Celebrating culture
IT was a cold, rainy night and rather gloomy Saturday.
However, the atmosphere within The Temple Of Fine Arts in Brickfields, KL, was the complete opposite.
People were jostling into the auditorium with much anticipation.
Several female dancers, all adorned in resplendent jewellery and dazzling bharatanatyam garb ambled onto the stage. The classical music boomed from the speakers and like cinders catching a flame, each of the dancers began her mesmerising routine.
The thump of their feet sent echoes through the hall over the music and the tinkling of the ghungroo (anklets with bells) transported the audience to another realm. Their delicate hand gestures and expressive faces that told a thousand stories brightened the room.
Called Satya Nrutya Yagam, this nearly three-hour-long dance event held last Saturday was jointly organised by the Pyramid Meditation Society Of Malaysia, Zen Pyda International, Malaysia Telegu Foundation, Malaysia Telegu Welfare And Cultural Association and the Telegu Intellectual Society Of Malaysia.
“We have been concentrating on meditation and vegetarianism all this while. It dawned upon us that we must also include a cultural activity to showcase cultural diversity,” said B.R. Ledchumanan, the president of the Pyramid Meditation Society Of Malaysia, which was founded in 2010.
“We also want to expose our younger generation to the cultural and artistic side of the Indian society. We would like them to be excited by what they see and be inspired to get themselves involved in the arts as well,” he added.
This dance concert marks the society’s first attempt in putting up a cultural show of this scale. The idea was mooted by Padma, a classical Indian dance teacher from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
Ledchumanan said Padma was no stranger in staging dance shows of this kind. Some of the places where she had staged classical Indian dance concerts of this magnitured include Cambodia, Vietnam and Mauritius.
Ledchumanan was sold when she expressed her idea to stage a big dance concert in KL.
To pull this off, Padma drafted a total of 108 dancers from Chennai, Bangalore, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada, who have been preparing for this concert for nearly three months.
And their hard work paid off. Audience members reacted positively to the concert.
“All the dance pieces were very colourful and exciting to watch. I don’t normally get to catch classical Indian dance performances and this concert was a real treat,” expressed someone in the audience.
“It was an interesting dance showcase because it wasn’t just bharatanatyam. It was a selection of other Indian cultural dances and singing. And the stand-up comedy pieces in between the dance items were a good choice as they lightened up the mood for the audience,” said another spectator, Devaj.
Besides bharatanatyam, the concert also included Indian folk dance, a plate dance and kuchipudi (dance drama). The show was also peppered with some classical Carnatic songs to add variety to the already packed line-up.