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HYE GAUCHOS: FOLK CLUB WELCOMES ARGENTINEAN MUSIC FOR ARMENIAN AUDIENCES
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Yerevan audiences have a rare opportunity this week to enjoy live performances
of distinct South American music, as presented by the Carlos Diaz Trio (of
Belgium and Germany).
During a six-night engagement (Sept. 14-19) at Avantgarde Folk Music Club Diaz
(guitar), Henk Delaat (contrabass) and Osvaldo Henandez (percussion) are
performing `Malambo Jazz’, based on the traditional music of Argentine gauchos
(cowboys), marked by raucous rhythms.
Local favorite Armen Hyusnunts joined the trio on saxophone
For Diaz, this sort of original folk music is the source of his creativity.
`The world today is full of Argentinean rhythms and music,’ Diaz said during
an interview at the club, adding that `the whistling winds of the far unknown
Patagonia and the national traditions give new inspirations for creation.’
Diaz himself is from the very `end of the world’, in Patagonia’s town of Rio
Galegos. He began playing guitar at age 8, then made his way to Brazil, Spain
and on to Belgium and Germany.
The Trio () came to the attention of Birgit Ellinghaus, manager
of the Armenian Navy Band who also books talent into the club.
The passionate sounds of guitar, contrabass and Latino percussion transformed
the cozy club into a beach, with compositions by Diaz such as `Flight to the
Moon’ and `Everything Begins in September’ embracing the melancholy of autumn.
`When you hear the music, you want to close your eyes, spread your hands and
lie on the surface of the water at sunset,’ said Cecile Kvarzdez, a tourist
from Switzerland visiting Armenia. `I have traveled many countries, have heard
thousands of groups, but there is some honesty and warmth here I have never
felt,’
During the week, bassist Henk Delaat who, like his mates, performs in Armenia
for the first time, has developed admiration for Armenian musicians,
especially the unique style of the `Armenian Navy Band’
and the performance of saxophone
player Armen Hyusnunts, leader of Time Report jazz -fusion band.
`You are really rich to have such a club and musicians of this quality, and
the audience is so warm that you wish to play all the time and not to stop,’
said Henk.
Since the founding the Avantgarde Folk Club in spring 2004 many groups and
musicians have performed on its stage including, last month, various musicians
and dancers from Africa. Generally, the club is known as home to the Armenian
Navy Band whose performances become parties.
`All those groups that are in folk music can play here,’ says co-owner of the
club Artak Gevorgyan. `We do not put any limitations, there are plans to
invite even Turkish, Mongolian and Iranian groups. Art knows no borders, just
like a month ago when everyone danced and sang to the group from Africa.’
In October the club will open up the doors of its new hall, adjacent to the
current club, in what was once the Hamazgain Theatre. While the current club
seats 120, the new one will accommodate 300.
POET PRIEST?: SWISS-SPONSORED FESTIVAL CHALLENGES ARMENIAN TRADITIONS
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Can an Armenian woman be anointed priest?
If she is a bisexual feminist poet performing in a Yerevan night club, yes.
At The Club, American-Armenian Nancy Agabian acted out her poetry Wednesday
night in themes that challenge Armenian traditions and push limits of
toleration in a conservative society.
The performance art was part of the `One Step’ program of feminist events
sponsored by the Swiss Utopiana Organization ().
Standing on a blue yoga mat, a basin, washcloth and teacup (with broken
handle) in front of it on the floor, Agabian sings an excerpt from church
liturgy while doing a swimming exercise. Parallel to it is a recital: `A good
friend has asked me to be the godmother to her baby. It was a surprise; I
never thought in my life I would ever be a godmother. Suddenly, I’m supposed
to safeguard a child’s moral and spiritual upbringing. I don’t exactly know
how I’m going to do this. You see, I don’t go to church.’
Agabian anoints herself priest in her `Water and Wine’ performance `baptizing’
herself as godmother with a new morality. It is a faith where the Armenian
identity and sexual orientation – inadmissible for the Armenian community –
the fate of the family and a woman’s liberation from Eve’s sin are combined.
About 30 people filled the trendy art café for the performance, which was
interpreted by `Bnagir’ Internet literary journal editor and poet Violet
Grigoryan.
Agabian prepares slippers from American newspapers, then a priest hood, and
the text tells the story of her family’s women – of her grandmother, who was
rescued and cared for by Arabs during the massacres; and of family disputes,
where her mother was always under her father’s dictatorship.
It is a story in which the Church is a symbol of a woman’s slavery in the
Armenian community, because of its conservative ways.
`I never wanted to go to church when I was a child, to be tortured by boredom
with the indecipherable Classical Armenian, incessant, depressing music and
suffocation by incense, the most horrifying part was standing in front of the
bearded Der Hayr who towered and glowered above me in his glittering brocade
outfit as he pressed a wine-drenched piece of the wafer onto my tongue. I
stopped going to church once I became an adult. Every time I returned with my
family, I seethed at the spectacle, the way women did not participate in the
service except to sing in the choir and the way that women had to wear lace
doilies on their heads since they are inherently sinful like Eve.’
The poet, who lives in New York, tells about a day, in 2002, when she brings
her lesbian girl-friend of Armenian decent to an Armenian church where `all I
wanted to do was kiss her, to swish my lips and tongue around hers.’ The urge
to kiss in the church, she says, was a desire to have an impossible wedding
ceremony, an aspiration to bypass the church law and establish a new law.
(New law or old, it is a rare thing that a woman speaks publicly in Armenia
about her “alternative” sexuality.)
Agabian, 37, has published one collection of poems entitled `Princess Freak’.
The text of `Water and Wine’ is from her yet unpublished book `Me As Her
again’.
Last year `Bnagir’ () published in its ninth issue translations
of Agabian’s poetry, due to which she was invited to participate in Utopiana’s
festival.
“I knew Nancy through her poems and I did not imagine her to be like this. It
was a surprise for me to see her so small and seemingly defenseless,’ said
Grigoryan. `A desire to protect her rises inside you. But after her
performance I suddenly felt that this tender creature herself was defending
us, Hayastantsis.’
There was a time when Agabian distanced herself from the Armenian community,
which did not accept her sexual orientation. However, after she was 30, she
against started to communicate with Armenians in New York learning about an
organization of Armenian homosexuals. She believed that the Armenian community
needed modernizing: `To be a woman and an Armenian is the same to me, because
I got my Armenian identity from Armenian women. Now I know that I myself have
a lot to give to the Armenian community and receive a lot from it.’
In New York Agabian organized `Gartal’ club, where writers with different
views connected to each other through being Armenians, gather.
The organizer of the festival, Stephan Kristensen, says that one of their
goals is to over come fears prevailing in society, such as for example women’s
fear to remain unmarried, the fear of being feminist, the fear of creating
homosexual communities and many other fears that are typical of both women and
men.
SPORT DIGEST: FUTSAL GOOD, FOOTBALL GETTING BETTER (?), AN ARMENIAN LORD OF
THE RINGS, ETC
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Futsal
Mini-success: Armenia’s futsal (mini-football) champion Tal Grig put up a
successful performance in the 2005/2006 UEFA Futsal Cup group stage
qualification opening round in London, reaching the next stage of the
tournament. In their first group match the Armenian club defeated Albania’s
champion Dinamo Tirana – 5-4, and then beat French Roubaix 7-2 securing a
place in the next round.
In the third match in London Tal Grig lost to the home side White Bear, 1-2.
Thus, the first two places in the group were won by Yerevan’s Tal Grig and
Albania’s Dinamo Tirana, both finishing with six points. The Londoners also
had six points, but yielded to the Armenian and Albanian sides on goal
difference.
Tal Grig is considered Armenia’s best futsal club for the last two years, but
has not made any progress in the international arena yet.
Yerevan’s reward for winning the opening pool is a place in Group 4, staged by
Hungary’s Colorspectrum Aramis Budapest and containing AGBU Ararat Nicosia of
Cyprus and the 2003/2004 finalists SL Benfica. The matches will be played next
month.
Football
Despite two defeats suffered in the matches against the strong Dutch and Czech
sides in September, Armenia’s national football team has made some progress in
the list of rankings published by the International Football Governing Body
FIFA this month. In the 205-nation list Armenia now occupies the 115 th spot
in contrast to the 119 th place they occupied in the previous list.
>From among the former USSR countries ahead of Armenia are:
Russia – 30 th place
Ukraine – 39 th place
Uzbekistan – 57 th place
Latvia – 63 rd place
Estonia – 81 st place
Lithuania – 95 th place
Georgia – 104 th place
Turkmenistan – 109 th place
Azerbaijan – 114 th place.
And behind Armenia are only: Tajikistan – 140 th place, Kazakhstan – 146 th
place and Kyrgyzstan – 152 nd place.
(According to the Football Federation of Armenia, )
Judo
The world judo championships ended in the Egyptian capital of Cairo recently,
with the three Armenian sportsmen participating in the competition failing to
score any success. Much had been expected from Armen Nazaryan, who had won
numerous international tournaments before, however the experienced fighter
failed in his 3 rd fight after two victories and dropped out of the contest.
Hovhannes Malkhasyan also won two fights but lost in his third. And Levon
Galstyan was defeated in his very first fight. (A1 Plus)
Gymnastics
Three Armenian athletes participating in the open gymnastics championships of
Iran in Zanjak brought gold medals to their country. Vahan Stepanyan won on
the rings, Harutyun Meghdikyan on the horizontal bar and Artyom Avteyan on the
parallel bars. (A1 Plus)
Wrestling
Armenia ‘s freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestlers are in the final stage of
preparations for the world championships to be held in the Hungarian capital
of Budapest later this month.
According to the Armenian Sport Committee wrestling coach Lyova Vardanyan,
five freestyle and six Greco-Roman wrestlers representing Armenia will defend
their country in Budapest. Athletes with international experience who have
good chances to win medals will be selected for the team. In Vardanyan’s
estimation, 2005 was a successful year for Armenian junior and young
wrestlers, and their older compatriots want to keep up the good tradition this
year.
Freestyle wrestlers will engage in competition first. On September 23, they
will leave for Budapest, where on September 25 they will pass weighing
procedures, and the next day the fights will begin and last until September
28. Greco-Roman wrestlers will leave for Hungary on September 28 and their
fights will begin on October 1. (Armenpress)
Chess
European junior chess championships opened in the town of Herzeg Novi, Serbia
& Montenegro, on Thursday. Twenty-three chess-players represent Armenia at the
tournament. In the first round Armenian chess-players registered 11 victories,
suffered 9 defeats, and the rest drew their games. (Armenpress)
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