The Azmari tradition is the Ethiopian version of the Bard or musical storyteller tradition of the west. Nobody does it better than Fendika. Melaku Belay‘s famous dance troupe performs at Bunna on Friday, January 15 in an early celebration of the Timket holiday.
Don’t miss this world renown spectacle of traditional dance, music, and comedy. Be part of the Fendika Welcoming Committee!!
With spins and visuals by SELAMX.
PREORDER TIX NOW! $10*, book at bunnaethiopia.net/fendika or the ticket link above. $15 at the door.
Everything is eshi.
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Melaku Belay’s FENDIKA, a troupe of the most accomplished azmari musicians and dancers from Addis Ababa, draws deeply from the well of Ethiopia’s bardic tradition. Fendika’s creative performance style adds innovative movements and sounds that revitalize the ancient artistic forms. The group features six to seven performers – two dancers, two singers, and instruments including kebero drums, masenko (a one-stringed bowed fiddle), and krar (a five- or six-stringed lyre). Founded in 2009 by Melaku Belay, Ethiopia’s leading dancer and a respected cultural ambassador, the ensemble is based at Melaku’s renowned music club Fendika Azmari Bet in the Kazanchis neighborhood of Addis Ababa.
Melaku is a skilled interpreter of eskista, a traditional Ethiopian trance dance of athletic shoulder movements that presage hip hop movements of breaking and popping. Melaku has traveled throughout Ethiopia to learn the dance traditions of the country’s 80 ethnic groups. The musicians and dancers of Fendika present a cultural journey starting in the highlands of Tigray, Wollo, Gonder, and Gojjam, also including dances from the Somali and Afar regions and southern Ethiopian dance forms from the Gurage, Walaita, and Konso traditions.
SelamX is an Afrofuturist filmmaker and DJ, mixes stories from past, present and future to deliver live visuals and experimental sounds that will surely keep you moving through space and time. Her Ethiopian-Electronic setlist coupled with vibrant projections have longed for Addis Abeba, while being featured in spaces like the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art in Brooklyn, NY and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA.
melakubelay.com
selambekele.com
bunnaethiopia.net
africologymedia.com
* $1.50 booking fee applies.
