Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Parade

Three colourful chariots (floats) are hand-pulled by thousands of people from Yonge and Bloor Streets to the lake at Queens Quay. The parade cruises through the heart of downtown Toronto amidst thumping kirtan (ancient mantras sung and chanted in a jubilant way). The parade begins at 11:00 am from Yonge and Asquith (just north of Bloor, at the Toronto Reference Library).

Festivities continue at Centre Island for the remainder of the weekend. Festivities at Centre Island commence at noon and eventually gather momentum as the crowd from the parade makes its way to the festival site. The festivities at Centre Island continue till 9:00 pm.

One of the main highlights of the Centre Island festivities will be a free vegetarian feast which will be served from 1:00 pm onwards. Other highlights of the festivities on the island include, an ongoing entertainment stage, exhibits, arts, childrens activities and much more.

Menaka Thakkar Dance Company

The Menaka Thakkar Dance Company became the first South Asian arts organization to be recognized by the Canada Council for the Arts thereby opening the door to other multicultural artists to receive funding.

Today the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company, known as MTDC is Canada's premiere Indian dance company.

'Mrudanga' - Centre for Odissi and Sambalpuri Folk Dance by Enaskhi Das Sinha

Enakshi is a well known Odissi dancer from India, who has recently moved to Canada and establised her company known as Mrudanga.

Enakshi is holder of Shringar Mani Title and has been directly trained under a legend in Odissi dance, Padmavibhusan Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra.

She has performed in several prestigious festivals in India like Konark Festival and Deccan Festival to name a few.

Global Fusion with Sashar Zarif and friends

A group of reknowned toronto based artists, musicians and dancers, are getting together to create a tapestry of human pulse and diversity dedicated to peace and harmony. This eclectic collective include Joana Das, Ed Hanley, Suba Shankaran, Anne Bourn, Piriouz Yousefian, and Sashar Zarif. This feast of seasoned sound and movments is a celebration of love incorporating Santoor, Tabla, Cello, Indo-Jazz and contemporary vocals, kathak, and Persian/sufi movements all on one stage.

Sashar Zarif

Sashar Zarif is an internationally renowned multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and researcher. Sashar has received many awards such as - Toronto International Dance Festival's Paula Citron Award in 2006, Chalmers professional development grant from the Ontario Arts Council in 2003; Skills for Change New Pioneer Award 2008 for the Arts for being an Artistic Ambassador for Multiculturalism and Diversity.

Sashar has a background in Azerbaijani dance and has also studied other dance forms including Uzbek, Tadjeek, Persian, Flamenco, Bharatanatyam, and many others. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Dance from Middlesex University in London, England and has taught at the Dance Department at York University.

Sashar has collaborated with interntaionally renowned singer Alim Qasimov and with many well known artists such as Holly Small, Carol Anderson, Keiko Kitano, Soheil Parsa, Terrill Maguire, Anne Bourn, Suba Shankaran to name a few.

Don't miss Sashar in this performance where he will be collaborating with several other well know Toronto based artists!

Joanna De Souza

Joanna de Souza is perhaps the only Canadian born artist to achieve a Master's Degree in Kathak dance through Prayag Sangit Samiti, Allahabad, India. Her study of Kathak, which began in 1978, continues under Pandit Chitresh Das. Since her return to Toronto she co-founded, with Ritesh Das, the M-DO and Toronto Tabla Ensemble Centre for World Music and Dance. Joanna was named one of Canada's top ten dance performers for 1997 by Dierdre Kelly of the Globe and Mail and has been a musician and dancer with the internationally acclaimed Toronto Tabla Ensemble since 1993. She teaches and tours throughout Canada, the United States and India. Joanna was the only Indian dancer recognized in NOW magazine's Top 20 Dancers featured in their 20th anniversary issue.

Her company Chhandam has toured nationally with the TTE and have performed in many festivals and concert series programs, including two Kalanidhi Fine Arts International Indian Dance Festivals. As a dedicated member of Toronto's dance community, she sits on the Board of Directors for the Dance Umbrella of Ontario, the CanAsian Dance Festival and the Toronto Arts Council dance committee.

Suba Sankaran

From an early age, DORA award-winning, JUNO-nominated Suba Sankaran has effortlessly combined musical worlds. While studying European classical piano and voice, she also immersed herself in south Indian classical music with her father, master drummer Trichy Sankaran.

As a multi-musician (voice, piano, percussion), Suba regularly performs across North America, Europe and Asia with world music ensembles autorickshaw and Trichy's Trio. She seamlessly crosses genres with artists such as Jane Bunnett and George Koller (jazz); Voyces Past and the Nathaniel Dett Chorale (classical/choral); David Mott and Maza Mezé (new music/world) and Retrocity and Hampton Avenue (contemporary a cappella). Highlights include performing for Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and Peter Gabriel.

Suba is in demand as a choral director, arranger, educator and composer. She has composed, recorded and produced music for theatre, film, radio and dance, including collaborations with Oscar-nominee Deepa Mehta.

Suba Sankaran and Ed Hanley of Autorickshaw

Ed Hanle, a JUNO nominated artist, began his tabla (north Indian classical percussion) training in Toronto, Canada with Ritesh Das, and has studied with master drummers Swapan Chaudhuri in California and Anindo Chatterjee in Calcutta, India.

Ed has performed across Canada, and in the USA, Europe and India in a variety of world, jazz and classical settings with various artists. Ed has composed, produced, and engineered a number of compositions for dance and film out of his own studio, and has co-produced two autorickshaw albums with Suba Sankaran, including the critically acclaimed, JUNO nominated CD, Four Higher.

He is also a member of the recently formed Indo-Persian duo Naseem with Santoor virtuoso Pirouz Yousefian.

Pirouz Yousefian

Pirouz Yousefian began to study music as the age of six in Iran. He teaches music (santour and tombak) and Persian classical vocal and performs widely. In 1994 he established 'Mehrvarzan Ensemble' which has performed in Toronto (CBC's Glen Gould Studio and Harbourfront), Montreal and Ottawa as well as in the United States. Mehrvarzan has recorded two CDs.

Sunday, July 20th, 2008
Festival within a festival

Celebrated as a 'festival within a festival' the second day of the Festival of India will feature Yoga Meltdown. The festival site at Centre Island will start to buzz with activity by around noon on Sunday and will continue until 5:00pm. With a special emphasis on the yoga community, Sunday will feature live yoga demonstrations, mantra meditation, vegan cooking demonstrations, and amazing kirtan! The free vegetarian feast will be served from 1:00 pm onwards on Sunday.