Circle ‘Round Brooklyn 2, a participatory dance event, held from 3 – 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 17, at Fort Greene Park, featured performances by soloists and troupes, whose traditional dance forms relate... more
This Year's Theme: Earth Stomping Dance Traditions FEATURING: JUXTAPOWER, SOUTH AFRICAN SONG AND DANCE Founder Sduduzo Ka-Mbili and Michael Nyonende Forde perform and teach Zulu dance (traditio... more
Sunday, October 8, 2006 Tobacco Warehouse, Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park section of Brooklyn Bridge Park, in DUMBO 2:00-5:00p.m.
Cliff Matias - Native American dance
Cliff Matias is the founder and director of Redhawk Native American Arts Council, a Brooklyn-based organization established in 1995 that promotes and presents Native American arts and culture. Each J... more
Presented by BAC Folk Arts, Brooklyn Maqam Arab Music Festival is a rare opportunity to experience the remarkable variety of Arab music traditions that flourish throughout the metro area! WHEN: Fri... more
Friday, March 28 Tarboosh Cafe 9:00pm-Midnight
BOOK YOUR SPACE FOR WALKING TOURS OF THE BOROUGH'S ARAB NEIGHBORHOODS. The Brooklyn Maqam Arab Music Festival drew many of its talented musicians and its inspiration from two thriving Arab neighbor... more
Darrah Carr, artistic director of Darrah Carr Dance, has choreographed for and performed with Broadway productions and dance companies at home and abroad. She learned traditional Irish dance in her na... more
Deborah Strauss - Yiddish dance
Deborah Strauss (violin, accordion, vocals, dance) is one of the finest of the contemporary klezmer instrumentalists and a well-known Yiddish dance instructor. She frequently appears as a featured dan... more
Dena El Saffar, of Iraqi and American heritage, was exposed to Arabic music in the suburbs of Chicago, where she grew up attending Iraqi gatherings with her family. She began learning the violin at th... more
From Athens, Greece, Mikelis is both an ‘ud and piano performer. He holds a B.M from Berklee College of Music in jazz studies (2003), a Masters in Jazz Performance from the William Paterson Universit... more
Diverse Traditions: Arab Folk Music in Regional Expression
Presented by BAC Folk Arts, Brooklyn Maqam Arab Music Festival is a rare opportunity to experience the remarkable variety of Arab music traditions that flourish throughout the metro area! WHEN: Sat... more
Diverse Traditions: Arab Folk Music in Regional Expression
Saturday, March 29 Alwan for the Arts 9:00 -11:00pm
Join BAC for a public forum “Diverse Traditions of Death and Dying” featuring Brooklyn-based traditional artists, neighborhood undertakers, and religion specialists. The forum launches the year-long B... more
Don Coy - American square dance
Don Coy, who made his way to Brooklyn from his native Louisville, Kentucky, in 1990, has trained as a square dancer caller since 1974. Don is also an expert square dance teacher, and country guitar pl... more
One of the most creative and successful Irish dancers, Donny Golden, is a North American step-dancing champion and a National Heritage Award winner. He has choreographed shows for his troupe at Radio ... more
FOLK FEET FIGHT FOR DUMBO Last year BAC's Folk Feet dancers knocked out audiences at DUMBO FIGHT NIGHT, the DUMBO Improvement District's first annual fundraiser. Team "Folk Feet" has been invited bac... more
Eddie Soubhi Ibn Farjallah Kochakhi was born and raised in Brooklyn, in a Syrian Catholic family on Atlantic Avenue. His sister brought him his first dumbek from Aleppo when he was ten. He came to be... more
This drum and dance ensemble specializes in Bomba, Puerto Rico's oldest art form dating back to its colonial history. Bomba's musicality and aesthetics are a combination of African, Indigenous, and Eu... more
El Mostafa comes from the Atlantic port city of El Jadida, Morocco. He bought his first instrument, a Moroccan wooden flute called gasbah, as a boy. He was drawn to its sad, yet sweet sound quality, a... more
Friday, March 7 Brooklyn's Maqam: Reinventing Arab Music in the Borough BAM Cafe at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Featuring Fahim Dandan, the renowned popular singer whose presence at Brooklyn Ara... more
Euston James - Trinidadian limbo and calypso
Euston James, a native of Trinidad, has lived in Brooklyn since 1972. In the U.S. he has participated in West Indian carnival traditions as a dancer of calypso and limbo and as a fire-eater. His speci... more
Brooklyn-based Palestinian vocalist Fahim Dandan grew up with exposure to the folk music traditions of Haifa and nearby villages. Dandan’s mother was respected for her musical ability and noted for h... more
Holy Cross Greek Cultural Festival Greek dances led by Chrisafo Madimenos 9/21/2008 Ridge Boulevard and 85th Street, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
BAC FOLK ARTS: WHAT WE DO See a merengue típico dance at a Dominican party in Bushwick; the elaborate costumes on Eastern Parkway at the annual West Indies Labor Day Celebration; moko jumbies danc... more
Artists from BAC’s Folk Arts in Education Program perform songs, stories and dances and discuss their traditions and cultural history.
The terms “folk” and “traditional” describe the artists and art forms that our programming supports. Few of the traditional artists we work with have ever received formal training; most learn by obser... more
The following is a list of useful websites: Here are some helpful links to folk arts research, grants, publications, organizations and information about specific artists and art forms. Americ... more
Artists from BAC’s Folk Arts program perform songs, stories, and dances, and discuss the history and traditions of their native countries and cultures.