Indian Dance at Dance City, Newcastle

Saturday 22 September

Inspirational. These dancers were the real thing. There were 6 men and a woman who looked like she had just been magically transformed from an ancient stone goddess into colourful life. The dance was a blend of traditional Indian styles and stylised yoga positions, requiring great strength and flexibility.

A large screen backdrop projected ancient carvings, etchings and paintings, illustrating scenes from Hindu mythology. Each dance was accompanied by music or a song. Some of the sequences were sub-titled which helped me appreciate what was going on a great deal; in the same way that sub-titles during an Opera make sense of the songs and action for those of us who don't know the subjects very well. The very last sequence was danced to the sound of hypnotic Mantras. You can get a more direct experience from the video clips I took.

This text taken from the Dance City site

Dhara, features a stunning Odissi/Gotipua ensemble of seven dancers, with special choreography by Dr. Rekha Tandon. The programme has beautiful music and evocative back projections providing a unique insight into this ancient and fascinating tradition.

The Gotipua tradition has its origins in the temples of Orissa, where talented young boys were taken on as resident students at the temple. It is believed that the Odissi dance style evolved from the Gotipua tradition; indeed, most of the great masters/Gurus of Odissi are supposed to have begun life as Gotipua dancers.

Here are some fotos taken with a Samsung 35mm equivalent digital camera. No flash was allowed, hence the poor quality, and I was sitting some distance away. However, you get a good idea of the scene.

Use the arrows at the bottom right and left corners of the popup as a slideshow.