ARTS, CULTURE and ENTERTAINMENT in the NEW YEAR in KING WEST

If your resolutions this year involve developing your cultural side then the King Blue neighbourhood has everything you could want – from film to ballet, theatre, dance and classical music. We’re highlighting the best in arts and culture in Toronto’s vibrant Entertainment District for February.

Taking place at TIFF Bell Lightbox  is a most excellent retrospective: Whoa. The Films of Keanu Reeves. From high school headbanger to wave-catching fed, bomber-busting cop to futuristic saviour, witness the remarkable range of The One in this totally excellent, never bogus eleven-film tribute. The series begins with Youngblood, where Keanu Reeves made his feature-film debut as a Québécois goaltender alongside Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze in this shot-in-Toronto hockey epic.

Harbourfront Centre kicks off their ground-breaking 2013 World Stage theatre series on February 6-9 with Othello, c’est qui (Othello, who’s that), a fearless and radical reinterpretation of Othello, While Othello may be the single most famous black man on the Western stage, in Africa, hardly anybody has heard of him. In this fearless and radical reinvestigation of one of Shakespeare’s most iconic characters, what begins as a playful conversation about the clichés surrounding Othello and Desdemona quickly evolves into a provocative confrontation between two cultures.

February 19-23 World Stage continues with Sem Mim & Ímã by the world-famous dance troupe, Grupo Corpo from Brazil. In Sem Mim, meaning “without me,” “tattooed” dancers merge the rhythm of the sea with the music of medieval Portuguese-Galician chants. The second work, Ímã, meaning “magnet,” takes inspiration from the law of magnetism where dancers passionately entwine and separate in poetic polarities. For more information and to purchase tickets visit www.harbourfrontcentre.com or call 416-973-4000.