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ASIAN
CANADIANS
> Traditions
& Storytelling
Ariel Balevi | Born in 1964, he is a storyteller originally
from Montréal. He has been performing in Toronto since
1999 as well as in festivals in Ottawa and Washington D.C. In
Toronto, he has performed at various venues and at events organized
by the Iranian diaspora community in Toronto. These include the
popular Persian cultural festival of Tirgan, held at Toronto's
Harbourfront in the summer of 2008, and at events organized by
the Iranian Students Union at the University of Toronto (IAUT).
His repertoire includes stories
from the folklore and classical literatures of Iran and Turkey.
These stories derive from such sources as the Shahnameh, the
Haft Paykar, the Masnavi of Rumi and Thousand and One Nights. 
Ariel has an interest in cross-cultural influences in storytelling,
which has led him to explore different kinds of narratives, from
his current repertoire to the European fairy tale and monastic
legends of Georgia.
As a child
of parents who emigrated from Turkey, Ariel is familiar not only
with the interaction of different cultures but also a living
oral storytelling tradition that encompasses not only traditional
and literary stories but also personal family stories of diaspora.
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