Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for March 2, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. Ellen Fortini rounds up 10 things to do today in the UAE.
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Al Ain
Cultural event
As part of the Visit Al Ain programme of events, Memory of the Emirati Song at Al Jahili Fort features young Emirati performers paying tribute to their forefathers with folk songs from the 1950s to the 1970s, and singing the words of original Emirati poetry.
Tonight, 8pm, Al Jahili Fort, Al Ain, www.visitalain.ae
Dubai
Art exhibition
Safwan Dahoul presents a new body of work, Miniatures, featuring images that are the size of one's hand and demand close examination, as though the viewer is peering into a secret world. Pictured: A detail of Dream142
Daily until Saturday, 10am to 6pm, today; noon to 6pm on Saturday (closed Fridays), Ayyam Gallery, Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz, Dubai, 04 323 6242, www.ayyamgallery.com
Abu Dhabi
Cuisine special
Experience the sounds and cuisine of New Orleans at The St Regis Bar. The city, nicknamed Nola and the Big Easy, will be represented at Nola Week with live daily performances by Ptah Brown Duo (pictured, Ptah Brown), featuring jazz, soul and blues music, plus a handcrafted menu reflecting the city’s Cajun, Creole and French roots with jambalaya, grills and crawfish etouffee.
Daily until Monday, from 8pm, from Dh70 per dish, The St Regis Bar, Nation Tower, Corniche, Abu Dhabi, reservations at 02 694 4553, restaurants.abudhabi@stregis.com
Abu Dhabi
Art exhibition
Catch the opening of But We Cannot See Them: Tracing a UAE Art Community, 1988-2008. This group exhibition is made up of works by visual artists, writers and filmmakers who encouraged a culture of experimentation. Despite a flourishing contemporary-art community in the early 1990s, curators visiting the UAE concluded that none existed because of the lack of public venues. The community is now being presented as influential in the country's artistic history. Pictured: Cardboard and Coir by Hassan Sharif
Opens today, then runs daily until May 27, noon to 8pm, Mondays to Saturdays (closed Sundays), NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, 02 628 8000, www.nyuad-artgallery.org
Abu Dhabi
Science festival
Imagine Science Abu Dhabi Film Festival opens today. See a series of feature films – including the Emirati film Honey Rain and Dust (pictured) – and short films, the sci-art exhibition Spectrum, a panel discussion, artist talks and more in a programme designed to improve understanding of science through film.
Daily until Saturday, various timings, free with registration, NYU Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, register at www.imaginesciencefilms.org
Abu Dhabi
Military demonstration
Watch the first live public demonstration by the UAE Armed Forces at The Union Fortress on the Corniche. The joint exercise celebrates and features all branches of the military, including the Presidential Guard, Joint Aviation Command, the Navy, the Air Force, the Air Defense and the Army. See freefall jumps from an aircraft, submarines, helicopters, rescue simulation, an F16 fly-by and more.
Today, from 4.30pm, free, Union Fortress, Corniche, Abu Dhabi, www.unionfortress.ae
Abu Dhabi
Concert
Enjoy a rock-electronic concert by French musician, author and composer Olivier Daguerre, presented by Alliance Française Abu Dhabi. Songs include Carmen, Notre amour était presque parfait and Pour deux.
Tonight, 7.30pm, Dh40 for Alliance Française Abu Dhabi members; Dh50 for non-members, Alliance Française Abu Dhabi, near Irish Embassy, Abu Dhabi, www.800tickets.com
Dubai
Art exhibition
In Landmarks II, Syrian artist Thaier Helal experiments with a variety of media in an attempt to recreate the physical attributes of natural settings such as mountains, deserts, rivers and lakes. Pictured: Creation
Daily until Saturday, 10am-6pm, today; noon-6pm on Saturday (closed Friday), Ayyam Gallery, Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz, Dubai, 04 323 6242, www.ayyamgallery.com
Dubai
Performance
Madam Butterfly is at Dubai Opera. The Welsh National Opera present the Giacomo Puccini opera, which takes place in Nagasaki. A young Japanese woman named Butterfly and her American naval-officer husband experience cultural differences that result in devastating consequences.
Daily until Saturday, 8pm today and tomorrow; 3pm on Saturday, from Dh300, Dubai Opera, Downtown Dubai, www.dubaiopera.com
Dubai
Ballet screening
Get tickets to catch a screening of a live performance of The Sleeping Beauty by The Bolshoi Ballet as performed in Moscow in honour of the 90th birthday of ballet's master Yuri Grigorovich. With music adapted by Tchaikovsky and the original Charles Perrault fairy tale, the classic follows Princess Aurora, who is cursed to fall into a deep sleep on her 16th birthday, only to be awoken by her true love after 100 years.
March 10 and 11, 3.30pm, Dh35, Novo Cinemas, Ibn Battuta Mall and Festival City Mall, Dubai, www.novocinemas.com
