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Jun
30
We really enjoyed ourselves in Malta, thanks to many people I need to thank — so many, in fact, that I must do it in stages. On our second day in Malta, we were driven around in the evening by a local academic named Robert. We’d made contact with him via the Couchsurfing website, and he’d already planned to bring us to a folk festival in Floriana (next to Valletta) called Għanafest.
Excerpts from the Visit Malta website:
Għanafest is a three-day manifestation of Maltese folk singing (known as Għana in Maltese) which takes place every year in June…. a unique opportunity to experience the different styles of għana. Besides Maltese folk music, the festival presents a programme of local musicians and ensembles.
Maltese folk singing has various genres e.g.‘Għana tal-Fatt’, whereby the singer recounts a story in verses that relate to a tragic past event. Another genre is ‘Għana spirtu pront’: two singers hit out at each other with sharp and witty retorts as one sings out and the other responds with spontaneously thought out lyrics; and ‘Għana fl-għoli’ wherein the stanzas are sung in an extremely high note /pitch remotely similar to a flamenco folk song – this singing is also known as ala Bormliħa.
A variety of foreign folk singers and musicians hailing from various countries in the Mediterranean also participate in this festival. Throughout the three days of the festival, there will also be a series of crafts demonstrations on various stands.
We spent the evening at the folk festival, where I shot a large volume of photos of the performers, mostly of the flamenco dancers who are part of a local dance group. On our way out, Robert introduced us to the organizer of the folk festival, who explained that the dancers brought the idea to him, since flamenco isn’t native to Malta but it could be performed to Maltese folk music. (There are a few short video clips of it at the bottom).
I wanted to devote an entire post to the ladies of the flamenco group, because they danced with such passion through several outfits and numbers. I love shooting dance, because performers become lost in the music and the movement of their bodies. It makes the photography much more about timing than anything else (I never use the burst mode), and freezing moments of movement which show how fully engaged the dancers are. It’s the expressions of rapture I aim for every time.
June 14, 2015
Album: Malta 2015
Sep
27
Last night we saw the high-energy comic theatre troupe Sobre Rodas (‘On Wheels’) from Galicia, the opening act for Festival Internacional de Teatro Cómico da Maia tonight. It was 70 minutes of very physical comedy!
Sobre Rodas’ show turned out to be perfect for me because it wasn’t heavy on dialogue. In fact, they didn’t speak Portuguese, or any sort of intelligible language, it was a sort of hybrid pseudo-German with the occasional Spanish word — I heard chorizo! chorizo! — or maybe some Galician.
I took a LOT of photos of their show, but I’m only posting some of my favourite images here. Check out the album for the videoclips of their performance.
September 26, 2014
Album: Sobre Rodas @ Festival Internacional de Teatro Cómico da Maia
Mar
01
Pictures and video was the closest we got to bottling this jam.
Event super-hosts Lisa and Clint of One-of-a-Kind-Dinner throw music parties at a loft in the heart of Toronto’s Entertainment District once a month. By day, the space serves as a photography studio for commercial shooter Edward Ambrosius, but each month on a Saturday after the night lights burn brightly and the taxicab cacophony begins on Adelaide Street below, Edward opens up the loft to let the sounds of guitars, drums, voices, and horns (and any other instrument that shows up) take over.
The Red Moon Music Collective is as much of a group as Broken Social Scene. Some of the performers make it every month, some less often, new people join in, they take breaks and take turns and sometimes they combine the two:
slide guitar with beer
There is no protocol other than a simple sign-up sheet so people know when they’re up next, the same as what you’d find at a pool hall or a dart board. The only difference is it’s all self-serve: BYO drinks and snacks. It’s like going to a house party except a third of the space is covered in guitar cases, percussion instruments, speakers and cords leading to an amplifier.
This is not your garden variety houseparty, however, unless you have artists simultaneously drawing and painting musicians and dancers as they perform. (Or maybe you do. If so, they should join us!)
It’s tough to describe the vibe, so I’ll leave you with Lisa’s videoclip above and my photo album below of last Saturday’s jam. As jams go, this one was ace: lots of new people jamming with the regulars, sing-a-longs to Queen and dancing throughout. Completely unscripted and free-flowing, the evening didn’t want to end.
And did I mention it’s FREE? Yes, the best things in life are.
our illustrious co-hosts, Lisa and Clint (along with Edward)
thumbnails
full-screen slideshow
Feb
07
I went to Nathan Phillips Square tonight to check out a street theatre performance called “Pi-Leau” by the Dutch troupe Close Act as part of the annual WinterCity Festival. I took photos most of the time and pulled out my video digicam for a few clips until the batteries shut down.
Here’s a synopsis from the city’s WinterCity website:
Dutch street theatre troupe, Close-Act, transforms Nathan Phillips Square into a mythical under-water world that floats high above the audience. Themes of global warming and environmental struggles are evident, but at its heart this spectacular open-air production of Pi-Leau is a story of forbidden love that combines theatre, music, fire, dance and incredible props.
Dazzling mermaids frolic and swim, unaware of the imminent danger of melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and the flooding of all land. Hearty fishermen struggle to survive on the sea and often resort to hostile acts. The story’s hero, the last of the peaceful fishermen, discovers the mermaid’s secret world and falls in love with the beautiful Sirene. He must decide whether to stay close to his new love, or return to the surface in order to save Sirene and the sea, never to see the mermaids again.
Formed in 1991, Close-Act is well known for their large-scale street theatre spectacles where the audience becomes part of the performance. This extraordinary show includes the talents of more than 30 actors, musicians, dancers and technicians, and has toured in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain.
