BARDO
BARDO, M-DO/Kathak Toronto and FadaDance’s latest collaboration, is a full-length production weaving classical Kathak and contemporary dance with live original musical accompaniment and mixed-media animation/design. This gripping performance showcasing 13 dancers and live musicians is directed by award-winning choreographers Joanna DeSouza and Misty Wenzel.
We’ve dreamed big this time and we need your help: In January & February of 2018, BARDO will be showcased in six major cities across India, including Panaji (Goa), New Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Bengaluru (Bangalore), and Kolkata (Calcutta). Drawing on cultural-contemporary practices from across Canada, BARDO showcases a uniquely Canadian effort that harnesses the kathak tradition as a catalyst for freedom, possibility of form, and the creation of provocative new work. This is a shining opportunity for Canadian talent to go global!
What We Need
In order to realize this dream, we are reaching out to our amazing community of artists and dance lovers across the globe to help generate the necessary funds for BARDO. Kathak Toronto and FadaDance need to raise $5,000 to bring BARDO to India. Your donations will help pay for our travel, both international and internal! We have plenty of experience in managing both national and international tours, and together with your support will make this a huge success!
The Canadian Council has awarded our team with funding in recognition that BARDO will act as a powerful ambassador for Canadian talent – but we still have a ways to go! For our local friends, we have planned a number of fundraising live art performances in Toronto to look forward to in the fall.
What You Get
Tutorials, postcards, jewellery, tickets, our eternal thanks, free hugs, and more!!
Why Bardo?
The internationalization of India’s arts scene in recent years has fostered a genuine grassroots interest in how Indian art manifests abroad. Kathak in particular, is a dance tradition that has become increasingly transnationalized, yet there is a marked under-representation of Canadian kathak in India.
BARDO represents a next stage in this transnational journey, returning kathak to the roots while offering a Canadian interpretation. Traditionally, kathak has always worked with live music, where the two disciplines have never been categorically distinct. Recent work in and outside of India have shown otherwise, where fewer performances involve live music. Breaking away from the tendency to use recorded music, de Souza and Wensel create dance choreographies where musicians are their collaborators. Canadian composer-musician Ian de Souza, percussionist Santosh Naidu, and producer Orion Paradis have years of experience crafting music for kathak and contemporary dance. Their refined technical knowledge, interpretive gifts, and collaborative spirits are an inspiration and driving force for BARDO’s movement and vocabulary.
Together, the touring artists represent Canada, India, Hungary, the Ukraine, China, Romania, Scotland, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, and the UK, showing that our interpretation of collaborative art, while grounded in the Canadian lived experience, is truly global in scope.
What is M-DO?
M-DO, a charitable arts organization, has been operating in the city of Toronto since 1988. Our mandate is one of cultural inclusivity, specifically to increase cultural receptivity and knowledge through arts programming. M-DO has presented workshops, masterclasses, and performances with culturally diverse artists from Canada and international visiting artists. As a teaching institution, we educate in classical north Indian kathak dance at the highest artistic level throughout the Greater Toronto Area.
There is no amount too small - every dollar counts. We thank you in advance for helping make this dream a reality! Share this campaign with friends, at work, with social media circles, and loved ones. Thanks so much!