Today in Toronto: The Book Summit, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Enana Dance Theatre
The Book Summit: Sci-fi writer Robert J. Sawyer, city librarian Jane Pyper and the New York Times’ insanely-on-top-of-things tech columnist David Pogue gather for an all-day summit on the future of the book. Find out more >>
Enana Dance Theatre: Enana Dance Theatre presents Julia Domna, the tale of the folk heroine and wife of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus as told through traditional Syrian dance. Find out more >>
Beyond Imaginings: Following Respect, a documentary view of Canada’s boreal forests featured on panels on Harbourfront’s grounds in 2009, the centre’s head of visual arts, Patrick Macaulay, brought together eight photographers to showcase the Greenbelt’s attributes. Find out more >>
Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Isabel Bayrakdarian: One of Toronto’s favourite sopranos appears as a soloist with the TSO and Peter Oundjian in Maurice Ravel’s evocative song cycle Shéhérazade. Find out more >>
Just came back from ‘Julia Domna’. For those uninitiated in the ‘Caracalla’ dance-theatre style, seeing female gladiators and Egyptian high priests in ‘Walk like an Egyptian’ poses, men in golden tights and blue tunics pigeon-toe, white feathered ‘angels’ arabesque across the stage, and a percussive Syrian ‘dabkeh’ dance in which the audience members pitch in with clapping and dancing of their own, must seem nothing short of a oriental fantasy on steroids – minus the belly dancers. Enana Dance Theatre laid it out there on their own terms for their supportive Luminato audience: a Syrian take on an episode in Roman history tinged with a hint of Arab Nationalist sentiment without an ounce of apology. The best bits were toward the end of the 80 min. show – a reasonable crescendo to a non-stop take your breath away spectacle of music, dance and costume. Another standing ovation from Torontonians. This time well deserved.