Dancing feet generate electrical power on the sustainable dance floor at BC Hydro's Power Smart Village.

If this weather keeps up, Vancouver 2010 might go down as history’s first Spring Olympics.   Today, the sun was blazing, the cherry trees were in bloom and I counted a lot more short-sleeves than ski hats.

All of which made for some mega-crowds downtown.  The big Olympic pavilions – the LiveCity sites and the country and provincial houses – were jam-packed, with long lines stretching down the streets.  So I took the opportunity to explore one of Vancouver’s less trafficked exhibits, the BC Hydro Power Smart Village.

The Power Smart relay challenges visitors to remedy wasteful energy practices.

The Village sits on the corner of Dunsmuir and Homer Streets, in the shadow of the BC Hydro building (Hydro, for the uninitiated, stands for hydroelectric, the main source of energy in British Columbia).  The focus of the pavilion is energy conservation.  Inside, you’ll find a model sustainable home, with energy efficient appliances and insulation.  There’s also a unique sustainable dance floor.  It’s made up of plastic tiles that compress and light up when you step on them, generating energy in the process.  When I was there, a dozen dancers – from toddlers in Canada gear to hipsters letting their hair down – were getting their groove on to Young MC’s 1989 classic Bust a Move.  A computer screen showed that they added four watts of power to a total of more than 509,000 watts produced so far.

Aboriginal carver - and BC Hydro senior advisor - George Hemeon works on two massive welcoming figures.

But the best stuff is inside the BC Hydro building itself.  As you enter, you’ll notice two massive Aboriginal carvings flanking the doorway.  With their arms extended in greeting, these 5,000-pound, 18-foot-tall carvings are known as welcome figures.  I was lucky enough to arrive just as George Hemeon, a carver with the Squamish First Nation, was putting the finishing touches on a large ornamental disk to be hung between the statues.

As George worked, he explained that he carved the statues from Cowichan Red Cedar over the course of six months, working only in the evenings.  By day, he was busy with his other job.  In a unique twist, George is also a senior officer for BC Hydro, charged with developing business partnerships with Aboriginal communities in the province.

Finishing touches are put on an ornamental carving inside Power Smart Village.

While George whittled out an ornamental notch in the carving, his two sons worked alongside, learning the craft from their father.  The statues will ultimately form a permanent exhibit here, welcoming visitors for years to come.  In a coincidence that seems emblematic of these Olympic Games – which have brought Canada’s government and Aboriginal communities together in unprecedented ways – the statues should be right at home in BC Hydro headquarters.  The building stands on ground that once belonged to Canada’s Squamish peoples.

On my way out, I noticed that the line to get into Power Smart Village was even shorter than before.  But don’t let that fool you.   I’m starting to think that Olympic pavilions obey their own strange law:  the shorter the queue, the cooler the stuff inside.

Remy Scalza – www.remyscalza.com