Toronto Arts & Events!

Luminato - Toronto's Festival of Art & Creativity was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from June 4 to 14, 2009. This is the third year of this annual ten-day celebration of the arts where Toronto's stages, streets, and public spaces are infused with theatre, dance, classical and contemporary music, film, literature, visual arts, and design. According to Luminato, it embraces three key programming principles: collaboration, accessibility, and diversity. Much of Luminato's events include free widely accessible events, and "accidental encounters with art." Festival-goers are invited to participate, explore, and celebrate their own creative spirit. Luminato 2009 consisted of the theatre section, dance program, contemporary music, film, literature, visual arts and design as well as the VIP parties for the sponsors.

The major events of the festival included:

Opening by Randy Bachman ("Let it Ride") at the Yonge-Dundas Square as part of the Luminato First Night event
Invite Only Opening Party
Carmen & Skin Divers - National Ballet of Canada at the Centre for the Performing Arts
Closing weekend with Cirque du Soleil
the celebration of the guitar,
the commemoration of Edgar Allan Poe, and the
RedBall Project by artist Kurt Perschke - a 15-foot inflatable sphere and hang, place, and wedge it into various locations around Toronto in an effort to reimagine architectural elements within the city's urban space.

TorontoArtsandEvents profiles two events - the opening night VIP and Carmen:

Opening Night VIP Party

The Opening Night VIP "Invite Only" Party was held on June 5, 2009 at the National Ballet School's beautiful building ( see past Events ) at 400 Jarvis Street, Toronto, Ontario while live footage of Randy Bachman's ("Let it Ride") performance at Yonge-Dundas Square streamed into the event. Many important Canadian business people, directors, actors, media and producers attended this opening. A number of musical and dance performances also took place throughout the building, including sets by the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, jazz pianists Thompson Egbo-Egbo and Robi Botos, the Outlanders, Esmerelda Enrique Spanish Dance Company, and Rated X. The hors d'oeuvres consisted of lobster macaroni and cheese and grilled Portobello veggie burgers. Guests were offered white and red wine on the main floor while on the second level, guests had the choice of sipping Stella Artois beer in the dance lounge—outfitted with a white dance floor and illuminated DJ booth—or drinking Pravda vodka cocktails in the dimly lit jazz lounge. Each room offered guests a different feel. One dance studios was converted into a jazz lounge while another was converted into a dance floor. On the fifth floor, returning sponsor Giorgio Armani created an all black lounge for V.I.P. guests where the Canadian Tenors performed and makeup artists offered touch-ups.

Carmen & Skin Divers - June 5 to 14, 2009 at Four Seasons Centre of Performing Arts

The National Ballet of Canada's double bill, Dominique Dumais' Skin Divers and Davide Bombana's Carmen was novel and exciting. Skin Divers was inspired by two poems by Canadian Anne Michaels - Dominique Dumais' dance interpretation was a sensuous tour de force. "Davide Bombana's ground-breaking, genre-bending re-conceptualization of Bizet's Carmen dispenses with the story's inessentials and goes straight for the latent carnality and primal passions at its heart Canadian Premiere" This fine performance makes TorontoArtsandEvents look forward to the National Ballet of Canada's 2009 - 2010 program.

About Luminato

Co-Founder David Pecaut and Tony Gagliano began Luminato as a dream: each year Toronto would invite the world to join Toronto and celebrate creativity - the best artists of music, theatre, dance, visual arts, literature, film in the world and the best artists in Canada would fill the stage that is Toronto with new and wonderful creation and this festival would become renowned the world over for its excellence, its originality and its accessibility to all people regardless of background or experience. Most of Luminato is free because of the support of provincial, federal and city government, corporate sponsors and private foundations and private donors which are called Luminaries. TorontoArtsandEvents asks: Has that dream has become a reality?

Luminato - Toronto's Festival of Art & Creativity infused Toronto's stages, streets, and public spaces with theatre, dance, classical and contemporary music, film, literature, visual arts, and design. Have Co-Founder David Pecaut and Tony Gagliano fulfilled Luminato's three key programming principles: collaboration, accessibility, and diversity? This festival is now a significant and important festival and mark your calendar for next year! TorontoArtsandEvents! will.