Vocal valour

Yes, they're musicians. But most of the members of the Winnipeg-based Royal Canadian Air Force Band are neither singers nor dancers -- and that's what made taking part in Global TV's Canada Sings such an intriguing and imposing exercise.

"It was a huge challenge," said Sgt. David Grenon, who took a showbiz-only sort of promotion by acting as captain of the 17 Wing-based Canada Sings team. "Although we're all professional musicians, most of the members of the team had never sung or danced in public before. That was huge for us. Yes, we have two vocalists in the band whose job is to sing -- but not to dance -- but the rest of us play instruments."

Performing under the name Super Sonic, 13 of the RCAF Band's 36 members will appear in this week's instalment of Canada Sings (Tuesday at 9 p.m. on Global), strutting their stuff against staffers from Mississauga's Peel Children's Aid Society. As is the case in each of the show's six episodes, the team judged to have staged the best show-choir performance will take home $25,000 for the charity of its choice.

For Super Sonic, the agency standing to benefit is Support Our Troops, an ongoing charitable effort that encourages ill and injured Canadian Forces personnel to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle and supports them in increasing their independence, developing new skills and achieving goals.

Grenon said he had watched some of Canada Sings' first season last year, and was feeling some heat from his wife, who thought the RCAF Band might be a good fit for the show. Then, in January, he received an email from the series' producers at Insight Productions, suggesting pretty much exactly the same thing.

He took the idea to his bandmates, and more than a dozen of them were both interested and available in giving the show-choir competition a try.

To the last man and woman, they had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they entered the boot-camp phase of Canada Sings last February.

"It takes guts and it takes time to participate in something like this," said Grenon. "When we accepted the challenge, we knew it was going to be long hours and all that, but we didn't know it was going to take that long. For a full week, we had to come to work and do our normal duties and our normal rehearsals, and then we had to give at least six more hours each day to Canada Sings rehearsals.

"That was a very challenging week ... but we had 13 strong people."

Grenon said the process of putting down instruments and taking up dance steps and vocals was particularly daunting for some of the baker's dozen in Super Sonic.

"Most of us are used to hiding behind their instrument, behind their (music) stand, and staying at the back of the stage," he said. "That's our comfort zone. And now they had to stand up, to step up and do the dance with everybody else, and learn the same song by heart, and sing it in tune. It was pretty challenging for everybody. Some people might think that because we're in a band, it would be easier, but it was a very hard challenge."

Part of the challenge of preparing for the Canada Sings showdown -- which was recorded last March in Toronto -- was taking orders from the show's non-military mentors, choreographer Christian Vincent and vocal coach Sharron Matthews.

"When you're over 50 years old, and you're asked to do choreography that people in their 30s would struggle with, it's not easy," said Grenon. "In the middle of that week, it was tough for several people, but we all stood together and helped each other -- in the military, that's what you do.

"We're all artists; we're all musicians, so we've all got that creative and artistic sense. We've been trained to create emotion through music and wrap our heads around the artistic elements. And at the same time, we're military trained, which I think helped us a lot in the choreography because we're used to being told what to do, where to go, and how to follow specific movements, as we do with military marching."

Sometimes, Grenon added, the obstacles faced by the RCAF Band members were small but significant.

"We had to adapt to their language, and they had to adapt to ours, as well," he recalled. "Something as simple as left-right-left, which is what we do in the military, starting with the left foot. In dance and choreography, you usually start with the right foot, so we had to talk to each other and come to an agreement on how to make it easiest for us to adapt to the choreography. It was fun, though."

The group from 17 Wing had no input when it came to song selection, performance theme or costume choices, but Grenon said the creative team at Canada Sings definitely gave them something that they could all embrace.

"We were very happy with the choices," he said. "Without saying too much about our episode and our theme, I think it fits well with who we are and what we do. I don't think the song selections could have been any better. They were great; we all really enjoyed what they chose for us."

He is, of course, prevented by confidentiality agreement from revealing anything about Tuesday's outcome, but Grenon was quick to say that the response from colleagues in Winnipeg and military brass in Ottawa has been overwhelmingly positive.

"There's been a lot of support; a lot of people have used social media to support us throughout the whole experience -- before, now and probably after," he said. "We've had a lot great comments from our chain of command to thank us for participating in something like this, and the Support Our Troops organization in Ottawa has put together a Facebook page for us. We've received a lot of good comments and energy from all across Canada."

Grenon said most of the 13 who took part in Canada Sings would gladly do it all over again. And he encouraged anyone else, in any other workplace where dreams of music and dance reside, to consider a run at the show's next set of episodes.

"The show is made so that anyone, any group, can do it, as long as they're tight together and they have a good cause that they're connected to," he said. "You don't need to be a professional vocalist or dancer; it's made for people who don't usually do this kind of thing.

"It's a chance for anybody from a workplace to bond together, have a blast and raise money for a charity. Anybody can do this if they've got the guts and they're really connected to their charity, because that's what keeps you going when you're tired of rehearsing or your friends need a break -- you just remember the cause you're doing it for."

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 19, 2012 G5