HUGE crowd turned up at the Hotel Vancouver for
the Vancouver Heritage Awards. | don’t know who

these people were.

E recognized two — Vancouver
Mayor Gordan Campbell and
Vancouver Sun city editor Gary
Mason, who accepted an award
for the paper. ;

Thirteen awards sere piven for
contributions to the preservation
of heritage sites, and one of the
recipients was North Van's David-
son Walker Construction, which
won for its treatment of
Shaughnessy’s 76-year-old Haipler
House.

The Haigler house was straddl-
ing two lots and Davidson Walker
picked iL up and moved it over on
to one lot. They won the award
because they did this without
damaging the granite structure,

Unfortunately, the house was
full of people at the time. Kidding,
just kidding...

k kok

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet
(RWB) performance of Romeo and
juliet was one of the nicest I’ve
ever seen — elegant, uncluttered
and with a different ending (the
ghosts of Tybalt and Mercutio join
Romeo and Juliet in the tomb —
much better than having the fami-
ly members show up for the
prince's lecture).

The crowd? About 20% dressed.
Fifty per cent came straight from
the supermarket. .

The rest were a riot of fashion
victims, and the coat check was
liberally sprinkled with dead
animals.

On the other hand, it’s nice to
see the wide appeal that the ballet
has garnered.

Atter the performance, a huge
crowd packed El Patio for a party
hosted by the Vancouver Board of
Trade and the Royal Bank, where
the non-dancer women in the
room marvelled at the size of the
ballerinas’ hips (remember when
you were 102).

Chatted with Elizabeth Olds,
who was Juliet on the’ previous
evening, and with Laura Graham,
our Juliet (to Gino. Di Marco's
Romeo), who told me that. this
ballet leaves her exhilarated,
‘rather than tired (RWB star Evelyn
Hart danced opening night, then
left for a performance in New
York).

And | spoke with North Van's
Bob Morris, of Mantrea!l Trust,
which . sponsored the Kelowna
event (the rest of the B.C. tour was
sponsored by the Bank of Mon-
treal and Westcoast Energy,
among others).

Got lots of facts about the RWB.
It's North America’s second-oldest
ballet company (San Francisco’s is
six months older).

It was founded in 1940 and, in
1953, Queen Elizabeth bestowed
the first-ever ‘‘royal’’ designation.

{I assume this put the upturned

JORDAN MARSH plays Tybait
in the Royal Winnipeg Baliet’s
Romeo and Juliet.

Loutse Aird

BRIGHT LIGHTS

noses of British balletomanes Gut
of joint — wasn’t untif much
later that the Sadlers Wells com-
pany became London's Royal
Ballet.)

The RWB is used as a cultural
ambassador by External Affairs and
travels with 50 musicians, 50
dincers, three crew members and
just one seamstress (1!) to 512 cit-
ics in 53 countries every year.

The cost of this is, of course, a
fundraiser’s nightmare — $8.5 mil-
lion has to be raised each year.

kk

[can’t believe the objections I’m
hearing to the prospect of getting a
new Lions Gate Bridge. The cur
rent span has got to go — that’s all
there is 10 it. :

Anyone with eyes knows that
bridge is unsafe. A new bridge will
not ruin Stanley Park and, in this
case, public safety has to take
precedence over the trees which
would have to be removed to
widen the causeway.

Then there's the argument of
xenophobes who fear that a new
bridge will create an influx of
people.

Hello? Thanks to the inability of
North Shore governors to. say
‘no!’ to davelopers, those new
people are already here.

Keeping the rotten old bridge
will not stop IntraWest from raping
West Van — nor will it stop peo-
ple from going to Whistler, the
Sunshine Coast or the Island.

As for the cost ... Five years ago,
| wrote to both North Van mayors,
plus the mayors of West Van,
Vancouver, Richmond, Squamish,
Nanaimo and Whistler.

§ pointed out that their citizens
depend on the Lions Gate Bridge,
that all municipalities should be
prepared to. pitch in, and that it
would be in everyone's interest if
the mayors collectively asked the
provincial and federal govern-
ments to give us a new bridge.

1 got one reply — from Van-
couver Mayor Gordon Campbell,
who promised thai the Lions Gate
Bridge would be on his agenda as
soon as the Cassiar Connector was
complete. ,

Can you believe that? Not only
did the other mayors nat want to
touch the issue, but | actually
found a politician who is true to

his word! Zounds!

kkk

Congrats to North Van's Coilin
Gill, the Bayshore’s 22-year-old
culinary apprentice, who was one
of only eight B.C. students invited
to compete for the Karl Schier
Award.

This competition is sponsored by
the B.C. Chef's Association and is
open te top students of Vancouver
Community College’s “three-year
culinary program (Collin gradu-
ated with a 95.5% average).

Gili had 5% hours to create and
prepare a two-serving four-course
meal from a mystery list ot ingre-
dients. And he won — he’s the
B.C. Apprentice of the Year.

photos Louise Alrd

STARRING AS Romeo and Juliet in the Rloyal Winnipeg Bailet’s production of Shakespeare's
classic are Gino Di Marco and Laura Gaham, who packed into El Patio with a huge crowd for a
Vancouver Board of Trade/Royal Bank-sponsored post-performance soiree.

DESERVING RECIPIENTS ai the Vancouver heritage awards were Jim Davidson (left) and

pariner
Bill Walker of North Vancouver's Davidson Walker Construction, for their delicate and efficient
treatment of Shaugnessy’s Haigler House. ;