| Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance : Indoor Festival |
| Reveiws |
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festivalslive.com
Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance receives footfall of 2000+ attendees Dance
Sep 16, 2014 |
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| Medium of ‘Dance’ is no more limited to entertainment! It is redefined by Indo- American Arts Council as a cultural commentary on the changing relations between India and America through its Annual Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance |
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New York experienced an aura of Indian dance at this fest that culminated early this month. The edition saw a crowd of 2000 + attendees, who were greeted with performances, Indoor concert, Q&A w/dancers, master class, workshops, panel discussions, films on dance.
Festival opened on 5th Sept’ 14 at Michael Schimmel Center for Arts with performances from the dancers and their choreographers that work as critical thinkers who conceptualize their pieces to resonate with a modern audience, covering themes relevant to today’s mainstream audience. |
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Dancers Dr. Mitul Sengupta, Subhash Viman Gorania, Mesma Belsare, Meena Murugesan took to stage to bring out their dance performances under titles Aravan – The Desolate, Morphed, The Vermin’s Will, We Used to See This and Q&A with performers led by Co-Curators Parul Shah and Preeti Vasudevan.
Emily McLoughlin and Leah Raphael Curtis of Delhi Dance Theater performed a full length piece, choreographed by them, called “Not Your Mothers”, a series of duets dealt with the theme of changing roles of women in India.
Speaking to Festivalslive.com about the idea behind launching this fest, Aroon Shivdasani, Executive Director & Founding Member of Indo-American Arts Council, says, “The Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance was conceived by me to give Indian dancers a platform to show their talent and to teach New Yorkers about our ancient dance forms. |
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“Indian dance was extremely under-represented in New York – especially to main stream Americans. I wanted to showcase our traditional dances, encourage innovation and also educate Americans about Indian dance through our performances, our master-classes, workshops and panels.” Aroon adds further
Aroon feels that Indian dance is becoming more appreciated and understood by dance aficionados. However, the lay public still needs a lot of hand holding, education and performance viewing.
Second day of the fest took off at Actors Studio, Pace University and brought with it varied perspectives on Dance trends by putting together Workshop and Master Class by Sattriya Dance Company and Anita Sharma, a Panel discussion on Dance and religion: Collisions & convergences of transcendence in performing global Indian classical dance, session by Session # 2 “Contemporary Process from traditional language” by Delhi Dance Theater, amongst many others.
When Festivalslive asked Aroon on which factors make her feel that dance can prove as strong medium to build cultural relations between countries? She says, “Absolutely. It teaches tolerance, depicts our heritage, entertains, finds cultural similarities, educates Americans about our culture and tells our stories. |
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Coming to the funding front, the fest happened with $50K + support from Air India for tickets, Pace University and Battery Dance Company for venues.
Up next from Indo- American Arts Council is the biggest ANNUAL IAAC LITERARY FESTIVAL from November 7-9, 2014.
Concluding the conversation with us, Aroon shares some of the best memories of this festival by saying, “The sheer joy that pervades the entire festival is fabulous! Color, talent, beauty and happiness!” |
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| URL:http://www.festivalslive.com/erasing-borders-festival-of-indian-dance-receives-footfall-of-2000-attendees/ |
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