São Paulo – In the year that it celebrates its 10th edition, the Sergipe Arab Dance Festival (Fedarse), held by Companhia de Dança Carpe Diem, will feature a special concert: Syrian singer Tony Mouzayek, one of Brazil’s foremost Arab musicians, will perform in the state for the first time.
The show is slated for the evening of July 15, a Saturday, in state capital Aracaju’s Teatro Tobias Barreto, the festival’s usual venue. Organizer Flavia Kahyna expects a sold-out concert – the auditorium has 1,300 seats: “Tickets at the box office are going for a promotional price of BRL 30,” she says.
Arab dance practitioners from Sergipe and nearby Northeast states flock together for Fedarse every year. Local dancers will perform alongside Mouzayek in the region’s premier Arab culture-oriented event, created in 2008 by Kahyna herself.
“I’m a dancer and I’ve been studying Arab music and culture for the last 20 years,” she says. “I performed in several states, like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and since there was nothing of this sort available around these parts, I came up with the festival to encourage dancing and spread Arab culture in Sergipe. That’s how Fedarse was created almost ten years ago.”
Kahyna isn’t of Arab descent: she’s just an enthusiast who fell in love with belly-dancing. She’s excited about bringing a musician like Mouzayek – who’s an Arab music celebrity in Brazil – to Aracaju: “We’re expecting people from other states too, because he never played a show around here before,” she says.
Quick facts
Festival de Danças Árabes de Sergipe (the Sergipe Arab Dance Festival)
July 15, 7pm
Teatro Tobias Barreto – Avenida Tancredo Neves, 2.209, Aracaju (SE)
Tickets: BRL 30, now on sale at the theater’s box office
Find out more: + 55 79 99146-5862
https://www.facebook.com/FestivalDancasArabesDeSergipe/ (in Portuguese)
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
