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'FOLLOW YOUR HEART' AT FLECK DANCE THEATRE TELLS MIDDLE EASTERN LOVE STORY THROUGH DANCE
Toronto Star, Ont. Canada
May 8 2014
The story probes a recurrent Canadian theme: the struggle between
contemporary norms and traditional values.
By: Michael Crabb Dance, Published on Thu May 08 2014
Photos View photos
zoom
Follow Your Heart, the title of Toronto-based Evolution Dance Theatre's
new production, pretty much sums up the life and mission of company
founder/director Armineh Keshishian.
Keshishian, a Christian of Armenian descent born and raised in
Muslim-dominated Iran, has defied culture and custom to fulfil a
personal dream. She's brought to the stage a series of works, five
so far, strongly coloured by her own Middle Eastern heritage yet
informed by a modern vision that celebrates cultural diversity.
"My interest has always been in the commonalties, not in the things
that divide us," says Keshishian.
Follow Your Heart, a spectacle composed of a 47-member cast of dancers,
actors and musicians, along with dazzling costumes and decors, video
imagery and evocative lighting, tells the story of Almaza (Teria
Morada), a modern Middle Eastern woman in love with a very traditional
man, Jivan (Mateo Galindo Torres), with a controlling mother.
Apart from providing the pretext for some steamy dance duets, it's a
story that probes a recurrent theme in Canada's multicultural society:
the struggle between contemporary -- effectively Western secular --
norms and traditional values.
Around this core narrative, Keshishian has built a show that fuses
a kaleidoscope of dance styles from belly dance to hip hop and
traditional Middle Eastern music to African drumming. The show's
finale features a fusion drum ensemble that includes female Persian
percussionist Naghmeh Farahmand. In one scene, Erepuni, the dance
ensemble of Toronto's Hamazkayin Armenian Cultural Association,
will perform a sabre dance to Aram Khatchachurian's familiar music.
Although she has been able to attract small sponsorships and a number
of donors, Keshishian herself has been Evolution Dance Theatre's
primary financial support. When she's not working on a production,
Keshishian earns her living as a certified financial planner.
A multi-tasking woman by necessity, Keshishian is wise enough to know
she can't do everything. Among the experienced team she's assembled
for Follow Your Heart is rehearsal director Kendra Ray from Detroit.
Ray is an accomplished belly dancer but, like several members of the
company, she came to it from the outside.
"I don't have a drop of Middle Eastern blood in my veins," says Ray.
"I was drawn to it by the music and the movement."
And Ray became very, very good at belly dancing. Last year she was
called in as an expert consultant to put a little Middle Eastern
sensuality into the Scheherazade free dance program that propelled
American skaters Meryl Davis and Charlie White to ice dance Olympic
Gold in Sochi.
Now Ray is using her skills to ensure that Keshishian's choreographic
vision, incorporating such a fusion of styles, is achieved. It's
a complex task, as Ray explains, because the dance inhabits a
technically complex production with lots of tight cues and multiple
costume changes. Happily, Keshishian has a seasoned stage manager,
Isolde Pleasants-Faulkner, to keep it all running smoothly.
Keshishian arrived in Toronto on a student visa -- she has a business
degree from York University -- just before Iran's 1979 revolution. She
has never returned. Keshishian regards Canada as a place where someone
from a traditional background, such as herself, can forge her own
destiny and follow her heart. The liberation and self-empowerment of
that journey is what she wants to share with audiences.
Says Keshishian: "It's a universal message."
Follow Your Heart runs May 8 to 11 at the Fleck Dance Theatre, 207
Queens Quay W., May 8 to 11; 416-973-4000 or www.evolutiondt.ca
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stage/2014/05/08/follow_your_heart_at_fleck_dance_theatre_tells_mid dle_eastern_love_story_through_dance.html
Toronto Star, Ont. Canada
May 8 2014
The story probes a recurrent Canadian theme: the struggle between
contemporary norms and traditional values.
By: Michael Crabb Dance, Published on Thu May 08 2014
Photos View photos
zoom
Follow Your Heart, the title of Toronto-based Evolution Dance Theatre's
new production, pretty much sums up the life and mission of company
founder/director Armineh Keshishian.
Keshishian, a Christian of Armenian descent born and raised in
Muslim-dominated Iran, has defied culture and custom to fulfil a
personal dream. She's brought to the stage a series of works, five
so far, strongly coloured by her own Middle Eastern heritage yet
informed by a modern vision that celebrates cultural diversity.
"My interest has always been in the commonalties, not in the things
that divide us," says Keshishian.
Follow Your Heart, a spectacle composed of a 47-member cast of dancers,
actors and musicians, along with dazzling costumes and decors, video
imagery and evocative lighting, tells the story of Almaza (Teria
Morada), a modern Middle Eastern woman in love with a very traditional
man, Jivan (Mateo Galindo Torres), with a controlling mother.
Apart from providing the pretext for some steamy dance duets, it's a
story that probes a recurrent theme in Canada's multicultural society:
the struggle between contemporary -- effectively Western secular --
norms and traditional values.
Around this core narrative, Keshishian has built a show that fuses
a kaleidoscope of dance styles from belly dance to hip hop and
traditional Middle Eastern music to African drumming. The show's
finale features a fusion drum ensemble that includes female Persian
percussionist Naghmeh Farahmand. In one scene, Erepuni, the dance
ensemble of Toronto's Hamazkayin Armenian Cultural Association,
will perform a sabre dance to Aram Khatchachurian's familiar music.
Although she has been able to attract small sponsorships and a number
of donors, Keshishian herself has been Evolution Dance Theatre's
primary financial support. When she's not working on a production,
Keshishian earns her living as a certified financial planner.
A multi-tasking woman by necessity, Keshishian is wise enough to know
she can't do everything. Among the experienced team she's assembled
for Follow Your Heart is rehearsal director Kendra Ray from Detroit.
Ray is an accomplished belly dancer but, like several members of the
company, she came to it from the outside.
"I don't have a drop of Middle Eastern blood in my veins," says Ray.
"I was drawn to it by the music and the movement."
And Ray became very, very good at belly dancing. Last year she was
called in as an expert consultant to put a little Middle Eastern
sensuality into the Scheherazade free dance program that propelled
American skaters Meryl Davis and Charlie White to ice dance Olympic
Gold in Sochi.
Now Ray is using her skills to ensure that Keshishian's choreographic
vision, incorporating such a fusion of styles, is achieved. It's
a complex task, as Ray explains, because the dance inhabits a
technically complex production with lots of tight cues and multiple
costume changes. Happily, Keshishian has a seasoned stage manager,
Isolde Pleasants-Faulkner, to keep it all running smoothly.
Keshishian arrived in Toronto on a student visa -- she has a business
degree from York University -- just before Iran's 1979 revolution. She
has never returned. Keshishian regards Canada as a place where someone
from a traditional background, such as herself, can forge her own
destiny and follow her heart. The liberation and self-empowerment of
that journey is what she wants to share with audiences.
Says Keshishian: "It's a universal message."
Follow Your Heart runs May 8 to 11 at the Fleck Dance Theatre, 207
Queens Quay W., May 8 to 11; 416-973-4000 or www.evolutiondt.ca
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stage/2014/05/08/follow_your_heart_at_fleck_dance_theatre_tells_mid dle_eastern_love_story_through_dance.html