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Star Maker
Artistic director Wayne Burnett works with each entertainer who steps
out on the Jubilee stage to help them maximize their talents
(published in Forever Young)
By Ellen Ashton-Haiste
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Ralph Kuster doesn’t yet know if he’ll be on stage at Roy Thomson Hall during the RBC Seniors’ Jubilee week in August. But after just one audition with artistic director Wayne Burnett, regardless of the ultimate decision, he feels that the experience has been more than worthwhile.
The 53-year-old Belleville area golf pro has always loved to sing and, recently, has taken that hobby to a new level recording three CDs and performing occasionally. This year, he’s taken a break from golf to concentrate on music.
He hopes a performance at Jubilee — North America’s largest showcase of senior talent which has been providing a stage for senior performers from across Ontario and beyond since 1989 — will be part of that.
But says he’s already gained more than he could have hoped for from Burnett’s mentoring. And, he’s slated to return for a second audition where he anticipates learning even more.
“Ralph has a lot of talent,” says Burnett. “I was quite struck by his talent. I saw a rough diamond, but a diamond nonetheless. He has good natural instincts and he interprets well but what he needs is to put that all together and bring it home so he can truly impact the audience.”
Kuster, who’s performed a couple of times since the first audition, already feels that he’s made vast improvements. One of his worst habits, he says, was a tendency to move around too much while singing. “I moved with all the notes,” he says. “All the parts of my body would be in motion. And I have been told, on a couple of occasions, that it’s distracting.
“Well, Wayne sat me down (after the audition performance) and … well, he didn’t say ‘it’s the pits’ but as diplomatically as possible, it was close to that,” he laughs.
Another thing Kuster discovered he was doing wrong was singing with his eyes closed. “I didn’t realize that was almost an element of selfishness, like you’re singing to yourself.”
At a recent performance, he says he was completely conscious of every move he made and kept his eyes fixed on his audience. “It’s been so exciting,” he says. “Every song I sing, I’m thinking differently than I ever thought before!”
He knows it’s just a starting point and is eagerly anticipating at least one more chance to work with Burnett. “I know he’s got a lot more to say about how to present the songs. It’s clear to me he looks at it almost as an element of choreography that matches the music. If you’re to be a true professional, you want to maximize the message of the song. So how you move and what you do is part of optimizing the effect of how that song is going to touch someone’s heart.”
In his enthusiasm about the benefits of this mentoring process, Kuster is far from alone. Burnett works to some extent with each of the more than 1,300 performers to who take the Jubilee stage each year in five days of completely different entertainment lineups in the Roy Thomson Hall lobby and on its theatre stage.
Even those who return year after year and must re-audition annually.
“Wayne works magic,” says Debbie O’Hara, of London, who has brought her dance troupe, the Stardust Cloggers, to perform at the RBC Seniors’ Jubilee for the past half dozen years. “He empowers people to be the best they can be.”
She credits him with encouraging her to step outside her comfort zone into a solo performance two years ago, something she repeated last year and hopes to do again in August. “He has a way of making you grow and believe ‘I can do that’,” she says. “I never had anybody believe in me that way before. And I’ve grown by leaps and bounds.”
It’s a comment often heard from people who never dreamed they would have an opportunity to be part of a professionally produced show in such a premier venue. And it’s one of the guiding principles behind the formation of the Canadian Organization of Senior Artists and Performers (COSAP), founded by Burnett and Jubilee producer Glenda Richards to further help and support senior talent and give renewed voice to their philosophy that “talent is ageless.”
Burnett, who calls on his own training and experience as a stage actor and director to coach his protégées, sees it as privilege to help performers stretch and realize their talent. In 18 years, he says, there have been very few who failed to achieve that.
Burnett says he enjoys working with everyone who comes in to audition, whether or not they make the cut. And there are times when people will return three or four times to audition before finally getting their chance.
The decision will be made in June as to who will perform this year. Both Kuster and O’Hara hope to be on the list.
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Gotta dance!
(Forever Young, July 2007)
Dancers are passionate about their hobby and people love to watch them
perform which may account for the variety of dance acts on stage each
year at the RBC Seniors' Jubilee
By Ellen Ashton-Haiste
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Snoopy, the irascible superpup from the pages of Charles Schultz's Peanuts comic strip, is noted for proclaiming, with feet flying in myriad directions, that "to live is to dance and to dance is to live." This appears to be a common philosophy among dancers of all genres.
And all ages.
Take Marian Green. At 87 years, this petite senior steps onto a dance floor several times a week — at her Wednesday morning folk dance group, ballroom dancing at the Y, performing throughout the GTA for a dozen years or more with the Betty Arlen Dancers, or stepping out for an evening with a gentleman friend.
"When Iím dancing, I'm a kid," Green says. "I forget everything."
In August, Green will be kicking up her heels on the Roy Thomson Hall stage as part of the opening number at the RBC Seniors' Jubilee. She may also be seen in the lobby on a couple of days, when the Betty Arlen group is performing.
In fact, in the lobby and on the auditorium stage, dance is a big part of Jubilee.
The acts are wide ranging. There are tappers, like the Scarborough Showstoppers who've been regulars for much of the 19-year-run of this premiere showcase of senior talent. There are also belly dancers, line dancers, Irish cloggers, Chinese mandarin dancers, Scottish country and Highland dance, interpretive dance, square dancing, forties swing, Argentine tango and, of course, the ballroom dancers who often close the show in a colourful whirl of silk and satin.
"There are lots and lots of people, it seems, who just 'gotta dance'," says producer Glenda Richards, contemplating the plethora of styles and combinations that traditionally grace the Jubilee stage.
Ask any of them and they'll tell you they're there for the fun of it.
"It's the love of my life," says Green, who started out at Toronto's Casino burlesque theatre in 1939 and hasn't slowed down since. Even a recent bout of shingles that has left her with excruciating neuralgia in her neck and shoulder hasn't sidelined her. "When I'm dancing, I don't feel any pain," she maintains.
It's a natural mood elevator, agrees Debbie O'Hara, who started bringing her Stardust Cloggers, from London, Ont., to the Jubilee several years ago and now also performs solo numbers on stage and in the lobby.
"You can't dance without having fun," O'Hara says. "You can't be angry or sad when you're dancing. It's letting the music touch your soul."
It doesn't take any coaxing to get her feet moving, she says, chuckling about how she'll dance down the aisles of the grocery store with her three young granddaughters. "I just hear music and a switch goes on."
Fun is what Jack and Isabel Baird have every year in the Jubilee lobby. Positioned near the entrance, a band in the background, wearing banners that Isabel makes that say "let's dance" or "shall we dance," they entice patrons onto the dance floor.
"She gets the gentlemen. I ask the ladies," Jack says, indicating that his is the easier job as the women are delighted to take a turn around the floor but the men are often more reticent. "The ladies hand their purses to a friend and say 'let's go'," he chuckles. But once the men get going they really enjoy it, he adds.
Jack and Isabel took up dancing more than 30 years ago, to have something to do together in retirement and eventually ended up teaching, including several years giving lessons on cruise ships. Now in their 80s, they still teach in their own studio and still love to dance together.
What's the attraction? "Well, holding my wife," says Jack. "And the flow of the music, the feel of the music in my body." Echoing O'Haraís sentiments, he adds: "You can be down in the dumps and it just lifts you up."
And most dancers agree there aren't many more enjoyable ways to get exercise and keep fit.
"It keeps you in shape, keeps you flexible," says Baird.
"It's good exercise for the body and for the mind," agrees Donald Holmes, Scottish country and Highland dancer, who performs solo and with the Thornhill Scottish Country Dancers. "You have to be thinking all the time about what's coming next."
In fact, Holmes turned to dance as a student at the University of Western Ontario, as an alternative to running which he didn't enjoy.
He did like dancing and the Scottish genre was part of his heritage. He took a break from it when his studies for a doctorate in English got too heavy for the time commitment, but took it up again with his wife, after moving to Toronto to teach at Humber College.
The Highland dance, which is done with swords — like the Highland Fling — and requires elevated movements and jumps is more energetic and done individually, usually for show or competition.
The Scottish Country dancing, done in couples, is more social, says Holmes. He and his wife participate together and enjoy the monthly dances and occasional balls. "It's quite a social organization.," he says.
In fact, the social aspect is a major attraction, particularly for older dance enthusiasts, says Sandy Brittain, who competes in ballroom dance with husband Gord and is currently president of the Canadian Amateur DanceSport Association.
"It's a partner activity, good for a husband and wife and it's done all over the world so you can always find places to dance and a partner if you need one. It's do-able for people of all ages."
Brittain says that there has been a noticeable increase in interest in ballroom dancing in Ontario, thanks to television programs like Dancing With The Stars, something she hopes will continue.
"When we do competitions, we sell out and people are asking 'where can I take lessons?' It's easy to get hooked," she says.
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