Youth rehearsals

Baobab Youth Performers began rehearsals with Storyteller Damay Gagnon last night. We were all mesmerized by the fantastic props made by Maureen Clarke......who is also hard at work on a backdrop for the performance. Damay led us through the story, about a little warthog who uses drums to affect big changes in the African Forest, some good, some not so good..... We spent time trying out the props with our dance and drumming. We are using the Ewe piece Zigi to form the musical framework behind the story.
This story, along with others, will be presented on Sunday November 8 at the Ottawa Storytellers event for children at the Library and Archives (395 Wellington). We will also present it at our own Rhythm Café, on Nov 29th here at our studio (415C Piccadilly).

Awesome Indies!!!

Baobab Youth kicked off the Awesome Indies Urban Festival for youth the first weekend of October. Along with breakdancers from Hintonburg and Montreal, the youth performed their South African Gumboot dance on the street outside the very hip Patrick John Mills Gallery on Friday night. A great community event that attracted locals and visitors of all ages. On Saturday they joined BOOM!, Propeller Dance and Rabab-e-Panjab for a groove parade throughout Hintonburg, which culminated in a collective performance at the Hintonburg Community Centre, showcasing brazilian rhythms, contemporary dance, West African rhythms and dance and very colourful Punjabi dance & percussion. Some great community connections were made...thanks to all especially WIAM who produced the Festival!

Classes

Classes at the Tree are going strong this fall. Some great buzz and turnout for our new Monday night teachers Prosper Adjetey and Dominic Donkor. The first dance class was an amazing energetic workout -even the floor was sweating! Here they are with some students.....the rest of our classes all begin this week including the kids classes. Numbers are big, in fact some classes are sold out. Its great to see people back in the groove, old and new friends of Baobab Tree.