Cultural Night Market

Andrea Villareal

This belly dance performance highlights the collaboration of a talented Chilean artistic designer and co-creator with Canadian residents, offering a captivating experience that celebrates unity, cultural fusion, and feminine expression through the mesmerizing dance of belly dance.

Andrea Villarreal by Movimiento Dharma 

JANK (The James Arif Noise Komplaints) is the product of Ottawa local and long-time busker James Arif (sousaphone), Victoria B.C. export Matthew Evans (alto saxophone), and their mutual desire for organic and exciting music on the streets of a city known for neither. They're joined by drummer Dylan Cudmore to bring audiences, suspecting or not, high-energy, improvisation-dense performances of pop, folk, jazz and anything else that strikes their fancy. 

The band takes their inspiration from traditional, New Orleans jazz, the poppier brass bands that followed (Dirty Dozen, Youngblood etc) Funk groups like Vulfpeck, and very free and dynamic jazz groups such as those led by Oscar Peterson, Michel Camilo, and Keith Jarret.   

In addition to the performance, Makhena shares a powerful reflection on the history and resilience of Indigenous peoples in Canada, using movement to express identity, connection, and healing. 

Makhena Rankin Guerin is a Two-Spirit hoop dancer with Anishinaabe/Algonquin roots on her mother’s side and French Canadian roots on her father’s side. As a member of the Abitibiwinni First Nation, Makhena is dedicated to preserving and continuing her Indigenous culture for future generations. She has been practicing traditional hoop dance for over 7 years; a medicinal dance that tells a story. Traditionally, this dance was performed with willow branch hoops to the rhythm of traditional drums. Nowadays, dancers often use modern materials and frequently perform to contemporary music. 

Oto-Wa Taiko was formed by members of the Ottawa Japanese Community Association in 1989. After gathering several interested members of the community, a group was formed that fall. For the first two years, the group didn’t have any drums, and had to practice on car tires which is also common for beginners in Japan. 

The name Oto-Wa Taiko, while phonetically reflecting its community of origin, Ottawa, uses two Japanese characters, oto and wa. Oto means sound while Wa means harmony. Taiko means drum. The character wa was chosen to symbolize the harmony among the group members as well as the harmony of spirit between the players and their drums as they make oto together. 

Over the years, Oto-Wa Taiko has performed many times each year in and around the Ottawa area, as well as a few occasions in other Canadian cities such as Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg, and outside Canada in Sendai, Japan and Rochester, NY.