Featuring much Senegalese drumming and dancing including Thiokh Diagne, Papa Ndiaye, Elage Mbaye, Elhadj Diouf. Other performances by Saba and more…

Date: Saturday August 7, 2010
Venue: 237 Sackville St at Dundas & Parliament, Toronto
Tickets: Advance - $20; Door - $25
Info & Tickets: Tamsir Seck, 416.893.7941, xawaretoronto@yahoo.com
Event also includes Sabar style drum and dance workshops. Contact Tamsir Seck for info.

Saba will be presenting a selection Ethiopian dances at this Festival.

Date: Saturday August 7, 2010
Venue: Scarborough Village Park, by Cedar Drive & Kingston Rd

Come celebrate Créole culture at the Festival Kompa Zouk Toronto. Jaivah Nouvel Exposé will also be performing.

Date: Sunday, August 1, 2010
Venue: Metro Hall Square, 55 John Street on King

The African Women’s Alliance of Waterloo Region an exciting annual celebration to share in African cultures. Take part in traditional drumming, incredible dance, delicious food, beautiful African art and more. A special day for Africans and lovers of African culture from all over Waterloo. Celebrate our Diversity! Celebrate our Unity! Celebrate our Pride!

DATE: Saturday, July 24, 2010
TIME: Noon to Sundown
VENUE: Waterloo Park, Waterloo ON
INFO: 519.578.9570 or www.creationafrica.com/afrofestival

Sound The Horn and P2P Aid Organization (Canada) are pleased to present the 6th Annual Selam Youth Festival, a performance based art festival introducing this year’s 10 Sound the Horn Youth Leaders, many performing for the first time. An evening filled with song, dance, poetry, and so much more, featuring some of the most talented Ethiopian & Eritrean artists from from our very own city.

Also Special Performances by Baby Boyz Dance Crew, Kaid, Vital and Jaivah Nouvel Exposé alongside youtube sensation, Zewdy. Music by DJ INC

DATE: Saturday July 17
DOORS: 7PM
SHOW: 8PM
VENUE: The Estonian Hall, 958 Broadview Ave, North of Danforth, Toronto
FREE!!
INFO: www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=131144796913131

Jaivah Nouvel Exposé will be jamming at the Coca Cola FIFA World Cup Celebrations this summer. Come watch the games, dance with us, cheer your team and enjoy the festivities. Also featuring master drummers Amadou Kienou and Amara Kante.

FINAL DATES: July 10 & 11
TIME: Between 2 – 5
VENUE: Afrofest at Queen’s Park, Toronto.

Luminato explores intersections between Eastern and Western musical traditions with a free all day musical event featuring artists from around the globe. Rock The Casbah features Toronto’s Maryem Tollar Ensemble, bringing their world music fusion to the stage. The Maryem Tollar Ensemble will welcome three guest dancers to the stage including Joanna De Souza (Artistic Director of Toronto Talla Ensemble); Saba Alemayehu Asfaw (African & Middle Eastern dance); and Roula Said (Middle Eastern Dance).

Date: Saturday, June 12
Time: 2PM
Venue: Queen’s Park
FREE!!

The Ethiopian Students Association International 2010 Summit will be in Toronto featuring many interesting discussions, workshops, performances, and networking events. The mission of ESAI is to help Ethiopian students progress academically, improve the lives of Ethiopians, and create a networking environment between Ethiopian students and professionals.
Saba will be part of the iCreate panel discussion on Arts & Culture alongside Weyni Mengesha, Assegid Gessesse and Hendeke Asrat on Saturday March 27.

Summit Dates: March 25 - 28, 2010
Info: www.esai.org and http://esai.org/summit/2010/

The Students from both Swahili classes in the African Studies Program at the University of Toronto would like to invite you to Dunia Moja – One World. The purpose of the event is to celebrate African Cultures through live performances, delicious cuisines, displays of arts and crafts and representitives of various African-Canadian organizations. Through this event we hope to inspire a future university-wide initiative of an all-in-a-day world rendezvous of the diverse cultures that are reflected in this great city of Toronto! Saba will be performing as part of the evening’s festivities.

Date: March 20, 2010
Venue: 45 Wilcox St, Toronto
Info: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187653144686

Arabesque Dance Company & Orchestra present
OUM (mother)

Evening Performances: Feb. 11, 12, 13, 14. at 8:00pm
Matinee Performances: Feb. 13, 14. at 2:00pm
Venue: Fleck Dance Theatre at Harbourfront Centre, 207 Queen’s Quay at York, Toronto
Tickets: $25-35
Box Office: 416.973.4000
Online Box Office: harbourfrontcentre.com/whatson/today.cfm?id=1578
Info: 416.920.5593, www.arabesquedance.ca

PREVIEW: Youtube.com/watch?v=OK8QCVaWN34

OUM (mother)
The Essence of Arab Art, a Profound Dance & Musical Experience

Arabesque Dance Company and Orchestra presents its ground breaking new production OUM (Mother) at Fleck Dance Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, for six performances from February 11 to 14, 2010. The swirling, undulating style and skills of Arabesque celebrates the Mother of Arab Music, the timeless Oum Kalthoum. The only performing arts company of its kind in the world, Arabesque features an orchestra of live acoustic Arabic music and vocals accompanying 18 male and female dancers expressing Bellydance, Whirling Dervish and the ritual arts of the Middle East.

OUM will offer several pieces in the first act with a boisterous scene in an Egyptian cafe, a masculine martial arts dance, the feminine Bellydance and back by popular demand, the Zaar. The second act features the title piece OUM. The voice of Oum Kalthoum had the power to start and stop wars. Egypt’s greatest poets and composers would dream that their words and melodies might be expressed through her revered voice.

Forty years after her death, Oum Kalthoum is the most important musical figure in the Middle East, heard in every taxicab, cafe and apartment from Morocco to Iran. Each of songs was at least one hour long, always describing profound love in its many facets. She refused to be recorded in a studio or interviewed with a tape recorder or notes. Oum Kalthoum always demanded that she be experienced live, honest and authentic. So many poetic phrases and moving melodies in her large repertoire of songs are part of the everyday fabric of Middle Eastern culture.

Arabesque’s Musical director Bassam Bishara has arranged a glorious montage of many of Oum Kalthoum’s most memorable musical moments while choreographer Yasmina Ramzy has created a visual expression of these moments with 14 dance artists. “This has definitely been the most difficult challenge of my career but I believe there will not be a dry eye in the audience or on stage when OUM debuts” says Ramzy. All 27 members of the company are excited about this new artistic endeavour.

“Seduces Completely” The Globe & Mail