The Weekender: Dance Weekend, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan and four other events on our to-do list

The Weekender: Dance Weekend, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan and four other events on our to-do list

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan plays The Garrison on Friday

1. YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN
Just decoding Yamantaka // Sonic Titan’s description of their own sound—“psychedelic noh-wave opera group fusing noise, metal, pop and folk music into a multidisciplinary hyper-orientalist cesspool of ‘east’ meets ‘west’ culture”—would be sufficient fodder for an ethnomusicology master’s thesis. The Montreal and Toronto collective’s sort-of-proggy, sort-of-punky debut, YT//ST, was short-listed for the Polaris Music Prize last year (Feist ended up winning), and drew raves from the likes of Pitchfork for its inventive sonic textures and pulsing rhythms. Their live show has earned buzz for its theatricality, including costumes that recall Japanese theatre and KISS in equal measure. January 18. $10. The Garrison, 1197 Dundas St. W., 416-519-9439, ticketweb.ca

2. DANCE WEEKEND ’13
Now in its 20th year, Dance Ontario’s big annual party brings together hundreds of dancers for dozens of performances at Harbourfront. This year’s crop includes practitioners of ballet, bharatanatyam, jazz, contemporary, flamenco, breakdancing and more, and kicks off with a performance by Toronto’s AKA Dance, which blends Canadian and Japanese traditions. January 18–20. Minimum donation $10. Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay W., 416-973-4000, harbourfrontcentre.com

3. INVISIBLE EMPIRES (FREE!)
In this new exhibit at The Art Gallery of York University, installation artist Deanna Bowen plumbs the complicated history of the Ku Klux Klan not just in the American South but in Canada as well. The centrepiece is a reenactment of a 1965 CBC interview with a pair of Klansmen and civil rights activist Reverend James Bevel, with the latter played by Maestro Fresh Wes (the performance takes place on January 16, and will be replaced by a video projection for the rest of the exhibit’s run). January 16–March 17. The Art Gallery of York University. Accolade East Building, 4700 Keele St., 416.736.5169, theagyuisoutthere.org

4. AN EVENING OF MOLECULAR CUISINE
Australian-born chef John Placko has been a tireless promoter in Toronto of the sort of high-flying culinary techniques celebrated in Modernist Cuisine. At this interactive demonstration, held under the auspices of his Modern Culinary Academy, Placko will cover sous-vide cooking, rapid freezing, dehydration and the techniques involved in creating spheres, gels, snows and that most maligned molecular substance, foams. January 18. $70. Location announced after ticket purchase. uniiverse.com

5. SHEN YUN
This New York–based dance company’s connection to Falun Dafa (otherwise known as Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China) has garnered a lot of attention, but the company would rather be known for its grand productions featuring traditional Chinese dance and music. The stats are certainly impressive: 5,000 years of art to draw upon, 100 classical musicians and dancers to work with and 400 flashy costumes to put them in. January 17–20. $60-$200. Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. 1-855-872-7669, sonycentre.ca

6. MAPLE LEAF MONSTER JAM
Watching the wheels go ’round and ’round is always more fun when those wheels are the size of a tool shed. This two-day monster truckapalooza at the Rogers Centre features side-by-side racing and the far-more-entertaining freestyle competition, where each truck is given 90 seconds to give its best display of automotive gymnastics. Expect such jacked-up eminences as Grave Digger, El Toro Loco, Metal Mulisha and Canada’s own freestyle champ, Northern Nightmare. January 18–20. $25–$52. Rogers Centre, 1 Blue Jays Way, 1-855-985-5000, ticketmaster.ca