Jennifer Fournier of the National Ballet (above) in Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan. The Alberta Ballet Company presents The Fiddle and The Drum, blending dance and movement with Joni Mitchell's songs and artwork.

TORONTO - In a way it's the same old story -- Alberta energy used to heat up a space in chilly old Toronto.

But usually, that's something that happens in January, not on a sultry night in June. So while it may be the same old story, one could say it's dancing to a whole new tune.

The occasion was opening night Friday of the National Ballet Of Canada's mixed program -- a fitting end to the company's second season in the Four Seasons Centre and a lovely follow-up to a successful revisiting of James Kudelka's acclaimed staging of Cinderella.

On the program: A riveting revisiting of William Forsythe's the second detail, brilliantly revised since its 1991 premiere, but still a masterpiece; Harald Lander's Etudes, a build-a-ballet kind of offering that showcased Greta Hodgkinson, Aleksandar Antonijevic and Zdenek Konvalina at the very top of their form, supported by conductor David Briskin and the NBOC Orchestra; and, finally, Sir Frederick Ashton's Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan, a series of dances originally created for Lynn Semour and staged here as a beautiful and fitting valedictory to the memorable career of principal dancer Jennifer Fournier, who retires at the end of the season.

Then, after this evening of cool elegance that showcased the dancers of the National Ballet doing what they do best and moving to the music of composers such as Thom Williams, Carl Czerny and the aforementioned Johanne Brahms (beautifully performed here by piano soloist Edward Connell), the evening ended with an infusion of that Alberta energy -- as the Alberta Ballet dropped by the Four Seasons to strut their latest stuff.

The stuff in question, of course, is The Fiddle And The Drum -- a new multi-media work created in a collaboration between choreographer and artistic director Jean Grand-Maitre and songstress Joni Mitchell, blending dance and movement with Mitchell's songs and artwork in an unflinching yet oddly hopeful look at a planet being destroyed by war and environmental neglect.

The work is set on a largely bare stage, lit by Pierre Lavoie and dominated by a huge circle on which are projected an array of images ranging from shots of Earth from outer space through to Mitchell's own visions of the planet gone awry.

Under its often glowering light, the dancers of the company -- their physical variety showcased by scant but arresting costuming created by Grande-Maitre and Pamela Kaye -- bring life to an array of Mitchell's songs, some created especially for this work.

The Beat of Black Wings and Big Yellow Taxi (which serves as an uplifting curtain call at the end of this sombre work) blend with Mitchell's musical adaptation and the poetry of others in such a way that the lyrics become as important as the images and the movement.

Like the 28 dancers with which he works, Grand-Maitre's dance vocabulary isn't limited to a single type or form. Instead, it's a little bit classical, a little bit be-bop and a little bit rock 'n' roll -- a high-energy extension of Mitchell's music that, like her lyrics, has moments of reflective passion and clarity as well.

It also demands a bit of high energy from an audience torn between the haunting infectiousness of Mitchell's music, the compelling imagery of her lyrics and her artwork and the demanding physicality of Grand-Maitre's choreography as it fills the stage with a series of often melancholy tableaux.

It's almost like Alberta is once again faced with the dilemma too much energy -- but happily, it's a dilemma they are always willing to share.