{"id":38798,"date":"2022-05-06T01:47:59","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T08:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=38798"},"modified":"2022-05-04T14:03:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T21:03:11","slug":"mixing-global-music-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2022\/05\/06\/mixing-global-music-dance\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixing global music, dance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dancers Alvin Erasga Tolentino, left, and Gabriel Dharmoo in Passages of Rhythms, in which Jonathan Bernard (below) is a percussionist. (photo by Yasuhiro Okada)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPassages of Rhythms<\/em> is inspired by a shared fascination with interculturalism, interdisciplinary activity, flamenco and collaborations between cultures,\u201d percussionist Jonathan Bernard told the Independent<\/em> about the Co.ERASGA production, which is being remounted May 19 and 20 at PAL Studio Theatre, in recognition of Asian Heritage Month. May is also Jewish Heritage Month.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada is becoming well-known as an international centre of intercultural arts,\u201d said Bernard, a member of the Jewish community. \u201cI very much look forward to the remount and a bright future for the show on Canadian and international stages.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Passages of Rhythms<\/em>, Co.ERASGA\u2019s Alvin Erasga Tolentino highlights flamenco, Bharatanatyam and voices for the body, in a collaboration with local Chinese-Canadian flamenco artist Kasandra \u201cLa China,\u201d Indo-Canadian Bharatanatyam dancer Sujit Vaidya and Montreal voice artist Gabriel Dharmoo. Ronald Stelting joins Bernard on the percussion music, and Jonathan Kim provides the lighting.<\/p>\n

Bernard was in the original production, which took place at the Firehall Theatre as part of the Dancing on the Edge festival in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe creation process of Passages<\/em> was very smooth, full of joy and dedication, and the result brought a standing ovation from an enthusiastic audience,\u201d he said. \u201cAlvin is a director with a warm heart, an open mind, and is a passionate artist, so I\u2019m overjoyed to be part of the remount.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a dream gig for me,\u201d he continued, \u201cas I caught the flamenco bug back around 2005, I\u2019ve traveled to the birthplace of flamenco in southern Spain to study and I\u2019ve happily spent countless hours collaborating with flamenco dancers at local flamenco venues and on the concert stage. Kasandra was my first flamenco teacher, and we have had an artistic relationship going back to the mid-2000s. One of our groups, Orchid Ensemble, collaborated with Kasandra\u2019s and Oscar Nieto\u2019s Al Mozaico Flamenco Theatre to create a show named after the famous Caf\u00e9 de Chinitas in Malaga, where Frederico Garcia Lorca penned some of his most famous works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Passages of Rhythms is percussionist Jonathan Bernard\u2019s \u201cdream gig.\u201d (photo from Jonathan Bernard)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another reason this is a dream gig for Bernard, he said, \u201cis that I have the pleasure of surrounding myself with many of my favourite instruments, collected from 25 years of travel and study around the world, scouring through ancient temple and traditional markets for the best sounding instruments. For example, you will see\/hear temple bells and opera cymbals from Beijing and Sichuan province; tuned gongs found in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos; the riqq (Arabic frame drum), handmade in Cairo\u2019s old city; bells from India; and, of course, the cajon, a box drum adapted into the flamenco tradition in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy compositional ideas that form the soundscape for Passages<\/em> are not only inspired by the dancers\u2019 movement,\u201d he said, \u201cbut by the instruments themselves and the ancient styles traditions they represent. Further, as most often I am busy interpreting the work of composers, Passages gave me a chance to compose my own original music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the mid-1990s, Bernard and his wife and artistic partner Lan Tung have been creating intercultural ensembles, mixing instruments and instrumentalists from traditions ranging from Chinese, South Asian, Persian, Arabic, North African and Western traditions, creating original Canadian music, and touring internationally. \u201cWe looked to ancient centres of interculturalism such as the Silk Road and El Andalus for inspiration, and as reflections of our own unique\u00a0cultural environment,\u201d he said. \u201cAndalusia was a golden age of interculturalism, where Jews, Muslims and Christians lived in relative peace and shared knowledge and cultural traditions, from architecture to music to the culinary arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the birthplace of flamenco \u2013 approximately one hour by train to the ancient Mediterranean port city of Cadiz \u2013 was located in the heart of Andalusia, I believe flamenco was certainly shaped by the liberal sharing and mixing of traditions,\u201d he said. \u201cFor example, the 12-beat time cycles that are of central importance to West and North African traditions are also deeply embedded in flamenco forms; the castanets and palmas (interlocking handclaps) can be found in the carcabas and rhythms of the Gnawa and Berber people of Africa; the Ashkenazi cantorial traditions must have influenced the passionate flamenco vocal style. It might be said that flamenco borrowed rhythmic elements from North Africa, melodic elements from the pre-inquisition Ashkenazi Ladino song, and with simple harmonic structures and the guitar from Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Passages of Rhythms<\/em>\u2019 May 19 and 20 performances start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 ($20 for students and seniors) and can be purchased at eventbrite.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dancers Alvin Erasga Tolentino, left, and Gabriel Dharmoo in Passages of Rhythms, in which Jonathan Bernard (below) is a percussionist. (photo by Yasuhiro Okada) \u201cPassages of Rhythms is inspired by a shared fascination with interculturalism, interdisciplinary activity, flamenco and collaborations between cultures,\u201d percussionist Jonathan Bernard told the Independent about the Co.ERASGA production, which is being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[788,785],"tags":[21507,21506,3119,21504,21503,21505],"class_list":["post-38798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-performing-arts","tag-alvin-erasga-tolentino","tag-co-erasga","tag-dance","tag-jonathan-bernard","tag-passages-of-rhythms","tag-percussion"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}