Through our Touring Artists program, CTMD helps hundreds of phenomenal New York-based artists present a wide variety of traditional music and dance forms to audiences across North America. But Sidiki Conde, leader of the Tokounou music and dance ensemble, surely stands out both for his unbelievable artistry has well as his ability to rise above the challenges of being an immigrant artist and a dancer who has no use of his legs.

It can be startling for audience members to watch Conde use his muscular arms to tie his vestigial lower extremities around his waist like a sash. But then he starts to dance, leaping and spinning around the stage using only his upper body, and in a short time reminds everyone why he is one of the world's great African dancers.

As was reported in an earlier Global Beat of the Boroughs eNewsletter, Sidiki Conde was recently honored by the National Endowment for the Arts with a National Hertiage Fellowship. Click on the below link for a Master Artist profile of Conde by CTMD's Archivist Tom van Buren, Ph.D.:

Friday, February 8 - Monday, February 18: CTMD Touring Artists Thunderbird American Indian Dancers hold their 33rd Annual Dance Concert and Pow-Wow at the Theater for the New City (155 First Ave. betweeen 9th and 10th Streets, Manhattan). For more information, go to Theater for the New City web site. (8:00PM with 3:00PM matinees on Saturday/Sunday)

Thursday, February 14: Tantshoyz Yiddish Dance Party/Workshop in collaboration with the JCC in Manhattan and Workmen's Circle. Let master dancer and klezmer revival pioneer Deborah Strauss teach you Yiddish Dance to the accompaniment of live klezmer music. Dancers of all skill levels welcome. At the JCC in Manhattan's theater, 334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St. Admission $10, $8 for JCC & Workmen's Circle members. (7:00PM-10:00PM)

Thursday, February 14: NYC Barn Dance featuring Tony DeMarco, one of the finest Sligo- style Irish fiddlers in the world and Niall O'Leary, former All- Ireland and World Champion step dancer, and director of the largest Irish dance school in New York. At Hungarian House, 213 E. 82nd St. between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. $15 (gen. adm.) / $13 (seniors, students). Ages 18+. For more information go to the NYC Barn Dance website. (6:30PM instruction, 8:00PM - 11:00PM dance party)

Sunday, February 17: CTMD Touring Artists Kotchegna Dance Company perform their Annual Dance Concert and Gathering at the Miller Theater @ Columbia University (116th St. & Broadway). Admission $20 advance, $25 at the door. For more information go to the Kochegna web site or call the box office at 212-854-7799. (6:00PM)

Wednesday, February 20: CTMD Touring Artists McCollough Sons of Thunder perform shout gospel at the Baruch Performing Arts Center. For more information go to the Bar uch website (7:30PM)

Saturday, March 1 (note date change): Ukrainian Vechornytsi (Ukrainian village social dance), a program of CTMD's new Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative. Join dance leader Tamara Chernyakhovska in learning Ukrainian folk dances. Music by Andriy Milavsky and Cheres at Ukrainian East Village Restaurant, 140 Second Ave. between 8th and 9th Streets in Manhattan. (instruction 7:30-8:15PM, dance party 8:30-11:00PM)

Thursday, April 17: Tantshoyz (Dance Party/Workshop) in collaboration with the JCC in Manhattan and Workmen's Circle. Led by master dancer and klezmer revival pioneer Zev Feldman to the accompaniment of live klezmer music. Dancers of all skill levels welcome. At the JCC in Manhattan's theater, 334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St. Admission $10, $8 for JCC and Workmen's Circle members. (7:00-10:00PM)

From February 8 - 17, CTMD Touring Artists Thurnderbird Dancers, led by Louis Mofsie present their 33rd Annual Dance Concert and Pow Wow at Theatre for the New City (155 First Ave between 9th and 10th Streets, Manhattan). Performances are at 8PM daily, with 3PM matinees on Saturday and Sunday.

Highlights of this year's celebration will include Hoop Dance performed by "Dancing Wolf" Michael Taylor (Choctaw/French), Caribou Dance (from the Inuit people of Alaska), Butterfly Dance (a Hopi custom which gives thanks for the beauty of nature), Grass Dance and Jingle Dress Dance (from the Northern Plains people), Stomp Dance (new this year, from the Southeastern tribes), and Shawl Dance (from the Oklahoma tribes).

Featured performers will include storyteller Muriel Miguel (Kuna/Rappahannock), the Heyna Second Son Singers (various tribes) and Matoaka Eagle (Santo Domingo/Chickahominy). In the final section of the program, the audience will be invited to join in the Round Dance, a friendship dance.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $1 for children under 12 yrs - matinees only. For more information, see the Theatre for the New City website.

CTMD's new Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative has successfully launched a series of Vechornytsis (village social dance parties). The next event will take place at Manhattan's Ukrainian East Village Restaurant (140 Second Ave. between 8th and 9th) on Saturday March 1. Dance instruction begins at 7:30PM with the dance party going from 8:30PM-11:00PM. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for kids.

Dance will be led by Tamara Chernyakhovska, a former principal dancer with the G.G. Veriovka Ukrainian National Dance Company of Kiev. Tamara spent many years collecting dances in remote villages throughout Ukraine. Ukrainian Wave co-Artistic Director Andriy Milavsky and his terrific Cheres ensemble provide all your Carpathian favorites.

In 2007, CTMD received a major grant from the New York State Council on the Arts that enabled our Archivist Tom van Buren, Ph.D. to digitize 40 years of rare video and sound recordings of our past presentations. And what treasures we found! Concert video of klezmer legends Dave Tarras and his protege Andy Statman from 1978, Epirot clarinetist Pericles Halkias , the Popovich Brothers tamburitza band, merengue accordionist Fefita La Grande, bomba/plena stars Los Pleneros de la 21, Irish superband Cherish the Ladies, and Pontic lyra player Ilias Kementzides. Much of this material was at risk of deteriorating in antiquated mediums. The NYSCA grant enabled us to digitize and transfer these one-of-a-kind recordings to archival-standard digital tapes.

CTMD has also partnered with our friends at City Lore and World Music Institute to share archival resources and create an inter-organizational archive called the New York World Arts and Culture Archive. For more information, as well as a full list of many of the artists who are documented in CTMD's Archive go to the Archive website.

On February 1, 2008, Pachamama Peruvian Arts presented El Ni�o, an original musical based on a Peruvian folk narrative. Pachamama Artistic Director Carlos D. Bernales wrote El Ni�o by interweaving legends, myths and stories from different times and regions of Peru, some taken from texts based on the brilliant graphics found on Mochica pottery (A.D. 100 to A.D. 750).

El Ni�o featured the students of Pachamama Peruvian Arts and their master instructors: Luz Pereira, Rosa Carhuallanqui, Patricio Paucar and H�ctor Morales. Students performed on the caj�n, zampo�a, quena, charango, and danced marinera norte�a, and marinera Lime�a after studying these forms since September. Special guest artists included Marcos Napa and Michael Ortiz with Eric Kurimski on guitar and Ileana Santamaria on vocals.

An event such as this required tremendous support, and Pachamama's wonderful volunteers assisted with the production, at the front of the house and with more than fifty young students backstage. Over 300 people attended this free event which also marked the graduation of the Pachamama students. Pachamama Peruvian Arts Spring Classes begin on February 15th at P.S. 212 in Jackson Heights and include marinera Pune�a and pandilla (the elegant marinera from southern Peru) and carapachos (the ritual dance from the Amazon) and the advanced classes of Afro-Peruvian percussion (caj�n, cajita, quijada) and Andean music (zampo�a, quena, charango). For more information or to volunteer, please e-mail gmhamilton@ctmd.org.

The NYC Barn Dance kicks off its spring series of fully-participatory traditional music and dance parties this Thursday, February 14 at 8 pm. Tony DeMarco, a New York City native and one the finest Sligo-style Irish fiddlers in the world, and Niall O'Leary, former All-Ireland and World Champion step dancer, and director of the largest Irish dance school in New York, provide the music and dance instruction for the event. One recent attendee had this to say: "New York City Barn Dance brings a unique array of old-time music and dance to a surprisingly broad range of NYCers. For those interested in vintage, historic, contra and square dancing, it a great, monthly, not to be missed event. But what makes it really special isn't that it's a great and varied dance night, but that it attracts participants new to this type of social dancing and is broadening the traditional social dance community in a really exciting way."

Sponsored through CTMD by a New York State Council on the Arts Folk Arts grant, the series is noteworthy in that it is a fully-participatory dance event, not a dance class, require no experience and no partner. Each monthly event in the series features a different one of five Anglo-Irish-Scottish traditions in northeastern North America - Irish, Cape Breton Scottish, French- Canadian, New England and Appalachian - with artists from places as varied as Nova Scotia and West Virginia. Attendees receive detailed program notes prepared by noteworthy folklorists on the specific tradition and artists featured.

Each NYC Barn Dance event is preceded by an open old-time Appalachian music jam session, so all levels of interested musicians can tote out their fiddles, guitars, banjos or step dancing shoes to show-off or practice their skills before the dance begins. The event regularly welcomes 50-80 attendees, three-quarters under the age of 40, and always includes return guests and newcomers as well. Beer, wine and fine Hungarian pastries from the famous Andre's Cafe around the corner fill out the evening.

NYC Barn Dance is held every second Thursday of the month, October to June, at the Hungarian House, 213 E. 82nd St. between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. This special series runs February to June. The dance is scheduled 8-11 pm, with the open session directly before from 6:30-8 pm. $15 (gen. adm.) / $13 (seniors, students). Ages strictly 18+.

If you would like more information about this event, please contact David Harvey at dave@nycbarndance.com or 603/496-9567, or visit the NYC Barn Dance web site.

CTMD is once again pleased to present a Tantshoyz Yiddish Dance Party/Workshop on Thursday, February 14, 7:00PM- 10:00PM in the beautiful auditorium of the JCC in Manhattan (334 Amsterdam Ave. @ 76th St.) featuring master dance leader Deborah Strauss, leading us through bulgars, freylekhs, horas and the like. Music will be provided by an all- star klezmer band featuring fiddlers Jake Shulman- Ment, Steven Greenman and guitarist/mandolinist Jeff Warschauer. And whether you bring a Valentine's friend or not you'll be assured of a good time!

And just a reminder, CTMD and the new Yiddish Dance Action Network are seeking old family video footage of Yiddish dance-- should you happen to have film of Tante Gitl dancing a sher at your cousin's bat mitzvah please let us know!

The Tantshoyz program is co- presented by CTMD, the Workmen's Circle and the JCC in Manhattan. Admission is $10, $8 for Workmen's Circle and JCC members.

And save the dates for upcoming Tantshayzer on Thursday April 17 and Thursday May 29!

We've been working with our friends at the Mencius Society of Chinatown in the Wossing/AiCenter to provide lessons for youth in Chinese musical instruments and traditional ensembles. Mencius will be having a Year of the Rat New Year's Party on Friday, Feb 15, from 7:30PM. Admission is free for attending students and $18 for everyone else, $10 for companions. The Wossing/AiCenter is located at 243 Grand St. 3F in the heart of Chinatown. Please call 212-431-7373 to reserve tickets or go to the Wossing/AiCenter website.

Our friends at Alwan Center for the Arts will present Cafe Aman: An Evening of Aegean Rebetiko on Saturday, February 16, at 9:00PM. Admission is $15 ($10 Students with valid ID). The band will feature clarinetist Lefteris Bournias , who provided an unbelievable performance with Amalia Papastefanou's band at CTMD's summer New York World Festival. Bourinias is joined by Megan Gould (Violin), Mavrothis Kontanis (Vocals and Oud), Timothy Quigley (Percussion) and Anastassia Zachariadou (Kanun). Alwan for the Arts is at 16 Beaver St. 4th Fl. in Lower Manhattan. For more information go to the Alwan website.

Sunday, February 17 is a busy day for klezmer fans. At 3PM, violinist/composer Steven Greenman makes an all-too rare New York appearance to team up with Cantor Sam Weiss and tsimbl (hammered dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky for a program entitled Cantorial Inspirations that will explore the influences of cantorial music on klezmer composition. At the beautifully restored synagogue sanctuary of the newly renamed Museum at Eldridge Street, 12 Eldridge Street in Manhattan's Chinatown. Tickets: $15 adults; $12 students and seniors. For more information go to the Eldridge Street website. Then, at 8:00PM, clarinetist Michael Winograd will hold a CD release party for his new album, Bessarabian Hop, at the Workmen's Circle, 45 E.33rd Street (by Park Ave.). Admission is $10. Winograd will be joined by mandolinist Joey Weisenberg, accordionist Patrick Farrell, tsimblist Pete Rushefsky, trombonist Daniel Blacksberg, bassist Nick Cudahy, drummer Richie Barshay, and vocalists Michael Alpert and Judith Berkson.

Also at 7 pm on Sunday, February 17, East West events and bookstore (78 Fifth Avenue at 14th Street) presents Frame Drums, Music and Songs of Iran, Kurdistan, Armenia, Turkey, Greece featuring Rowan Storm (voice, daff, dayereh, tambourine) and Persian master musician Amir Vahab (voice, daff, tanbour). Admission is $20 with pre-registration, $25 at the door. Space limited for pre-registration call 212-243-5995 or for more information: 619-517-3053 or email angeldal@aol. com.

The Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission and the Folklife Program for New Jersey present Pysanky, a traditional Ukrainian egg- decorating workshop on Saturday, February 23, 2008 from 10AM-12noon and then 1PM-3PM at the East Jersey Olde Towne Village, 1050 River Road, Piscataway. For more information go to the Com mission's website.

On Sunday February 24th, SOBs (204 Varick St. at West Houston) presents Kakande, a 9-piece West African band based out of NYC, celebrating the release of their much-anticipated album, Dununya (put out by Jumbie Records). If that wasn't enough to get you there, African superstar Mory Kante will join Kakande on stage in a rare U.S. appearance. Kakande is a 9- piece collective that demonstrates how the balafon (xylophone) has electrified African music for 800 years. Lush vocals, flutes, sinewy guitars, cellos and countless melodic textures are propelled by the power of Famoro Dioubate's balafon virtuosity. For more information about the show go to SOBs website.

Also on Sunday, February 24 at 3:00PM, there wil be a Gospel and Sacred Harp Sing presented by the Folk Music Society of New York at 225 W 70th St., Manhattan (between Broadway and West End Ave.), apt. 4C, intercom 21. For more information call 212- 724-9316 or 212-866-2029. This is Sacred Harp 4- part harmony sung from written music, so you should be able to carry a tune. Bring food for a potluck super (host is supplying drinks).

Carl Linich, a scholar of Georgian folk singing will begin a series of monthly workshops starting Saturday January 26, 2008 at 2pm (continuing on February 23, March 29, April 26, and May 24) at the Seafarers & International House Chapel 123 E 15th St (1 block east of Union Square). Suggested donation $15. Linich lived in Georgia for ten years, knows all three voice parts to several hundred Georgian folk songs, and speaks the language fluently. He has led singing camps for Village Harmony and has taught workshops for choirs and ensembles in Georgia and the USA, including Northern Harmony, Libana, and Kitka. He is a member of Kavkasia and Nanina, both trios performing Georgian song. Georgian folk singing is traditionally in three voice parts. The voice parts are very close; in mixed groups, women generally sing the middle/top parts and men sing the middle/low. Songs will be taught chiefly by ear, using word sheets only as learning aids, Linich feels this brings people closer to the living tradition and pulls them away from any Western orientation that could compromise the song. All levels of musical experience are welcome. For more info call 212-874-3289 or email tamarschmnn@yahoo.com.

Our long-time colleague and NEA National Heritage Fellow Mick Moloney will present Traditional Irish Music, Song and Dance at the North Brunswick High School, Route 130 and Raider Road in North Brunswick, NJ on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 8PM. The free program is presented by the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission and the Folklife Program for New Jersey. For more information go to the Com mission's website.

Congratulations to RagaChitra Foundation Director Nivedita ShivRaj for receiving an Individual Artist Support award of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs by the Queens Council on the Arts. ShivRaj is the very first South Indian carnatic musician to have received this honor.