page6 Monday, March 23, 2009
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Volume 35, Issue 24
Styling and profiling
Photo/Lara Matiisen
Held at the Blind Duck Pub from Thursday to Saturday last week, the Style and Profyle annual Fashion Show showcased some stellar performances from students across campus. The event, the sixth of its kind, presented clothing from BEDO, Boathouse, Jean Machine, Esprit, and Miss Sixty Energie, among others.
ALI KASIM EDITOR IN CHIEF
“Honestly, I think it ran better than last year’s third night” – quite a statement, especially considering Michael Ross, co-producer of Style and Profyle’s sixth annual Fashion and Dance Show, was referring to this year’s preview which began an hour late last Thursday night. I found out later on the next evening that such a claim did not go unsubstantiated. Hosted by Norris Yacoub and Camilo Diez, the Fashion Show, which ran from Thursday to Saturday last week at the Blind Duck Pub, proved as successful as any of the productions over the past years. The show on Friday evening in particular played to a packed audience, many of whom left impressed by the dancers, models, and clothes on display. The fashion show this year incorporated a fascinating and well-arranged “Night at the Movies” theme, with each segment reflecting the looks and sounds of various movies from A Night at the Roxbury to Stomp the Yard to Grease. This also allowed for hosts Yacoub and Diez to re-enact some often humorous
skits from the respective movies just before each segment, keeping the audience constantly entertained between each and every performance. As with every year, the show featured a startling array of model-dancers – all students from UTM. But looks and stylish cat walking weren’t the only talents on display, a handful of the participants such as Alyssa Sepi, Meghna Venkatesh, and Diana Pandya also competently choreographed some of the dance segments. One of the choreographies which stood out was Pandya’s ambitious routine from and for the film, Garden State. Pandya’s ballet-like dance movements to the tune of Frou Frou’s “Let Go” required no props and spilled graciousness from beginning to end. One of the slower numbers of the evening, the routine earned one of the loudest applause for its skilled routine. Pandya, a second-year English major, claimed she grounded her contemporary three-formation piece very much on ballet. “I wanted to go for something modern with a lot a lyrical movement. There was a lot of ballet technique involved,” explained Pandya. Bearing a much higher tempo and also deserving of mention was Venkatesh’s “Sex and the City” number. The energy-driven dance, co-headed by Venkatesh and Sepi – two of the standout dancers throughout the show –
would give even the Pussycat Dolls a run for their money. Even a flung-off shoe at the end of the routine didn’t taint the performance. Other notable segments included Sheena Campbell’s Stomp the Yard which featured no music and a remarkable in sync stomp performance throughout, a salsa-merengue number by producers Ross and Daniella Fragomeni inspired by Dirty Dancing and of course, as with every year, the belly dance segment by Venkatesh for the film Alexander. Placed strategically just before the intermission, the belly dance routine, fused with traditional Indian dance choreography, was easily the show’s scene stealer, rivalled only by Sepi’s Saturday Night Fever number shortly after the interval. Through her livewire choreography, Sepi shows why the Bee Gees’ “Staying Alive” is so effective for runway modelling. Later on in the Hip Hop segment, Sepi also demonstrates why she could and should lead any street-dancing troupe. A second-year Professional Writing student, Sepi claims to have been dancing ever since she was little. “It’s my biggest passion. It’s why I love doing this show every year,” she explained.
See Fashion Show on page 2
Galloway ban ANDREW HAMILTON SMITH NEWS EDITOR
George Galloway, an elected member of the British House of Commons and an outspoken critic of the Iraq and Afghan wars, was banned from entering Canada for a planned speaking tour last week, which was scheduled to include the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) on March 31. The Immigration Department barred Galloway from entering the country on the basis of the recent humanitarian mission that Galloway led into the Gaza strip, after heavy Israeli attacks last month. As a result of that, he is considered to be “providing aid to terrorist groups.” The Minister of Immigration, Jason Kenney, has the legislative power to overrule this recommendation and grant a special visa – however, he has steadfastly refused to do so. "In this case, I believe folks that are supporting and promoting and helping terrorist organizations
are not needed to visit Canada," Kenney said from Calgary. These statements, not to mention the overall message of banning a foreign politician whose views are not in-line with the neoConservative ideology of the Harper administration, have been widely panned by journalists, politicians and experts across the country. New Democrat MP Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) called the government's decision to bar Galloway an attack on free speech, noting that "once you start censoring what Canadians can or cannot hear, [you have] a dangerous slippery slope with unintended consequences," she said. Errol Mendes, an expert on human rights law at the University of Ottawa, expressed concern to the Montreal Gazette that the broadly worded language in anti-terrorism laws will allow governments to implement “other political agendas.” See Galloway on page 2