Toronto, ON >> Showbiz >> Celebrity Gossip >> Edith Butler, Robert Lepage among winners of Gov. Gen. Performing Arts Awards
Edith Butler, Robert Lepage among winners of Gov. Gen. Performing Arts Awards
Victoria Ahearn, THE CANADIAN PRESS 2009-03-02 18:21:00 
TORONTO - Hours before she was announced as a winner of a Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Acadian singer-songwriter Edith Butler had a startling reminder of her success and struggles.
The Paquetville, N.B., native - known for her energetic folk songs and tireless efforts to promote Acadian culture - said she awoke to the sound of the fire alarm in her Toronto hotel, which brought back memories of the hotel blaze she escaped in Japan in 1970.
"I was on the 11th floor at the time; the fire was at the seventh floor," Butler, 66, recalled of the Japan incident after the performing arts award recipients were announced at a reception Monday.
"They stopped the people at the eighth floor to get them out through chutes but I could not understand Japanese so I just kept on running through the stairs," said the chanteuse, who was in Osaka for six months performing at the Canadian pavilion at Expo 70.
"I ran right through the fire and when I arrived downstairs there was newspaper people there and I (made) the front page of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper in Osaka ... not because I was a singer but because of a fire."
Butler - an officer of the Order of Canada who has recorded over 27 albums - said she plans to put that anecdote into a memoir, and she can now afford to take the time off to write it thanks to the $25,000 that comes with the performing arts award, she noted.
"It's such a big prize, a prestigious and honourable prize, and I'm so happy," said Butler.
Other lifetime artistic achievement recipients announced Monday are contemporary dancer/choreographer Peggy Baker, filmmaker/playwright Robert Lepage, writer/singer Clemence DesRochers, composer R. Murray Schafer and playwright/director/screenwriter George F. Walker.
As well, actor/director Paul Gross was honoured for his film "Passchendaele," winning this year's National Arts Centre Award for achievement over the past performance year.
And philanthropist James D. Fleck was named the recipient of the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts.
"These awards honour years and years of learning, years and years of exploration and hard work," Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean said at Monday's reception.
"They celebrate the courage, the determination and talent of those artists and art enthusiasts who speak to us beyond that moment on stage."
Baker's award comes after two emotional years in which she rebounded from a foot break that she thought had ended her dance career.
"To get this award in that same kind of span, it kind of deepened the feeling of all the sacrifices over so many years," said the Edmonton-born talent, who now lives in Toronto where she founded her own company, Peggy Baker Dance Projects.
"That other people have found value in what I chose to do with my life, I'm really overwhelmed by that."
The awards will be presented in a ceremony May 8 at Rideau Hall.
The Paquetville, N.B., native - known for her energetic folk songs and tireless efforts to promote Acadian culture - said she awoke to the sound of the fire alarm in her Toronto hotel, which brought back memories of the hotel blaze she escaped in Japan in 1970.
"I was on the 11th floor at the time; the fire was at the seventh floor," Butler, 66, recalled of the Japan incident after the performing arts award recipients were announced at a reception Monday.
"They stopped the people at the eighth floor to get them out through chutes but I could not understand Japanese so I just kept on running through the stairs," said the chanteuse, who was in Osaka for six months performing at the Canadian pavilion at Expo 70.
"I ran right through the fire and when I arrived downstairs there was newspaper people there and I (made) the front page of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper in Osaka ... not because I was a singer but because of a fire."
Butler - an officer of the Order of Canada who has recorded over 27 albums - said she plans to put that anecdote into a memoir, and she can now afford to take the time off to write it thanks to the $25,000 that comes with the performing arts award, she noted.
"It's such a big prize, a prestigious and honourable prize, and I'm so happy," said Butler.
Other lifetime artistic achievement recipients announced Monday are contemporary dancer/choreographer Peggy Baker, filmmaker/playwright Robert Lepage, writer/singer Clemence DesRochers, composer R. Murray Schafer and playwright/director/screenwriter George F. Walker.
As well, actor/director Paul Gross was honoured for his film "Passchendaele," winning this year's National Arts Centre Award for achievement over the past performance year.
And philanthropist James D. Fleck was named the recipient of the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts.
"These awards honour years and years of learning, years and years of exploration and hard work," Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean said at Monday's reception.
"They celebrate the courage, the determination and talent of those artists and art enthusiasts who speak to us beyond that moment on stage."
Baker's award comes after two emotional years in which she rebounded from a foot break that she thought had ended her dance career.
"To get this award in that same kind of span, it kind of deepened the feeling of all the sacrifices over so many years," said the Edmonton-born talent, who now lives in Toronto where she founded her own company, Peggy Baker Dance Projects.
"That other people have found value in what I chose to do with my life, I'm really overwhelmed by that."
The awards will be presented in a ceremony May 8 at Rideau Hall.
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