools and how they impacted the Indigenous families in Alberta and Canada.

“Having the live music is especially exciting as it’s going to lift the whole thing up to a whole different realm than what we’ve experienced before.” 

She is also excited about the technical crew she will have helping her. 

“Having the technical support that we will have in that theatre (The Jack Singer) will be really special,” she said. 

The students have been performing the show every two weeks this whole semester so they are in ‘constant preparation’ mode. Bertsch is confident the performers will put on a show like no other before. 

“We get to rehearse with them (the symphony) only one day, so hopefully it goes smoothly,” she said. 

This is the roughly the 13th cast of the show since its indoctrination. 

“I keep asking students if they’re interested in doing it and they keep on coming out.” Bertsch said. “My ultimate dream would still be to perform it with Peter Gabrielle singing it. That would be my ultimate dream.

“It will be a new way seeing New Blood. If people have already seen it, they should still come out and see it. This is an amazing opportunity to see the show with live music.” 

New Blood, with the Calgary Civic Symphony, is on June 15 at the Jack Singer Concert Hall at 7 p.m. Tickets are $40-$60 and can be purchased online (www.artscommons.ca/whats-on/ccs-new-blood). 

The shows net proceeds will be donated to Indigenous charities and put towards their work with residential school survivors.