A Few Updates from a Busy Month

July had been a fun, but busy month! For both Mike and myself, as well as our music-dance group Ensemble Topaz! I thought I'd take a few moments to write a few memories from July.

The Canada Day weekend at the start of July was an exciting and fun start to the month. I performed earlier in the day at Pickering Markets Canada Day Diversity Celebration in Pickering, and that evening, the dancers of Ensemble Topaz and I performed at a beautiful wedding at The Vue in Etobicoke.

The next day, the dancers and musicians of Ensemble Topaz performed at the Ontario Place Mainstage, for the Ontario Heritage Festival. This was a fun gig..the musicians performed a combination of traditional tunes as well as some of Mike Anklewicz's original Klezfactor compositions, while the dancers and I performed three different styles of dance. This was my first time visiting Ontario Place, which has been newly renovated, and I found the grounds beautiful. It was also fun and refreshing to work again with live music, although we missed our bandleader Mike, who was playing his own gig at the Redpath Waterfront Festival just a few kilometres away!

                                                     Photo Credit: Larry Anklewicz 

A pic of the girls and I on the grounds overlooking the water, with the CN Tower in the background. 

We will be joining forces again with our musicians for some live music-dance performances for the Culture Days weekend this September, for which we are very excited! Please join us at the Annette Street Library on September 29 (Friday) and at the Palmerston Library Auditorium on September 30 (Saturday) from 3:00-4:00 pm! Free and open to all, like all Culture Days events! (http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=EVT297481)

The second weekend of July found the girls and I at the beautiful Riverwalk Commons in Newmarket, for the Culture Bridge Festival Sights and Sounds of India. We truly enjoyed this one! I had previously performed classical Indian dance at the Culture Bridge Music evening at East Gwillimbury earlier in June, and it was great to return to perform for these fun and fabulous folks with the group this time. Immediately after this performance, Mike and I left in our car to go to Osgoode in the Ottawa area to join our friends from Troupe Obskurah for a weekend of performing and site animation at the Kingdom of Osgoode medieval festival. 

The following weekend, Angelica and I had a number of duet performances at private events, and the following day, all three of us performed at the Albert Campbell Square for Scarborough Celebrates 150. I also performed Afghan dance at a number of Eid events over this weekend. The photos below are of me and Angelica from some of the different duet gigs over this weekend. 

Above: at Scarborough Convention Centre 

At Grand Empire Banquet and Convention Centre

The following Friday, we performed at the Indo-Canada Arts Council's Diwali Razmatazz Curtainraiser at the Great Hall at Markham Civic Square. It was a lovely event, and also attended by the mayor of Markham. I loved the space of the Markham Civic Square and add below this photo taken in this space, before our performance. 

Over the weekend following this, Ensemble Topaz performed in the east end..Saturday began with Angelica and I performing at MP Salma Zahid's Community BBQ at the Birkdale Community Centre. Sharing below a photo from this event, in the lovely outdoor space of Birkdale Park. 

Photo Credit: community photographer

From there we went to the Gerrard Festival of South Asia, where Stella joined us, and the three of us performed for the festival, during our two day presence at the festival. This marked my return to the Festival of South Asia after 8 years..I had first performed there during its innaugural year in 2008.  Here we also met several of our friends from the dance and South Asian performance world, such as our friends from Salsa Toronto. I'd like to also extend gratitude to Kabul Kabab House for their incredible hospitality during my visits on both days of this festival. 

Photo Credit: Irfan Ali 

The weekend after this, I performed at a corporate client appreciation event where I was requested to perform traditional Loghari dance to rubab music. I truly appreciated performing these traditional numbers, and it was a lovely event. The next day, the dancers of Dilan Dance Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Fethi Karakecili, in collaboration with Boostan Multicultural Collective, performed at the Tirgan Festival at Harbourfront. I performed two solos here, both choreographed by Fethi Karakecili..one in the style of the contemporary Kurdish solo performance (a piece that was originally developed for and premiered at Karakecili's "The Dance of Colours: Legend of Newroz" (2014) world premiere, and a second piece titled "Arman Arman" in the style of Khorasani Kurdish, uniquely featuring a large Kurdish daf (frame drum) within the dance, which was choreographed by him this year (2017) for the Dilan Dance Company performance at John Candy Theatre, Second City in June. 

Below are some photographs from this performance, all taken by photographer Ken Dobb. 

Photo Credit: Ken Dobb 

After the performance, I also got a chance to enjoy the dance performance by Silk Road Dance Company from Maryland, USA performing at the WestJet Stage at the Tirgan Festival. Then I went to Arabesque to attend the Iraqi hetcha3 workshop taught by Samantha Burnstein, visiting dancer and  choreographer (Sara Mali handcrafted jewellery) from Montreal. It was wonderful to partake in this workshop, which I found to be a very cathartic experience, and it was also great to reconnect with many friends whom I hadn't seen in a long time. 

From there, Mike picked me up and we headed east to  the Beaches Jazz Festival, and to the home of our friends Angelica and Doug, who hosted a Beaches afterparty Bloc party, where I performed solo as well as three dance numbers with the Ensemble Topaz dancers. 

Finally we ended the month of performances the next day, with the Ensemble Topaz dancers and I performing at the beautiful Grand Banking Hall at the One King West Hotel in downtown Toronto. We performed my new choreography to a well-loved Pashto song, at the request of the client, as well as a contemporary Arabic piece. Sharing below a few photos from this beautiful space. 

Was a fun month! 

A few more months until Mike and I take off on our overseas dance and music travels. It has been a good summer so far, and we hope to see you at some of our future public events! Please join us in September for two Culture Days events which we are proud and delighted to be a part of: first at Annette Street Library on September 29th (http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMEVT300182&R=EVT300182), and secondly at Palmerston Library Theatre on September 30th from 3:00-4:00 pm (http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=EVT297481). 

Both events are free! We look forward to sharing some of our work with you. 

Dancing in Intimate Spaces and Salons

The first day of 2017 found myself and Mike driving to a beautiful home in Bethesda. There I started my year dancing in a beautiful home, with exquisite decor. I performed there a small part of my classical Indian dance repertoire, and then also a bit of my Afghan repertoire. It was a warm and wonderful evening, full of friends old and new, and delicious traditional food, and was my introduction to the home-cooked Persian abgoosth. I share below some photos taken at this beautiful home. Among the exquisite decor in the home was the striking peacock lamp, which can be seen behind me. 

                                                 

                                                           Photo Credit: Arash Bateni

Upon returning to Toronto, my first Toronto performance was also, incidentally, in a home setting. This time, it was an Ensemble Topaz dance performance in a lavish and beautiful home of a wonderful arts philanthropist. Working in the arts industry always brings a variety of exciting dance and music experiences.  It is also interestingly coincidental that some of my first professional collaborations with Mike were at house concerts and in-house parties, where we partnered up as musician and dancer.

Last year, I had another interesting salon-space performance experience, at the Bellerive Room inside Toronto's beautiful Aga Khan Museum, during my Pop Up Performance weekend in November. Here's a photo from this performance in this beautiful Persian salon-style room, which also houses the Aga Khan family's private collection of ceramics. My last two performances on each of the two days were held in this room.

                                                    Photo Credit: Amin Bhanji 

During my years growing up in New Delhi, India, we would frequently find ourselves at house performances of both singing and dancing, as well as poetry recitation, for gatherings of family and friends. This parallel performance world lay outside of the formal performances done as a classical Indian dancer in more formal stages and events, and is perhaps a memory that most Bengali children
can relate to. The house concert, the intimate salon performance, or informal or somewhat formal performances in home spaces are both challenging and exciting. I also find that they often allow for an in-depth engagement with the audience, and as an artist, I enjoy inhabiting this parallel performance world in addition to the formal stage/performance space.

Reflections: Nowrooz Celebration and Exhibition of Afghan Culture

This year, I had the pleasure of attending Nowrooz Celebration and Exhibition of Afghan Culture hosted by the Pluralist Community at Noor Cultural Centre. This was my second visit to the Noor Cultural Centre (the first had been in 2013, for my own performance at the Intercultural Diversity Festival which had taken place exactly a week before my PhD defense! I remember at the time, several of my friends and family were asking me how I continued to actively perform professionally while finishing my dissertation and defense at final stages!). This was my first time returning to the Centre, three years after the completion of my PhD, in a much more relaxed time, and in celebration of Nowrooz.

The evening was filled with delicious food, sights and colours, between which I got a chance to engage in a few conversations. I most especially looked forward to the cultural performances, and throughout the evening I caught several beautiful performances.

The cultural events of the evening opened with a group vocal rendition by several young ladies, singing the traditional wheat-pudding stirring song "Samanak." They were all attired in their traditional outfits, and three beautiful ladies sitting at centre sang solo sections within the song.

There were recitations of poetry, in both Farsi and English, of the legendary Rumi, who was born in Balkh (in either Afghanistan or greater Bakh  in present-day Tajikistan - the exact location of his birthplace remains debated). This was followed by a Sama generously hosted by the Sufi Cultural Centre of Toronto. The whole room went into stillness as the musicians began, and a few minutes later, the whirlers entered and bowed to each other and then began the Sema.  This is a photograph  I managed to capture on my cellphone from this moving performance.

Sema at Noor Cultural Centre, generously hosted by Sufi Cultural Centre of Toronto

March 18, 2017

This had been the first time since my trip to Turkey in 2015 that I had the opportunity to witness Sema, complete with live music. During the 2015 dance study sojourn to Turkey (gratitude to Canada Council for the Arts), during the Istanbul stay, Hasan Evren, an excellent folk dancer, dance teacher and davul performer, and also friend and former colleague of Toronto-based Artistic Director Fethi Karakacili, had taken us to Darvish Cafe. Here is a photo I had taken back then.

Darwish Cafe, Sultanahmet, Istanbul, 2015

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At the Pluralist Nowrooz Exhibition, I also enjoyed a beautiful poem in English, filled with imagery, on Afghanistan, by a young poetess who recited her own poetry. I believe her name was Mozghan. There was also a dance performance done by four energetic young performers who had everyone cheering and clapping along!

I was also very engaged by a Dombura performance by a young gentleman. I did not catch his name. I am quickly beginning to gain a deep appreciation of this instrument, and hope to hear more of this young artist soon.


Throughout the evening, I had the opportunity to see some beautiful traditional dresses and headwear, and I took a few photos. Below is a Hazaragi headddress from Bamyan, Central Afghanistan.

The evening ended with a fashion show, with beautiful traditional costumes and jewellery. I captured this photo of the models in their outfits when they posed in front of the photo wall prior to the fashion show itself. 

A wonderful evening of rich colours, music, dance, poetry and food..I truly enjoyed it! 

Montreal in March!

This past weekend found me in vibrant and beautiful Montreal, a city to which I returned after several years. I was there as part of a Central Asian dance tour during which we stopped in the city for a night and performed at La Salle Oscar Peterson in 2008,  and a second time for  performance at Caf' Conc Theatre with the Saucy Tarts in 2011. 

This time, I had the engaging and joyful experience of teaching there. I taught a a class on Tajik dance, followed by workshop on Afghan and Anatolian dances, hosted by Sanaa Dance/Sanaa Danse at beautifully sunlit studios of Studio Caravane. It was a joy to meet the dancers there, some of whom were from the company and local to Montreal, and others who had come in to join the workshops from Trois-Rivières.

I stayed in Mile End, at the home of my dear friends Paroma and Branden.  They currently live in a beautiful home filled with very interesting books, and decor from across the world. As I played a song in my headphones the first night- "Mana Manam"- the Tajik Zafar Ayubi version (a song which has special significance for me - I heard it several years ago on the cassettes of my friend Sara, who played the Persian versions for me in Kingston), I enjoyed the glow of this beautiful hanging lamp. Coincidentally, this lamp also reminds me of a tulip flower, which is recurrent in poetry and imagery of many Persianate and Central Asian cultures, which felt like a fitting atmosphere for this song! 

Below is a photo taken at the Studio Caravane the next day, with the brave participants of the workshop! I am wearing here the costume from Diyarbakir, Turkey which Gonul Ozturkman (faculty member at Dicle University State Conservatory Dance Department in Diyarbakir) helped me select. 

It was truly a delight to work with all of them, and I also cherished catching up briefly with Samantha Burnstein, the Artistic Director of Sanaa Dance (http://www.sanaafolklore.com/), whose work on folklore dancing I deeply respect. The company is hosting some fantastic folklore workshops this month, the details of which can be found on their Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/Sanaa-Dance-Sanaa-Danse-247173315413126/