Lots For Kids at Buskerfest

Scotiabank BuskerFest, the largest festival of its kind, returns to the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood this weekend  for the 12th consecutive year featuring more than 100 of the world’s top street performers. Running from Thursday thru Sunday (August 25 – 28), Buskerfest is a charity event in support of Epilepsy Toronto. Highlights this year include a special kids play area (located in Market Lane Park) with family-oriented performances by The Ben Show, Mr. Toons, Cyclops, Leapin’ Louie Lichtenstein, Yoshi and Scott Jackson.

The sixth annual Fire Show combines the best of all the festival’s fire acts, and features Pyromancer, Fireguy, FlameOz, Pancho Libre and Leapin’ Louie Lichtenstein, as well as appearances by the XL-INSECTS (above right). The festival wraps up Sunday at 6:30 pm on the Metro Stage in Berczy Park with the Grande Finale, featuring performances by some of the festival’s top international performers, as well as the announcement of this year’s Metro People’s Choice Award winner.

Photos by SevenStock

West End Dusk Dances

Dusk Dances touched down at Earlscourt Park (St. Clair West and Caledonia Road) last night for the first of four entertaining performances (August 18 – 21) featuring an ArtStarts B-Boy and B-Girl crew that included dancer Luis, above. Choreographed by Jon ‘Drops’ Reid, far right (featured on LiveWithCulture.ca in May 2010), the work, called Brand New Old School, was a real crowd pleaser.

Also excellent was choreographer Jenn Goodwin’s Stink featuring Molly Johnson, Zhenya Cerneacov, Mariana Medellin-Meinke and Andy Luck who bounded and bounced beneath a mature maple with the help of super-strength rubber bands. Dusk Dances are pay-what-you-can events that attract a diverse cross section of audience members from across the neighbourhood. Catch it if you can this weekend starting at 7 pm each night.

Another Thrilling, Sleepless Night

Through the Gorilla Glass, 2011, by Spencer Rand, Jonathan Wong, Andrea Ling and Jonah Humphrey; GUILD Kinetic Sculpture and Light Installation

The line-up has been announced for Toronto’s sixth annual Nuit Blanche and there’s lots to stay up late for. As in past years, the downtown core has been divvied into three curated zones with dozens of additional independent artist projects. Curators Candice Hopkins (Zone A, Restaging the Encounter), Shirley Madill (Zone B, The Future of the Present) and Nicholas Brown (Zone C, You Had To Go Looking For It) have called upon local and international artists to flesh out their themes. This year’s program features a series of Nuit Talks during the week leading up to the big event; on the afternoon of October 1, the three curators provide a sneak peak of the night ahead from 3:30 – 5:30 pm in the City Hall Rotunda.

Visit the Nuit Blanche website to peruse the projects and plan your evening; the event kicks off at 7 pm October 1 and runs until 7 am the next morning.

Ascension, 2011 by Isabelle Hayeur (Video Installation)

Keeping Kathak Current

Rina Singha claims she’ll take a step back and focus on herself after Kathak Mahotsav Canada this weekend (August 18 – 20), but I have my doubts. The 74-year-old founder of the Rina Singha Kathak Dance Organization is indefatigable, still teaching – albeit less than she once did — and still dancing, despite wearing braces on both of her knees. She takes blood pressure medication and has lost an inch in height these past few years due to osteoporosis but I found the 4′ 11″ dynamo in a St. Paul’s Trinity rehearsal studio Monday afternoon, sharpening her chops before this weekend’s performances.

“I have to be careful,” she tells me. “I can’t do pivots anymore so I have to adjust the movements to make sure my weight transfer is done carefully. After this show I’m going to take my doctor’s advice and have injections in my knees but I wanted to wait until after the performance because I don’t know how I’m going to react to the medicine.”

Singha abides by the “use it or lose it” philosophy of Toronto’s famous jock doc, Michael Clarfield, and so she keeps dancing, a form of self-expression with deep spiritual significance for her.

“In the early 1970s I collapsed with a herniated disc,” she remembers, “and they told me I might never walk again; I had a 50 per cent chance. I made a bargain prayer with God saying, ‘If you make me well, I’ll dance for you.’ ” READ MORE

Art Opening: Views Along the Don

Pottery Road may be closed for the summer but that didn’t stop a good sized crowd from finding their way to the Papermill Gallery at Todmorden Mills yesterday for the opening of Views Along the Don, a show of work by members of the Don Valley Art Club augmented by works from the City of Toronto’s permanent art collection. Ward 29 Councillor Mary Fragedakis, far left, was on hand to make a few remarks alongside DVAC President Frances Craig, centre, and Karen Black, Manager of Toronto Museum Services. The show features excellent work in a wide range of styles and mediums. Views Along the Don runs until September 4; access Todmorden Mills from Bayview Avenue, the Pottery Road entrance is open to local traffic, don’t worry about the construction crews.