Legendary Canadian artist Joni Mitchell in collaboration with internationally acclaimed choreographer Jean Grand-MaŸtre of the Alberta Ballet Company created "The Fiddle and The Drum" a special ballet that speaks volumes of Joni Mitchell's life-long concerns about environmental neglect and the warring nature of mankind.

This narrative ballet was performed to 49 minutes of Mitchell's provocative music. This ballet is a celebration of the profoundly humanistic questions and testimonies that are expressed so poetically by Joni Mitchell, a world-renowned poet. Three art forms combine as Alberta Ballet's commanding dancers move their powerful bodies and their ethereal souls within a protective world of sound, color and texture that Ms. Mitchell has created.

The dynamic set was fully designed by Mitchell and includes the first release of Mitchell's latest artwork, which is projected on a large canvass drum style screen during the ballet.

The Alberta Ballet Company gives metaphorical life to her eternal music while, in tandem, her art works appear above them. Ms. Mitchell's most recent artistic creations are deeply inspired by man's warring nature and mark a dramatic change in her sense of aesthetics. These iconic images were literally choreographed by Ms. Mitchell to appear at key moments with particular lyrics in her songs.

Her musical selections are from her earliest to latest recordings such as: For the Roses, Passion Play, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The Beat of Black Wings, Sex Kills, The Three Great Stimulants and The Fiddle and The Drum. The ballet also includes three new songs from Mitchell's anticipated new album "Shine" that is set to release in Fall 2007, one of which is an energizing remix of Big Yellow Taxi. For the Ballet's Artistic Director, Jean Grand-Maitre, these significant compositions served as his manuscript and inspiration.