Yesterday we attended Asia Pacific Cultural Center's new year celebration. There were going to a music and dance show. In the morning I said to Poornima, "I won't enjoy it. But I will come with you since you'll like it. You can also meet all your friends". Poornima was supposed to participating in a couple of dance sequences, but had to opt out. After extracting a promise from Poornima not to mind if I stole a few catnaps while the show was in progress, we set. I even took the liberty of sitting in the passenger's seat instead of driver's, and playing music of my choice (as if to compensate for the "sacrifice" I was making!) This year APCC had chosen to portray Indian culture. First half of the day was dedicated to Indian music and dance, and second half was kept aside for other countries.
When we reached there Indian instrumental music was being played. I love the sound of santoor. Needless to say, I loved the performance. Dance performances were scheduled after the music. Dance performances were divided into three parts. First they had classical dances - Bharatnatyam, Oddissi, Katthak, etc. That was followed by folk dances from different parts of India. And finally contemporary Bollywood dance.
Curiously, I loved the classical dances, especially the Oddissi performace was amazing. So was the jugalbandi between Katthak and Bharatnatyam. The folk dances where not bad either (I missed Bengali folk dance, but got to see Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Marathi, Tamil and Panjabi). It was good to hear Dhagaalaa laagalee kaLa (however the dance on that could have been better). In the Bollywood section, jugalbandi between Bollywood dance and Bharatnatyam was interesting.
After Indian dances, performances from other Asia-Pacific countries were presented. The first was Tearama te Fare O Tamatoa from Tahiti. Tahitian music was amazing - it was like war drums beating at a very fast pace. As far as Tahitian dance is concerned, I reserve my comments on it (search youtube for "Tahiti dance coconut bra" and you'll get a sample of what it was like!) The Chinese troupe presented a beautiful dance by Chinese farm girls reaping harvest. Some of the Japanese dances were also entertaining. We were among the last Indians to leave, although we didn't wait till the end of the show.
Overall it was a very good entertaining day (even for me). I think the best dance of the day was the jugalbandi between Katthak and Bharatnatyam, which brought out the subtle similarities and differences between the two dances very distinctly and beautifully.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
