Category Archives: Dance

Hamilton’s South Asian community celebrates Reply

Concert, Dance

Review by Danny Gaisin

Our personal interest in South Asia and its peoples are two-fold; a ‘Blood brother’ born in Calcutta; and surprisingly; regular interested readers from that area checking out our O.A.R. articles! An invitation from the Matin family of Upper Mt. Albion tweaked our curiosity and we were attendees at the spring Festival of South Asia. Nepal; Bhutan; Sri Lanka & Maldives joined the more familiar Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan in presenting a cultural collage of dance, culture and especially food.

An interpretive dance

An interpretive dance

Another interpretive dance (Burl'n troupe)

Another interpretive dance (Burl’n troupe)

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We’re crazy about MMT’s “Crazy For You” 2

Dance, Musical, Play, Theatre

Review by Danny Gaisin

A little personal trivia; almost 6 decades ago, I was in N.Y. to see “Gypsy” and had the opportunity to have tea with its star Ethel Merman. On being introduced; her comment on hearing my name was “Danny; last name wouldn’t be Churchill, would it?” Seems her first Broadway role (1930) was in the Gershwin’s musical –GIRL CRAZY’s Molly opposite the ‘Danny’ role! Skip ahead to 1992 and an updated version “CRAZY FOR YOU”.
Same songs and parallel plot; but just as popular as the original. Meadowvale Music Theatre’s presentation opened last week but fear of Friday’s inclement weather caused this chicken-ish driver to miss seeing the 1st night performance. Sorry, cast & crew… My (our) loss!
The plot is simplistic… big city scion who wants only to dance is sent out West to foreclose on a decrepit theatre.

The musical inhabitants of Deadrock NV!

The musical inhabitants of Deadrock NV!

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“♫42nd Street♫” – perfect!!! Reply

Dance, Musical, Theatre

Review by Danny Gaisin
                The bane of a critic is facing a situation where he or she is going to be classified as a publicist or worse, hack. It’s our job to be constructively diagnostic. But, what does one do when facing something so precious as to be totally without flaw or fault. Advice given this scribe – confess; and then roll out the superlatives!    Photo courtesy of  David Hou

Kyle Blair; Rider-Shaw & the chorus of “Pretty Lady”

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“Why do fools fall in love?” find out @ Stage West 1

Dance, Musical

Review by Danny Gaisin
                Remember the ‘Fish’ dance? Playing ‘TWISTER®’? Stereo consoles? Go-go boots?  Doo-Wop? It was the late 50’s 60’s and Lymon & Levy had a hit with ‘Why Do fools fall in love?’ The song and its lyrics are the format for Roger Bean’s latest musical iteration. Unfortunately, if you can recall the above, you might also recollect the “Marvelous Wonderettes” that was the musical showpiece at STAGE WEST a year ago and therein lies the rub!    Photo courtesy of Rob Beintema

Etienne,Pitsiladis,Lawlor & Nason strutting their stuff

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O.C.O. does “The Seasons” 3

Concert, Dance, Uncategorized

Review by Terry Gaisin

The artistic director of the Oakville Chamber Orchestrais a multi-talented musicologist. He is an accomplished arranger; dedicated conductor, and an adept composer. This latter flair was displayed yesterday afternoon (Sunday) at a concert staged at Sheridan College. It was music written as backdrop to a poem by Haitian Gérard Étienne dealing with the poet’s loves. The prose is rather repetitious with the subject word appearing in almost every sentence, in some cases- thrice! Naturally, Demuynck’s work is also repetitive, but that is a reflection of the subject’s intrinsic restraints

Demuynck’s new composition – interpreted

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Tango Pasión – not your traditional dances Reply

Dance

Review by Eva Frank

Tango Pasión is a seasoned tango troupe that was created in 1982 by Mel Howard & Jose Libertella with choreographer Hector Zaraspe. They succeeded in creating a new and totally innovative tango spectacle. Tango Pasión started in a small theatre in Miami, and moved on to Broadway. Since then the group performed in USA, Europe, Middle East, Turkey, Russia, Libya, and Asia. Tango Pasión  is simply one of the best Argentinean tango performances to be seen today. This is not the traditional Argentinean tango that we are accustomed to seeing. The troupe performed at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre on Feb. 21st. More…