Mister FatCat

Wicked Sister Dance Theatre returns to Patrick’s Cabaret with their third annual production of choreography and performance on physical structures. This eclectic mix features all new works in the air and on the ground by company members as well as aspiring choreographic artists, including:

David DeBlieck, David Harris, Jerome Bowden, Amy Nystrom, Angela Hasnedl, Nicolas Collard, Jessica Flannigan, Irene Larson, Jenny Lovitt, Stephanie Molstad, Arielah Moskow, Jim Peitzman, Emily Tate and Jessi Vozka.

These aspiring acrobatic artists have been climbing on aerial silks, trapeze, ropes and furniture from their own homes to celebrate the process of discovery, invention and creativity within the realm of risk-taking physicality.

Elsie Smith (and her identical twin sister, Serenity) specialize in aerial acrobatics. Their teaching & performing backgrounds include a 4 year tour on Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco, as well as Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus, Circus of the Kids, the New Pickle Circus, Pilobolus, the Actor’s Gym, Circus Juventus, Umo Ensemble & Canopy Aerial Dance Studio. As performers they present a duo trapeze and duo fabric act, as well as various solos on aerial apparatus. Serenity also performs a partner handbalancing act with her husband, Bill Forchion.

More info about Wicked Sister Dance Theater http://www.wickedsisterdance.org/

Elsie Smith can be found at – http://www.nimblearts.org/ www.necenterforcircusarts.org.

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Mahmoud Ahmed is emblematic of the golden era of Ethiopian music and of the “Swinging Addis” of the sixties. The era’s music formed when soul, rhythm ’n’ blues, and jazz met traditional Ethiopian rhythms and Azmari culture, whose troubadours accompanied themselves with the krar (a six-stringed harp) and messingo (a monochord viola). Raised in a family of modest means, Ahmed was a shoeshine man before becoming an odd-job-man at an Addis Ababa cabaret where official bands played regularly. At one point he substituted at the last minute for an absent singer, and his exceptional vocal abilities opened the door of success. He became a member of the Imperial Bodyguard Orchestra and also sang with the Ibex Band before forming his own band and becoming the leading voice of Ethiopia. In 1975, he recorded his masterpiece “Erè Mèla Mèla,” which was issued in the West only in 1986.

Filmed live at The Fine Line. Minneapolis MN 2008

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French Hip Hop Crew La Rumeur performs live at the Triple Rock. Minneapolis MN. 2008

Ekoué: mc
Hamé: mc
Mourad: mc
Philippe: mc
Gerald: turntables

La Rumeur, one of the leading French underground rap groups, emerged in 1997 from Elancourt, a suburb south of Paris. Before issuing their first full-length debut record, MCs Ekoué, Hamé, Mourad, and Philippe (all graduates of French universities) distributed independent solo singles at their shows: “Le Poison d’Avril” (1997), “Le Franc Tireur” (1998), and “Le Bavar” and “Le Paria” (1999). Following these singles, their fan base grew quickly and then came their first group album, “L’ombre sur la mesure” (EMI, 2002). The record was an homage to the immigrant experiences of their parents’ generation, focusing on the Paris massacre of Algerians in 1961, and on the high rate of police abuse of immigrants. One group member, Hamé, was taken to court by the Interior Minister in 2002 for a magazine article accompanying the release of that first album, with its mention of police crimes. The next album, “Regain de Tension,” was released in 2004 after the Interior Ministry had failed to silence the group. That brave Interior Minister who took on Hamé was one Nicolas Sarkozy, now President of France. La Rumeur’s next record, “Du Coeur à l’outrage,” was released in 2007 on their own label, La Rumeur records. Despite Sarkozy’s lawsuit, historians and artists have defended La Rumeur (considered by some to be the most controversial rap group in France), describing their lyrics not as “inciting to violence” but as prophetic measures to avoid violence by giving voice to feelings in the tense suburbs. La Rumeur has a strong sense of history; they identify themselves clearly as sons and daughters of an immigrant generation who helped build contemporary France under inhuman conditions. But they have no pretension to be the voice of the people. They say “singing a song for 500 people is writing 500 songs.” The name of group (the rumor) speaks for itself.

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