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Now in its 41st consecutive season of performance, Ethnic Dance Theatre will present its spring concert series, Mountain Memories, May 15th, 16th, and 17th at the E.M. Pearson Theatre on the campus of Concordia University, St. Paul. Audiences will experience a variety of dance and music selections emblematic of mountain cultures worldwide, ranging from the Andes Mountains of South America to the Himalayas of Tibet.
Featured premiers will include Laurel Gray's Daryo Toshqin, representing music and dance of the Chimgan mountains of Uzbekistan, as well as Milorad Runjo's Vlaške Igre iz Crnorečja, the traditional dances of the Vlach tribes who populate the Homolje mountains of eastern Serbia. Highlights from EDT's core repertoire will include Donald LaCourse's Starobosansko Nijemo Kolo iz Glamoča, a selection from the Dinaric Mountains of Bosnia that is characterized by its striking silent performance, as well as Ahmet Lüleci's Silifke Halk Oyunları, a suite of robust dances from the Taurus mountains of Turkey.
Mountain Memories will also feature The Nightingale Trio, a women's vocal arts group inspired by the traditional folk songs and vocal techniques from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Nila Bala, Rachel LaViola, and Sarah Larsson met each other at Yale, singing with the Yale Women's Slavic Chorus. One year after finishing their degrees in law, film, and anthropology, the three couldn't help but reunite.
Though dedicated to recreating the rhythmic, complex, and stunning folk songs that have spanned centuries of Slavic artistic culture, the Nightingale Trio also strives to expand the boundaries of the traditional folk idiom by incorporating their own unique forms of expression and creativity to the dynamic and ever-evolving art form. As members of the Yale Women's Slavic Chorus, the Nightingales extensively studied the traditional vocal techniques unique to women's folk music of the Balkans and Eastern Europe. One by one, the three were captivated by this music's stunning dissonances, asymmetric rhythms, intricate ornamentation, lush harmonies, and resonant strength. The Nightingales have studied individually with master-singers Tsvetanka Varimezova (Bulgaria), Petrana Koutcheva (Bulgaria), Dražen Kurilovčan (Croatia), Bojana Djordjević (Serbia), and Seattle-based Balkan expert Mary Sherhart (Bosnian Sevdah).
EDT is grateful for the financial support of the Target Foundation & our individual donors.
*This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
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LocationE.M. Pearson Theatre, Concordia University (View)
312 Hamline Avenue N
St Paul, MN 55104
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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