As the final offering in its 2003 Great Performances Series, Festival Dance will present Manding Jata at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 7, at the Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum. This French West Africa troupe combines powerhouse drumming and dancing, with vibrant costumes to create a complex cultural entertainment.
Manding Jata presents the cultural legacy of the great Manding/Mali Empire, centered in the fabled city of Timbuktu.
Complete with headdress and ceremonial masks, they play fast and exhilarating rhythms, while exploring all the tones of the drums. Featuring a variety of native instruments, Manding Jata produces complex melodies. The dancing is equally mixed — martial arts moves are combined with acrobatics, and dance is blended with circus-like tricks.
Ticket prices — adults $20/$16, students $16/$10, children 12 and under $12/ $8. Seats in the first seven rows are $28. Groups discounts available.
Funding provided by the Western States Arts Federation, U S Bank, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the Washington State Arts Commission.
