404 Jarvis St
Toronto, Ontario

Abilities Arts Festival and Peggy Baker Dance Projects present
The Neat Strange Music of Ahmed Hassan
October 21 – 22 at the Betty Oliphant Theatre

Abilities Arts Festival, in association with Peggy Baker Dance Projects, presents The Neat Strange Music of Ahmed Hassan, a multidisciplinary celebration of the singular artistic vision of the late beloved and influential Canadian musician Ahmed Hassan, October 21-22 at the Betty Oliphant Theatre.

Curated by award-winning contemporary dancer Peggy Baker, Hassan's wife and longtime collaborator, this tribute features an exceptional selection of Ahmed's music for dance. On the program are excerpts from the work of some of Canada's leading choreographers including:

Robert Desrosiers' spectacular Blue Snake. He created the highly acclaimed futuristic ballet for the National Ballet of Canada in 1985.

Serge Bennathan's Dora-winning Sable/Sand with live vocals by Maryem Hassan Tollar. Choreographed as an homage to his father, Sable/Sand is a reflection on Bennathan's Algerian heritage and the result of lengthy conversations with his father about the memory of the senses.

Peggy Baker, performs her own Sanctum. Sanctum proposes a parallel between artistic practice and spiritual practice. Cut off from one another and each confined to a small portion of the vast stage, dancer/choreographer Peggy Baker and percussionist Debashis Sinha are each discovered in the private and ritualized act of creation.

Peggy Baker's Geometry of the Circle performed by vocalist Mark Brose and danced by Sahara Morimoto. As a duet for musician and dancer, Geometry of the Circle traces the courtship of a most unlikely couple, revealing the delightful and inventive ways they find of connecting.

Peter Bingham, performs With Ahmed in Mind. ASL interpreters join him on stage and will capture the conversations in a soundscape created by Debashis Sinha with Peggy Baker that includes a recording of portions of Ahmed’s first berimbau lesson with his Brazilian teacher, Nana Vasconcelos.

Abilities Arts Festival, in association with Peggy Baker Dance Projects, presents
The Neat Strange Music of Ahmed Hassan - October 21-22, 8pm
Betty Oliphant Theatre, 400 Jarvis Street
Tickets: $25 general (Discounts for seniors, students <19, and people with disabilities)
Tickets and info available online at http://www.abilitiesartsfestival.org or at 1-888-844-9991

Official Website: http://www.abilitiesartsfestival.org

Added by dwcommunications1 on October 7, 2011

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