Joni Mitchell's The Fiddle & The Drum opened the 2010 Cultural Olympiad and began the first full weekend of the eight-week long arts and cultural festival.

The contemporary ballet was performed by the dancers from Alberta Ballet to choreography by the company's artistic director Jean Grand-Maitre and the songs of the folk-rock legend Mitchell.

The work originated when Grand-Maitre approached Mitchell about using her songs for a ballet to be called Dancing Joni.

At the time, Mitchell was working on a mixed-media show that included paintings of wars and revolutions. When Grand-Maitre wanted to include the anti-war images, Mitchell responded by putting together more songs.

That led to the creation of The Fiddle & The Drum which premiered in 2007.

Thanks to a commission from the Cultural Olympiad, the shorter work was expanded by into a full-evening's performance.

At opening night Friday at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the performance began before the dancers glided onto the stage. There was a buzz of anticipation that started outside as people stood in line to pick up their tickets and continued inside in the newly renovated lobby and in the theatre when everyone took their seats.

Before the performance began, John Furlong, the chief executive officer of Vanoc, told the audience that the presentation of The Fiddle & The Drum marked the first formal event of the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

"In 504 hours," he said, "the Olympic flame will pass by this building on its way to the opening ceremonies."

Grand-Maitre followed Furlong and said that he talked to Mitchell who told him that she couldn't be at the opening because she was convalescing. Mitchell suffers from Morgellons syndrome, a skin condition.

"She would have loved to be here," Grand-Maitre said.

As a whole, The Fiddle & The Drum sent out a strong anti-war message. At a time when Canada is fighting in Afghanistan and the U.S. appears to be in a perpetual war in the Middle East, a ballet that¹s so outspoken about the absurdity of war is a rarity. Watching and listening to The Fiddle & The Drum was like stepping back in time to the 1960s when popular culture had less entertainment and more engagement with real issues.

When the dancers came onto the stage to start the performance, they were wearing body-hugging costumes: the men, in skimpy swimsuit-style trunks and the women in tank leotards. The minimal outfits showed off the dancer's beautiful bodies and highlighted the superbly defined upper torsos of the men which were accentuated with body paint.

Many of the 13 following songs were from little-known recordings from the 1980s. But the evening included two of her signature tunes: Woodstock before the intermission ("We are stardust/We are golden/And we've got to get backto the garden.") and Big Yellow Taxi ("They paved paradise/And put up a parking lot.") as a rousing encore that brought the audience to their feet for a second standing ovation.

Grand-Maitre's choreography was extremely athletic and graceful. It was easy to see why the ballet is so physically demanding; the dancers flew around the stage and repeatedly entered and exited from one side to the other.

There was always a sense of swirling movement. Most of the dancing was in ensembles of six or more. At one point near the end, when all 30 dancers jumped on stage in unison, it was the kind of explosive and unexpected movement that made me jump a little in my seat.

What I found distracting were the moving images projected onto a circular, globe-like screen at the back of the stage. I had to choose between looking at the dancers or the images - and I wanted to look at the dancers.

The Fiddle & The Drum continues today at 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Queen Elizabeth Theare. Tickets at 604-280-3311/ticketmaster.ca