São Paulo – From August 15th to 17th, Rio de Janeiro is hosting the Amaren International Festival. The event will feature live performances of Arab songs, belly dancing and Arab folklore dancing presentations by local and international artists.
“The festival was designed to represent Arab culture in Brazil. Our culture is very rich and boasts a variety of arts and styles,” says the event’s organizer Khaled Emam. Emam is Egyptian and has been living in Brazil for 20 years. The holder of degrees in engineering and tourism, he has also been engaged in spreading Arab culture in Brazil for eight years now.
Throughout its three days, the event will feature workshops, exhibits and contests in various dance modalities. Performances for the general public, however, will only take place on the 16th.
“We will have artists from Egypt and Arabs from Argentina, Ukraine and Ecuador,” says Emam. He explains that the workshops and exhibitions are available to dancers at all stages of development. “For beginners and professionals alike,” he says. In addition to dancing techniques, the workshops will feature lectures on Arab culture, tradition and folklore.
The festival’s international attractions include the Egyptian singer Saad Ebrahem, who performs popular songs, Hamada El Zogby, introducing the folklore dances tanura and said, and Ukrainian dancer Alex DeLora. The event will feature over 30 professional dancers and over 50 performances.
This is Emam’s second year organizing an Arab culture festival. In 2013, the event was named Habaib Festival.
Service
Amaren International Festival
August 15 to 17
Casa de España
Maria Eugênia Street, 300 – Botafogo – Rio de Janeiro
Tickets for the performance: R$ 60 (US$ 26.5 at current exchange rates)
The full program and ticket sales points are available at http://migre.me/kKCus (in Portuguese)
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
