Arabesque Dance Company & Orchestra present
OUM (mother)
: Feb. 11, 12, 13, 14. at 8:00pm
: Feb. 13, 14. at 2:00pm
: Fleck Dance Theatre at Harbourfront Centre, 207 Queen’s Quay at York, Toronto
: $25-35
: 416.973.4000
: harbourfrontcentre.com/whatson/today.cfm?id=1578
: 416.920.5593, www.arabesquedance.ca
: 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