After having enchanted the place des Festivals with Bollywood and Filipino dances during the last two editions, Festival Accès Asie, in collaboration with the Gesù, returns for a third year with its outdoor event, Wind of Asia, at Quartier des spectacles.
On Saturday, May 17th, starting at 5:30 pm, Lebanese folklore dance troupe Layalina, taiko group Arashi Daiko and the Huu Bac String Trio will share the stage for a unique event.
With the goal of making Asian Canadian artistic projects more accessible to the general public, the Festival will go play outside! The Layalina troupe will have the pleasure to start the ball for this festive event with its Lebanese dabkeh dance performance on the place des Festivals. The troupe will also offer an introduction to the basic steps of this dance. Next, they will guide the audience to the Gesù church for the second show. On the side of this majestic monument, the taiko (Japanese drums) group Arashi Daiko will make its drums resound to entrance the audience with its infectious energy.
To conclude, Wind of Asia at the Quartier des Spectacles will invite you to enter the Gesù church to attend a performance by Vietnamese musician Huu Bac Quach. Accompanied on the double bass by Jean-Félix Mailloux and on the violin by Marie-Neige Lavigne, the multi-instrumentalist will present his compositions that skilfully ally his Vietnamese and Chinese heritages to North American jazz music.
Everyone is invited to join the Festival’s team and its talented artists to celebrate all the beauty and the richness of Asian Canadian art. This will certainly be one of the major events of this 19th edition of Festival Accès Asie.
Founded by Abdo Mazloum and Ioanna Guikas, Layalina troupe in Montreal brings together dancers who are passionate about the Levantine folk dance called dabkeh, which in Arabic means ‘to stomp the feet’. It is originally a group line dance that is danced at weddings, banquets and parties in the Middle-East. This dance is typical of villages in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq and celebrates solidarity, union and strength. Layalina troupe performs both in festivals and in private events.
Created in 1983 by members of the Montreal Japanese community, Arashi Daiko has evolved through the different cultures of its members driven by its founding mission to be a dynamic band sharing the exciting Japanese form of expression that is Taiko with as many people as possible. In 2013, the band celebrated its 30th anniversary and created their widely acclaimed show Wa.
Composer-performer, born in Vietnam, Huu Bac delivers present-day jazz music by blending Eastern and Western sounds. Inspired by his numerous travels through Asia, Europe and America. He has created an exciting repertoire of cultural fusion, playing his favorite instruments, the Vietnamese monochord (Dan Bau), the Chinese fiddle (Erhu) and the Andean flute (Quena). For this special event, Huu Bac Quach performs with two members of his Quintet, Guillaume Martineau, on piano, and Jean-Félix Mailloux, on double bass.
Troupe Layalina – Lebanese dabkeh dance
Arashi Daiko – Taiko group
Huu Bac Quach – Musician