Global Mashup: Morocco Meets The Balkans
SAT, JUL 15, 2023
7:00 PM
In-Person Tickets: $20 General Admission / $15 Members, Seniors, & Students w/ID
$25 Day of Show
Dance Workshop: 7:00 PM
Concert: 8:00 PM
Flushing Town Hall no longer requires visitors or performers to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19; wearing a mask is optional but recommended. For more details, please visit www.flushingtownhall.org/covid-safety.
Can't make it in person? Watch this show from anywhere in the world! Get virtual access with a Culture Stream subscription ($5/month - cancel anytime) to get LIVE and ON-DEMAND access to watch whenever you want!
We’re mashing up two cultures on one stage with an open dance floor. Starting with dance lessons, each band plays a set, then the two meet and jam. Bring your dancing shoes!
Samir LanGus will introduce you to the “Moroccan Blues,” the raw, hypnotic style known as Gnawa. It is this style, played with percussion, that fascinated outside musicians such as writer/composer Paul Bowles, jazz giant Randy Weston and rock god Jimi Hendrix.
Mountain Lions will bring a medley of sound that subverts expectations—so get ready to dance through the styles of the southern Balkans, traditional Greek music, and Turkish and Romani music by way of Greece.
Kristina Vaskys will lead the workshop where you learn to dance through the Balkans.
These artists will be bringing a range of sounds to the Flushing Town Hall Theater for a mashup you will not want to miss!
About the Artists:
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Samir LanGus is a Grammy nominated musician, born and raised in the city of Agadir, Morocco. Music has always been a part of the constant variety of street sounds of his city, from merchants to entertainers and calls to prayer. LanGus began learning Gnawa, a traditional, spiritual trance music, at an early age from the Gnawa masters of Morocco especially Maalem Hamid El Kasri.
Bio courtesy of samirlangus.com.
Mountain Lions plays dance music from the southern Balkans, using a team of two clarinets and one drum to find a raw, direct beauty that electrifies the dance floor. Clarinetists Peter Hess and Lefteris Bournias come from different musical worlds—Hess from jazz and new music, Bournias from traditional Greek music—but they have each dug deep into the zurna music of the Balkans in order to drive each other to unexpected heights. Drummer Matt Moran is best known for leading the brass band “Slavic Soul Party!” but here is able to manifest traditional folkdance rhythms in a primal interplay with the dancers.
Bio courtesy of Mountain Lions.
Kristina Vaskys was first introduced to Balkan folk dancing while performing as a musician with the Duquesne University Tamburitzans. She has been dancing for more than 20 years, learning from teachers such as Michael Ginsburg and Steve Kotansky. She has also performed with the Bosilek Bulgarian Folkdance Ensemble.
$25 Day of Show
Dance Workshop: 7:00 PM
Concert: 8:00 PM
Flushing Town Hall no longer requires visitors or performers to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19; wearing a mask is optional but recommended. For more details, please visit www.flushingtownhall.org/covid-safety.
Can't make it in person? Watch this show from anywhere in the world! Get virtual access with a Culture Stream subscription ($5/month - cancel anytime) to get LIVE and ON-DEMAND access to watch whenever you want!
We’re mashing up two cultures on one stage with an open dance floor. Starting with dance lessons, each band plays a set, then the two meet and jam. Bring your dancing shoes!
Samir LanGus will introduce you to the “Moroccan Blues,” the raw, hypnotic style known as Gnawa. It is this style, played with percussion, that fascinated outside musicians such as writer/composer Paul Bowles, jazz giant Randy Weston and rock god Jimi Hendrix.
Mountain Lions will bring a medley of sound that subverts expectations—so get ready to dance through the styles of the southern Balkans, traditional Greek music, and Turkish and Romani music by way of Greece.
Kristina Vaskys will lead the workshop where you learn to dance through the Balkans.
These artists will be bringing a range of sounds to the Flushing Town Hall Theater for a mashup you will not want to miss!
About the Artists:
Samir LanGus is a Grammy nominated musician, born and raised in the city of Agadir, Morocco. Music has always been a part of the constant variety of street sounds of his city, from merchants to entertainers and calls to prayer. LanGus began learning Gnawa, a traditional, spiritual trance music, at an early age from the Gnawa masters of Morocco especially Maalem Hamid El Kasri.
Bio courtesy of samirlangus.com.
Mountain Lions plays dance music from the southern Balkans, using a team of two clarinets and one drum to find a raw, direct beauty that electrifies the dance floor. Clarinetists Peter Hess and Lefteris Bournias come from different musical worlds—Hess from jazz and new music, Bournias from traditional Greek music—but they have each dug deep into the zurna music of the Balkans in order to drive each other to unexpected heights. Drummer Matt Moran is best known for leading the brass band “Slavic Soul Party!” but here is able to manifest traditional folkdance rhythms in a primal interplay with the dancers.
Bio courtesy of Mountain Lions.
Kristina Vaskys was first introduced to Balkan folk dancing while performing as a musician with the Duquesne University Tamburitzans. She has been dancing for more than 20 years, learning from teachers such as Michael Ginsburg and Steve Kotansky. She has also performed with the Bosilek Bulgarian Folkdance Ensemble.