One Art Event a Week: India Ever After

[Laura Frank]

Week 15: Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre’s India Ever After at Pike Performing Arts Center

I am fascinated with Indian culture. My first overseas trip was to India and I fell in love with the colorful clothing, the food, the music, but especially, the people of India. When I received a postcard promoting Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre’s (GHDT) India Ever After, I knew I had to attend.

This event was kicked off at 6:30 with Indian food catered by a company named RUCHI Royal Cuisine of India. The food was very affordable ($5 for a vegetarian plate and $8 for a “meat” plate) and dinner proved to be a great way to set the mood for the performance we were about to see. While eating, Adam and I sat with a fascinating couple who had traveled all over the world and shared a love for learning about new cultures. It’s always great to meet new people with similar interests!

With full bellies and eager anticipation, we headed into the buzzing auditorium. The night’s program was split into a two halves, each with three selections of dance that included multiple performances within them.

To my delight, the first selection of dances was set to the music of A. R. Rahman, the composer of many Bollywood film scores, including Slumdog Millionaire. In fact, the first song was “Jai Ho” from that movie, so we were pleased to hear music with which we were familiar.

The second selection of dances featured an impressive little dancer, Ciara Richards. Ciara couldn’t have been more than 6 years old and danced perfectly with the professional dancers of GHDT to a medley of songs dedicated to the children of India. I was amazed at her skill! We haven’t heard the last of little Ciara in connection with the dance world.

One of my favorite selections was entitled “Hurray for Tollywood”, which featured film music from Telugu Language film industry (Tollywood). The GHDT was privileged to perform these dances at the American Telugu Association National Convention in New Jersey. In one song, two dancers waved a piece of blue and white cloth close to the ground, representing water, while another dancer danced on top of it, pretending to kick water at the other performers. It was incredible that she was able to move that swiftly and still look graceful.

After intermission and two more selections, the evening ended with a dance program called “Bhangra Bash”, which featured a style of dance and music from the Punjab region of Northern India. I related most to this style of dance, since this is the region of India to which I traveled. It was very energetic and I cannot imagine the stamina required to perform this type of dance! The whole audience was clapping to the rhythm of the piece…and I was dancing in my seat (much to the embarrassment of my husband).

GHDT is led by…you guessed it, Gregory Hancock, the artistic director. Mr. Hancock’s love of Indian music and tradition is well-known and his dancers are the perfect conduit for this inspiration. His fusion of modern dance and the rich traditions of India were expertly executed by the GHDT dancers. And the costumes, said to be made by Gregory himself, were beautiful.

If you missed this event, you can be sure that GHDT will be performing newly choreographed pieces next June: Mr. Hancock was recently named a recipient of an Arts Council of Indianapolis Creative Renewal Fellowship, which will enable him to travel to India to continue studying their dance, music and culture. You can bet I’ll be there next year, dancing in my seat. Horray for Bollywood!