Editing National Asian Heritage Month Videoconference 2011 (section)

=== Montreal Event Details ===

<FONT COLOR="#FF0000">3 pm to 7 pm (Eastern Daylight Time EDT, Montreal time)</FONT>
<br>Ex-Centris
<br> 3536, Saint-Laurent Boulevard (Subway Saint-Laurent station)      
<br> Free admission

<br>To encourage exchange between provinces and communities, [http://asiancanadianwiki.org/wiki/Festival_Acc%C3%A8s_Asie Festival Accès Asie] shares with you “Reaching Out”, a video conference with performances, speakers and public interaction between four different cities in Canada. The Festival will host this year a video conference in which representants from the Canadian Asian Heritage Month will interact through their performances. Through this cyber-technology, three performances of music and dance by Festival Accès Asie will be broadcast live and programmed at Ex-Centris with other speakers, performances and public discussion with Calgary,
Toronto and Vancouver. 

<br>[[File:Acess_Asie_Montreal.jpg|150px|thumb|left|Festival Accès Asie]]
Biography of the Montreal Asian Heritage Month representative:
<br> <i>[http://asiancanadianwiki.org/wiki/User:Janet_Lumb Janet Lumb]</i>, co-founder and artistic director of Festival has designed this project to enable encounters between four Canadian cities. “Reaching Out” continues the Festival’s objectives to create and meet, despite the distances, allowing the public to discover the talents of Asian artists in Montreal and in Canada. Inspired to defy Canada’s geographic boundaries, she brings artists, audiences and communities together from across
the country.  

<br> From Montreal, multidisciplinary performances combine colorful cultural heritage and modernity through
music, traditional dance and also hip hop. The audience on site or via  the videoconferencing will, indeed,
have the pleasure of attending a performance of Indian Kathak dancer, with internationally renowned [www.sudeshna.org Sudeshna Maulik], accompanied by [http://asiancanadianwiki.org/wiki/Shawn_Mativetsky Shawn Mativetsky],
Indian tabla virtuoso, a musical instrument percussion. This event will also feature a performance by the
Montreal breakdancer Michel Lim, accompanied on stage with hip hop dancers Erich “Ddimplz Jack” and
Sandy “Did” Béland. Saxon Fraser and Fred Nguyen will also share with us their musical talents. Finally, musicians from the [http://asiancanadianwiki.org/wiki/Constantinople Ensemble Constantinople], Kiya
and [http://asiancanadianwiki.org/wiki/Ziya_Tabassian Ziya Tabassian] will perform. The Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto audiences
will have the chance to witness these live Montreal performances as well as the pleasure of discovering
speakers, publics and  artists from the other cities.

<br><i> Sudeshna Maulik – Kathak dancer and Shawn Mativetsky – percussionist </i>
<br> Versatile tabla player, Shawn Mativetsky is just as comfortable in the traditional music of India, in world music and
in contemporary music. He has also contributed music for dance and theater as a composer and performer. Giving
lectures, workshops and performances across the world, he undertakes to inform the public about tabla and
traditional music from India. Based in Montreal, he is teaching tabla and percussion at McGill University. During
this performance, he will accompany the renowned Indian Kathak dancer Sudeshna Maulik. Considered by the
German press as representing “the very best in Eastern dance”, Sudeshna was introduced to Kathak dance from an
early age following the teachings of great gurus like Pt Chitresh Das or Padmabhibhushan Birju Maharaj, a living
legend of Kathak. She has since danced in numerous countries such as Russia, China, Taiwan, United States, in
Europe and of course Canada, where she has lived since 2007 and is known for her teaching and performance of
Kathak.

<br> <i>[http://www.myspace.com/boombodance Michel 'Boombeast' Lim] – Hip-Hop dancer</i>
<br> The breakdancer  was born and raised in Montreal. He learned to street dance from the age of 14. By joining the
group Area 51, he made his Hip-Hop debut in Montreal. He has participated in many known and recognized local
and international events in the field of Hip-Hop, such as 'War is War', 'Battle of the Year' and 'Battle JFL'. His
experience on stage with his team has given him the desire to learn more about the performing arts. His interest has
always focused on the styles of street dance but  since 2004, Michel Lim has been more oriented towards more
funky styles (popping, locking, roboting ,...).   He has also collaborated with Hip-Hop choreographers such as Steve Bolton, Alexandra “Spicey” Landé and Natasha “Tash” Jean-Bart. In recent years he has worked more closely with dance companies such as Blueprint
Dance Co., Unkut Productions and the Festival Just for Laughs. Be it on stage at the Planet Hollywood dancing
alongside MC Hammer or doing breakdance in the street, Michel 'Boombeast' Lim has a deep pleasure to dance
Hip-Hop, a passion for this art that you will definitely feel.

<br> <i>[http://twitter.com/erichddimplz Erich 'Ddimplz Jack'] – Hip-Hop dancer</i>
<br> Since he was little, Erich “Ddimplz Jack” has been moving enormously. He was very young when he realized the
importance and interest of being devoted to dance. Watching his dance style and repertoire, we notice that he has
always wanted to diversify his knowledge while refining what he has learned. From Hip-Hop to House, through the
waaking and contemporary dance, Erich finds that it is important to broaden one’s horizons to better create. He has
worked for the DPJ’s in centers as dance teacher, has participated in the Just for Laughs Festival, the Montreal
International Jazz Festival with the artist Fella Kuti, danced with singer Jodey Watley in 2007 and has appeared in
several music videos. With this impressive background, the greatest ambition and desire for Erich  “Ddimplz Jack”
is to continue to dance, to teach dance as often as possible and to push the limits.

<br> <i>Sandy 'Did' Béland – Hip-Hop dancer</i>
<br> “Did” discovered her passion for dance at the age of three. In 2005, she was introduced to Urban dance and fell
madly in love. Sandy has since been meeting with specialists in urban dance centers such as Urban-Element Dance
in Montreal. Dancers such as Angelo Ameur, Alexandra “Spicey” Landé and Cindy  “Goldylocks” McAullife have
greatly influenced her. Driven by her passion and strong interest in street dance,  “Did” joined “Pure Gold 24k”, a
dance group choreographed by “Goldylocks”. In 2009, this group was the grand winner in Canadian Hip-Hop and
will therefore represent Canada internationally. Sandy “Did” Béland does not stop there and she continues to work
on several projects, teaching and is still involved in many competitions.

<br> <i>[http://soulocentric.org/saxonfraser/ Saxon Fraser]</i>
<br> Saxon is an artist inspired by music, theater, film, and many diverse dance styles.
Holding a B.A.(honors) in Dance Kinesiology from the University of Calgary, she has
taken her training into almost every genre imaginable collaborating with singers,
musicians, actors, photographers, film makers, designers and dancers of every kind. In
2005 she joined Decidedly Jazz Danceworks for their 2006/07 season and Cross
Canada Tour, and performed with W&M Physical Theater, EnCorps Dance Collective
and MmHop. and Upon receiving a grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts which
landed her in Montreal Quebec, she joined the cast of “Retrospek” by choreographer
Alexandra Lande touring Quebec and Ontario. In 2008 Saxon formed the company Soul
Projexions, presenting her first show Fluorescent:Lit From Within at the Slammenberry
Jam Urban Arts Festival leading to her writing, directing and starring in the festivals
2009 Montreal/Calgary collaboration Whodunnit? Her work has been featured in the
film series Athletes in Motion for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, The Bazaar in Toronto
and ReVERB for Dancer's Studio West. received a grant from the Canada Council for
the Arts. In spring 2010 she worked with Nico Archambault and Wynn Holmes in the
musical Le Blues dʼla Metropole and the film Sur le Rythme. She recently finished
production on the dance film ONE which will be presented at the 2011 Cannes Film
Festival in Paris. Saxon continues to travel internationally as head choreographer for
Saco (London, Paris, NYC).

<br> <i>[http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/fred-nguyen/32/746/228 Fred Nguyen] </i>
<br> Fred was raised in a family of martial artists, training daily as a child with his father and
uncle and eventually becoming the disciple of Master Wang Qing. Throughout his
career he has trained with Shaolin monks Shi Yan Ming, Shi Xing Hong and Wushu
champion He Jingde. Fred recently returned from the Shaolin Temple where he met
and trained under Master Di Guo Bao and 31st generation Shaolin Monk Shi De Cheng
who would become his new Kung-Fu master. In 2010, Fredʼs love for martial arts and
performing arts led him to learn stage combat under Shawn Baichoo and join the cast of
Sketch Kombat, a stage combat/sketch comedy performance troupe. They have since
performed for such events as Mainline Theatreʼs 5th year anniversary, The Childʼs Play
charity event at Montreal Improv and the Fringe Festival Fundraiser Auction. In 2011, he
was cast as a dancer in Equus, a play directed by Paul Van Dyck and produced by
Village Scene Productions. Fred is currently collaborating with Dancer/Choreographer
Saxon Fraser to create Wuxia, a dance piece combining Kung-Fu and contemporary
dance.

<br> <i>[http://asiancanadianwiki.org/wiki/Constantinople Kiya and Ziya Tabassian] – Musicians</i>
<br> This concert will be orchestrated by Kiya Tabassian on the setar, a stringed instrument and Ziya Tabassian on
tombak, an Iranian drum. Ziya Tabassian began to play the tombak (Iranian percussion) at the age of 11. As a
percussionist Ziya Tabassian has been active both in the milieu of early music and contemporary music as well as in
the universe of world music. He is a founding member with Kiya Tabassian of the Ensemble Constantinople and he
has already presented several concerts in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe. Kiya Tabassian,
meanwhile, plays the setar, an Iranian musical instrument and a member of the lute family. Kiya, too, has produced
in Canada, several countries in Europe, the Middle East and Mexico with Constantinople  as well as with many
other musicians. Since 1996, he has collaborated several times with Radio-Canada and since 2005 has been a
member of the Arts Council in Montreal (Conseil des arts de Montréal)