Shumka fest, Canadian Film Day and more in Edmonton this weekend
Shumka Dance Festival: Dazzlingly visual and full of jaw-dropping skill leaping back centuries, Shumka's inaugural dance fest has schools across Canada presenting their finest ensemble work.
With performances running all day Friday and Saturday, dancers will get professional feedback, all leading up to a separate competition show 7 p.m. Saturday.
The costumes, the makeup, the music, the motion — if you want to see how the kulbasa is made as dancers rise up through the ranks, this is a perfect opportunity in the midst of a wider celebration of all things Ukrainian!
Details: 9:45 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday, 8:45 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Saturday, then 7 p.m. Saturday at Jubilee Auditorium (11455 87 Ave.), $20/adults, $8 5 and under/day, $25/adults, $8 5 and under competition show at ticketmaster.ca
Word Combinations: The dynamic vibe of Tim Rechner's abstract compositions in various media, including pastel and paint have always looked a little like alien graffiti tags — 'writing' as the street artists call their high-design words on the wall.
Thus, though not exclusively, is the title of Rechner's show fitting, 'Word Combinations,' also bringing to mind the strange names creative people can give their artwork.
And the savvy move of asking us to think of text while we're looking at seemingly random shapes is a gentle reminder of the many powerful kinds of language out there besides written and spoken.
What is art, after all, but a parade of unique and endless styles of invented communication?
Details: Through May 7 at Aviary (9314 111 Ave.), admission by gig, see the-aviary.net for details
Maestro: Starting with a dozen performers, this Squid/Hunger Games style is a competitive, elimination-style battle to the pretend death as one by one the theatresports hopefuls are churned through the dystopian meat grinder of audience voting.
At the end, whoever's left standing is crowned Maestro — but at what cost to our souls?
Looks deadly!
Details: 9:30 p.m. this, next and various upcoming Saturdays at Rapid Fire Exchange (10437 83 Ave.), $20/general, $10/students at rapidfiretheatre.com
Comics Zines and Books Market: The Art Gallery of Alberta has expanded its zine fair to include all artists working in the realm of book arts including comics, art books, printmaking, bookbinding, calligraphy and more.
Handmade journals, magazines, prints — you name it, and all delightfully local in this age of growing intentional support-localism.
Best of all, free admission to the market space!
Details: 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Sunday at AGA (2 Sir Winston Churchill Sq), free
National Canadian Film Day: This Wednesday, theatres all over town, the province and indeed the world celebrate our national cinematic octopus of ongoing motion-picture creativity with some 1,700 free screenings.
Dreamspeakers is showing dark comedy-thriller Seed at Metro (8712 109 St.), while Edmonton International Film Festival is presenting hockey doc Ice Queens with its director Damon Kwame Mason for a Q and A at Landmark Cinemas 9 in City Centre — both showing at 7 p.m.
Metro is then running 1991 horror-western Clearcut at 9:30 p.m.
Pe Metawe Games (11805 94 St.) is rolling the hilarious Hey, Viktor! at 5:30 p.m., while Edmonton Movie Club has documentary To Kill a Tiger at Council of India Societies Edmonton (9504 37 Ave.) at 6:30 p.m.
Kicking it all off, it's another chance to see the impossibly good Universal Language, 11 a.m. at FAVA Studios, #149 10045 156 St.
Details: Wednesday, no charge
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