VANCOUVER -- The sound of symphonies and ballets filling Canadian concert halls appears to be drowning out the crashes of the faltering economy.

Fine arts groups across the country are reporting strong sales for the Christmas season despite growing fears that Canada is headed for a recession.

Kevin Garland, executive director of the National Ballet of Canada, says ticket sales took a dip in the fall as the financial skies began to grey --  but not any more.

"It's been fairly substantial (the drop in sales in the fall), but we're relieved that our `Nutcracker' is tracking ahead of last year," says Garland, although she says the National Ballet isn't taking anything for granted.

"In the arts, we've all been through tough times before, and we're in the process of looking at everything."

British Columbia's largest professional ballet company blamed poor ticket sales and the slumping economy when it laid off its dancers and staff last week, but other groups say the gloomy news doesn't appear to be keeping their audiences at home.

Whether it's the Toronto Symphony, the Canadian Opera Company, Theatre Calgary or the touring Ballet Jorgen, many organizations across Canada say they've been seeing sales that are on par with or stronger than previous years.

That hasn't been the case for Ballet British Columbia, where the financial problems that now threaten the 22-year-old dance company's future appear to be an anomaly.

Ballet BC laid off its dancers and staff earlier than they would normally be temporarily let go for the holidays, and the company has warned that it could fold if the visiting Moscow Classical Ballet's Christmas performance of "The Nutcracker" doesn't sell out.

The group's president, Graeme Barrit, blamed the economic slowdown for keeping audiences at home.

At the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, ticket sales for November and holiday shows scheduled for December are about average, although some concert-goers seem to be waiting until the last minute to buy tickets, says spokeswoman Jayne Watson.

Watson says for Canadians fretting over their stock portfolios, a little taste of culture might be a welcome escape.

"After 9-11, ticket sales went up --  there was kind of a spike in people wanting to go and be together," says Watson.

"I'm not saying this is analogous to that, but people -- certainly people who are passionate about the arts and know the difference it can make --  are still going to come."

However, Dr. Mel Borins, an associate professor at the University of Toronto and a doctor who specializes in stress, says as people become more worried about their finances or their jobs, they may in fact be more likely to skip a trip to the ballet.

"When people are stressed out and there's financial difficulty, then the arts are the first to go," says Borins, who says the same rings true for pop culture, such as movies and video games.

"It's my experience that people tend to be more withdrawing when they're under stress. They might turn to alcohol or drugs and stuff like that, but it's hard to imagine that they'll turn to the arts for comfort."

Even if ticket sales hold strong, arts groups are also bracing for other potential impacts of a troubled economy, such as poor returns from their endowment funds or the potential for struggling companies to rethink their sponsorships.

At the National Ballet, for example, the group's $20-million endowment fund isn't expected to bring in any money between now and 2011 --  leaving the organization short about $900,000 a year.

As things get worse, governments need to step in to ensure arts groups are able to survive, says Prof. Catherine Murray of Simon Fraser University.

"Every sector of the economy is going to be affected, and the arts are not immune," says Murray, co-director of the university's Centre for Policy Studies on Culture and Communities.

"We definitely have to take a look at what it would take to sustain them."

Murray notes a Conference Board of Canada report, released earlier this year, that concluded arts and culture generated $84.6 billion in direct and indirect economic benefits for Canada in 2007  --  or 7.4 per cent of the total gross domestic product.

"We don't want to blow this social investment," she says.

"What we've seen in cultural policy is a vacuum at the federal level. They have certainly realized in the last election that there was a misstep in their cultural policy."

The federal Conservative government came under heavy criticism earlier this year and during the recent federal election because of plans to cut $45 million in arts funding.

But a spokesman with Heritage Canada insists the federal arts funding is adequate.

"The government has a strong record in supporting arts and culture in Canada," Charles Drouin wrote in an email last week after Ballet BC announced its financial problems.

"Last year alone, it invested over $2 billion to help the creation and diffusion of Canadian work."