For a 14-year-old girl with a big voice and even bigger ambitions, the idea of going off to a performing arts high school in a major urban centre, you know, the kind immortalized in the movie/TV show Fame!, might sound romantic and exciting.
But if you’re Ali Milner it would mean leaving Whistler, your home since Grade 1, leaving your family and friends as well as your coaches and riding crew from the Whistler Kids Freeride Club.
Lucky for our heroine, there’s a program at Whistler Secondary that allows her to have her snow and a burgeoning singing career too.
Milner, a fresh-faced articulate, red-head, started high school this past week, knowing right from the start her teachers were perfectly fine with the fact that she’ll be cutting an entire day of classes every week.
Her schedule has been tailored so she can spend every Wednesday in Vancouver taking voice lessons, jazz piano, guitar and acting lessons and singing with the world-renowned Vancouver Children’s Choir.
Some call the program "sport school," a reference to the ski-racer majority that are enrolled – Milner’s older brother Smith being one of them. But the program’s teacher advisor, Rod Thompson, prefers "flex-Ed." – a more all-encompassing term with a nod to Ali. It’s not just athlete-students who can make use of a more flexible schedule and independently tailored program.
At one day a week her needs are still radically different than those of a national ski-team prospect, who might be expected to spend blocks of five weeks on a European race circuit, but the motive is the same: school should not hinder extracurricular excellence.
"The idea behind having personal goals beyond school has been embraced by Whistler Secondary since the beginning," Thompson said. "It’s come in a circle by having performing arts kids who are kind of in the same boat."
It’s plain to see that having close ties to the sporting world has influenced Milner artistically. She’s a hard worker who doesn’t back down from a challenge, whether riding rails switch in the terrain park or learning the six-part harmonies of a Mozart Requiem with her choir’s senior Cantata chamber ensemble. She uses the term "coach" when referring to vocal instructor Joani Taylor. She trains.
Her work ethic doesn’t leave much time for pop culture phenomena like the American/Canadian Idol series.
"They’re going to be in the spotlight for a few minutes, but no one’s going to remember them," she states. "You don’t gain respect by winning a short contest. You have to work for years and years to get credit and get respect and to really gain an audience. You have to really work at it."
Her work ethic has also earned her a discerning ear. She’s embraced the Great Ladies of Jazz, and lauded rock ’n’ roll icons such as the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Queen, while many kids her age allow themselves to be force-fed over-produced pop-hop.
One contemporary female she admires is Alicia Keys for her abilities as a singer/songwriter and instrumentalist. Britney, not so much.
"I don’t even know if she plays the piano or any instruments," says Milner. "Anyone that really writes their own music, and it’s good music, I really respect them more than anyone else."
What she calls her "two passions," go hand in hand. She deems skiing a great stress reliever from learning technically challenging vocal arrangements and a great confidence builder. When you confront your fears and land a trick in the park, standing up in front of 500 people and singing a song becomes a lot easier, so she claims.
As much as she loves skiing, singing is definitely her focus right now. Milner discovered her gift locally at nine years old, singing with the Moving Chords children’s choir, directed by Sadie Culliford and Colleen Koop, who took her on as a classical voice student.
As she developed as a soloist she began performing locally. These days she’s regularly asked to sing the national anthem for conference-style events. She’ll be performing at the upcoming Drive Fore Life golf-tournament/fundraiser for the Kelty Patrick Dennehy Foundation next weekend.
Earlier this year she was a featured performer at two community galas, the New Year’s Eve 2004 First Night festival and February’s Celebration 2010 Cultural Cabaret, an event marking the start of a three-week long showcase of local arts in the spirit of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
For the cabaret Milner shared the stage with seasoned performers such as Michele Bush and Olympic heroes such as Ross Rebagliati, belting out a Whistler-adapted version of the Mark Brymer show tune Big City Beat with her big, big voice.
In 2010 she will be all of 19 years old. At 14, it’s hard to pin down specific goals post-high school, but when it comes to the Games, Ali Milner knows exactly what she wants.
"Whenever people say: ‘are you singing at the Olympics?’ I say ‘yeah, definitely!’" Milner says breaking into a big grin. "I want to sing the big opening song at the opening ceremonies like Leann Rimes did in Utah. That would be pretty cool.
"And, she adds, "if they make free skiing a part of the Olympics by 2010 I want to be in it."
Win a medal and then sing the national anthem at your own ceremony. It’s an interesting twist on the Olympic dream and one that seems to represent Whistler itself, striving to develop culturally as it maintains a reputation as a sporting mecca.
Whether on skis or on stage, or maybe even both, one thing’s for certain: the world better watch out for Ali Milner.
