Greg Potter SPOTLIGHT FEATURE ND SO, you may well ask, just how ’ does Cinderella manage to yank those glass slippers over a pair of Bauer Black Panthers? Well, quite simply, she.doesn’ 7 , ; She’ 5 wearing glass i ice skates, i in- . stead. :. .. - That's just one of the many tricks and twists of the classic tale that tickles the ribs of North Vancouver && The show had to be pulled _ together quickly | for the September: - daunch. -Seomposer: — Conway Baker composer Michael Conway Baker; . the man who provided the music for the Ice Capades production, Cinderella: Frozen'in Time, open- ‘ing today and running until Sun- day, Jan. 9, at the Pacific Col- _.iseum.” “| was just knocked out,” says | e,56-year- -old: Juno-awatd win- er, sipping java in his living room. n the edge of the Seymour © Demonstration Forest. /’My wile: Penny and | flew down to San Jose ‘o see. the show.and it was so alive and’ exhilarating’ with the ‘ costumes, the sets, the magic ef. fects. oh “had iried to imagine ‘that’ a ‘much movement on such a huge “surface and simply couldn't —.un- | INTERESTED IN SAFE} ALTERNATIVES? . Please Call: - : ‘The North Shore's only - Fuil Service Investment Firm 981-6600 RBC DOMINION SECURITIES ACEMBER OF ROYAL BANK GROUP “fl 201-250 15th St, West Vancouver for Ice Capades (fj til T saw it”’ Thus, a great deal of visualizing went on between the time Baker got the nod from skating star Dorothy Hamill three years ago to score the show, and late last july, when he entered London's leg- endary Abbey Road Studies with the Sinfonia of London Orchestra. Though no stranger to scoring productions, having tackled dozens of films and television shows (including a Genie-winning effort for The Grey Fox), this was altogether a different beast. In a way, he says, it’s a new art form: a full-length ice ballet. “Dorothy had wanted to try and mount the show for some time,” says Baker. “Then, a year ago when the Ice Capades were in town, | got a call and she said that . she and her financial backers were inthe process of buying the Ice Capades which had gone bankrupt and that this was the first show they wanted to do.” The phone call set off what Baker calls ‘a pretty hairy’’ series of events that began with a trip to Los Angeles to meet with execu- tive producer Hamill, skating director and choreographer Timothy Murphy and set designer Desmond Heeley. By March, the script had been hammered out and Baker headed back to his TreeTop Lane Studio to commence work on the score. ‘Banks of keyboards, stacks of Midi : gear and reams of manuscript paper surrounded him as moun- tain streams tumbled through the woods immediately outside the . studio’ s full-length windows. “Though an idyllic working en- _ vironment, the 20-hour days proved too much for Baker and he ended up in the emergency ward of Lions.Gate Hospital suffering from exhaustion. “Vd completely broken out in hives,” he says, able to laugh about itnow. “I looked inthe = mirror and didn’t recognize myself — and when you've been used to . looking at the same face for quite a period of time, that's a pretty scary. thing. “The big fear was that they might spread inside my mouth and -, throat and I’d choke. In the end, it was just stress — trying to do too much.” The task was, nonetheless, com- ’ pleted and Baker headed across the pond to the Beatles’ old stom- pin’ grounds on Abbey Road to recosd the 92 minutes of wall-to- NEWS photo Paul McGrath BAKER'S FORAY into. seoring for the Ice Capades was a new experience. for him: though the Se ‘ year-old Juno award winner i is no stranger te feature films and television shows. ‘ wail music with the Sinfonia of London Orchestra, an interna- tionally recognized studio outfit ” composed of first-chair players from the Royal Philharmonic, London Symphony, Philharmonia and BBC Orchestras. “The show had to be pulled together very quickly for the: . September launch,” he says. . . “But | always. thought it would work. "| just loved the flow of the skating. Of course, we've all seen _ skaters performing to music, but nothing an this scale — it was always just individual numbers. Not an entire evening of music." An evening that is likely to be repeated for quite a spell. Two Ice Capades companies of 0 principal performers each will itting more than 50 cities throughout North America this year and plans are already in the works to take the show to Europe and Asia. Meanwhile, a television special “= (Hamill’s original design for Cinderella) is presently being pro-.. duced. “tt could goon fora number of. years,” says Baker. The composer is poised to do -. -the same..He is currently ‘at work: _ ona feature film, Savage Land,’a documentary, A Healing of Na-. yWESTCOAST CRUISING . ENO SAN ERA Brncess) nose cccececeest trom 2 nts: Reno *2nts San Francisco ® 2.nts cruising’ 30-May | (Nieuw. Amsterdam) . -3 nis Las Vegas * 3 nts cruising © May 1-794 (Regal Princess) 3 nts Las Vegas » 3 nis cruising: RUDE INISHT All tours fully escorted. Prices shown are per person based on double panty and do aot include portair tay, tions, and ‘‘a thing on Malcolm Lowry.” In addition, a Phoenix-based label, Summit Records, is planning to release five CDs of Baker's music over the next few years. “1 like to know that I’m really - reaching people,” Baker says, downing his java to the grounds. “t like to think that my music makes them feel something.” OMENWY i HOME USE PROFESSIONAL ‘STOCK MARKET ENQUIRY 4 AND REPORTING SYSTEM CABLECONNECTED Tel: 685-3171 NEXTWAVE BROADCAST CORPORATION. a ‘Helping people and their families discover new and innovative ways of living independently with a physical disability For more information for your holidays Hawaii Mexico Caribbean | 1126 Lonadale‘Ave.; N.Van-: 987 “5244 “4 please call: 736- 9171 The.Kinsmen Rehabilitation Foundation of B.C. gratefully acknowledges its corporate sponsors: BCBUSIess Ea Fbaiity