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Community Calendar: Sacred dance and Giller Light

Downtown Highly trained bharata natyam dancers will perform at the Gait to the Spirit Festival, a Mandala Arts and Culture production taking place at the Scotiabank Dance Centre Oct. 31 to Nov. 2.
Bharata natyam
Bharata natyam dancers highlight the Gait to the Spirit Festival Oct. 31 to Nov. 2.

Downtown
Highly trained bharata natyam dancers will perform at the Gait to the Spirit Festival, a Mandala Arts and Culture production taking place at the Scotiabank Dance Centre Oct. 31 to Nov. 2.

Bharata natyam is one of the most sacred classical dance styles of India with more than 100 schools in Canada and thousands more around the world. The dance, once performed only by women, is known for its grace, purity, tenderness and sculpture-like poses.

After almost facing extinction, bharata natyam went through a revival about 100 years ago, which inspired generations of masters, dancers and musicians who insured the survival of the dance and brought new dimensions to the traditional repertoire. Bharata natyam is now performed and taught around the globe by artists from various backgrounds, genders and creed.

The Gait to the Spirit Festiva, under the artistic direction of Jai Govinda, was made possible with support from the B.C. Arts Council, City of Vancouver, B.C. Gaming, Hamber Foundation and Banyan Books and Sound.

For the festival’s popular Sunday (pay what you can) matinee, Mandala presents Toronto’s Nivedha Ramalingam and Vancouver’s male bharata natyam dancer Sujit Vaidya. Visit mandalarts.wordpress.com for more.

The Scotiabank Giller Light Bash, in support of Frontier College, takes place at CBC Studio 700 Nov. 10 from 5 to 9 p.m.

The event, hosted by CBC’s Kathryn Gretsinger, includes a live broadcast of the Scotiabank Giller Prize literary award and words from Giller-nominated author Annabel Lyon, the city’s first poet laureate George McWhirter, award-winning poet Renee Saklikar and Gemini-award winning screenwriter Ian Weir. Tickets are $20 and include “good eats,” swag bags and a chance to win a Kobo eReader. For more information visit gillerlightbash.ca.

West End
The 2014 PGA of B.C. women’s champion is the keynote speaker at the 25th Annual B.C. Lupus Wellness and Education Symposium, which takes place Oct. 25 at St. Paul’s Hospital.  

For Salimah Mussani, the journey to becoming one of Canada’s top female golfers, while living with the ongoing symptoms of Lupus, has followed a road of highs, lows and challenges. But the disease, known as having a thousand faces, has not been able to suppress the talent or passion Mussani has for the game.

The focus of the symposium is to not only educate those afflicted with Lupus and members of the public about the disease, but to also demonstrate what can still be accomplished in spite of a diagnosis. The symposium take place at 9 a.m. Oct. 25 at the St. Paul’s Hospital lecture theatre, 1081 Burrard. For more information, visit bclupus.org.

False Creek
Everything you wanted to know about Lyme disease but were afraid to ask.

A Lyme disease Awareness Forum has been organized to educate the public about this growing problem. The Public Health Agency of Canada has identified the Lower Mainland, the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island as “tick endemic areas.”

A guest panel includes Gwen Barlee, policy director for the Wilderness Committee in Vancouver and a Lyme disease advocate, Dr. Liz Zubek who worked at the Chronic Complex Disease Program assessing patients with the sickness, and Dr. Marc Boutet who specializes in treating chronic illnesses, including Lyme disease.

The forum takes place Nov. 13 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Creekside Community Centre, 1 Athletes Way.  

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