Festival of India Arts and Culture
The 39th Annual Festival of India, which will be celebrated on Centre Island from July 16-17, 2011 once again proudly presents its unique Arts & Culture Showcase, a beautiful and soul-riveting program of devotional music and dramatic dance from the ancient subcontinent.
Rain-or-shine, in a tented, outdoor venue, this show grants audiences a free ticket to observe the spiritual allure and the creative elegance of dramas, melodies, and choreography that were once commonplace in ancient, spiritual India. With a lineup of internationally acclaimed artists and performers, the program promises a unique and unforgettable collection of sublime sounds and enchanting performances.
Dance Performances from Across South Asia
Menaka Thakkar Dance Company – Bharatnatyam
Kumari Ellora Patnaik & Guru Sri Devraj Patnaik – Odissi
Enakshi Das – Odissi
Panwar Music and Dance Productions – Kathak
Uma Vasudevan – Bharatnatyam
Experience Kirtan
The 39th Annual Festival of India ’s Arts & Culture extravaganza will be showcasing traditional and modern forms of a devotional music style known as kirtan. In recent years, word about this form of music has been spreading and developing into its own subculture and modern indie music scene. At the Festival of India, audiences will be able to experience kirtan performances by a number of classically-trained local and international kirtan musicians and bands. Traditional South Asian instruments and mantras together with contemporary sounds and rhythms will burst forth into ecstatic, new musical experiences that must be heard to be believed!
Explore India’s Spiritual Roots on Centre Island
The Festival of India also features a vibrant parade down Yonge Street on Saturday, July 16th, with celebrations continuing on Toronto’s beautiful Centre Island for the remainder of the weekend. Aside from the Arts & Culture Showcase, festival-goers will find a massive, colourful and free festival, featuring a South Asian bazaar, Vedic exhibits, a children’s area, face-painting, and our world-famous FREE vegetarian feast! On Sunday, July 17th, the Festival will also present the Fourth Annual Yoga Meltdown – a “festival within a festival” – focusing on presenting the spiritual depth of yoga and much more!
For more info visit the Festival of India website or call 1-888-535-FEST (3378).
This article first appeared on MyBindi.com and is re-posted here with permission
Lion King’s Hometown Connections
Toronto’s connection with Disney’s The Lion King runs deep; the show had its Canadian premier at the Princess of Wales Theatre in April 2000 where it ran for nearly four years, and two local pros – Associate Director John Stefaniuk and Puppet Supervisor Michael Reilly (above) – have been helping to keep the touring show on the road for nearly a decade.
That’s a long time to work on a single project but both men insist that The Lion King’s spectacular staging (courtesy of director/creator Julie Taymor) and unrelenting schedule help to keep the work fresh, year after year. Stefaniuk travels the world checking in with seven productions running simultaneously on three continents. “It’s kind of like a bridge,” he says, “you finish one somewhere in the world, then it’s time to fly off and start one somewhere else.”
“It’s not just about seeing what’s wrong,” he adds. “It’s about inspiring people to bring out their best and being able to nurture and coax them to find qualities that maybe they didn’t know they had. I don’t want these shows to be replicas of each other, to be cookie cutter versions of the original. Each cast brings out unique qualities that only they have to give. It’s like being the captain of a ship and steering it in the best direction because there are lots of ways to get there.” READ MORE
Shriners Parade Causes Traffic Chaos
My ears are still ringing from the horn blasts of this Shriners car making its happy way up Bay Street this afternoon following the Shriner’s Imperial Day parade on University Avenue. Downtown traffic was paralyzed by grid-lock as east/west routes in the city core were diverted onto adjacent streets. The Shriners appeared to be having a ball unlike the commuters forced to share the roads with these wacky do-gooders (Shriners work tirelessly raising money for children’s hospitals). With streetcars reduced to a crawl, walking became the better way, heat wave or not.
HarbourKIDS CIRCUS Promises Serious Fun
Toronto isn’t known as a circus town, at least not compared to Montreal, which is home to the National Circus School and the internationally renowned Cirque du Soleil. But T.O. is carving out a niche on the circus map as this weekend’s 8th annual International Circus Festival at Harbourfront will make crystal clear. The three-day HarbourKIDS: CIRCUS is co-produced by Toronto’s own Zero Gravity Circus, a company that’s been operating in an old Vaudeville house on Gerrard Street East for the past five years. When it’s not in use by circus professionals, the Centre of Gravity Theatre (1300 Gerrard Street) operates after-school circus classes for youngsters from 4 – 6 pm; tweens and teens take over the space after that. Proteges of the school, dubbed the Canadian National Youth Circus (ages 9 – 13), perform on the Harbourfront mainstage each day at noon. There are also all-day sessions called You Can Try It Circus where curious kids can have a go at juggling, stilt walking, even aerial hoop and silk tricks.
“After they discover for themselves how hard it is, the kids will be even more impressed when they see the Youth Circus,” states Centre of Gravity coach Jen Georgopoulos, above, herself an accomplished aerial acrobat and alumnus of Cirque du Soleil. Her companion in the photo is professional clown Foo (Helen Donnelly), who co-hosts the mainstage shows with her diva sidekick Chandeleirva (Suzette Araujo).
Heritage Walk Season Begins in Scarborough
The weather forecast for Saturday has improved considerably and Scott Woodland, for one, couldn’t be happier about it. A director of the Scarborough Historical Society, Woodland will leading the Thomson Pioneer Settlement walk May 1 beginning at 1:30 pm: it’s the first Heritage Toronto Walk of the season, one of dozens of free, real-time explorations of the city’s present and past.
A public school teacher and committed history buff, Woodland, above centre, is an expert on the early days of Scarborough and its founding family, the Thomsons. “David and Mary Thomson were the first European settlers to be given a land grant in the area [around 1798] although there had been native villages on the site going back about 800 years,” says Woodland.
