Sunday, September 16, 2007

Boogie Fever

This past weekend Robely an I went to a dance recital for my friend's daughter. Now, when he first invited me to an "Indian dance recital" I was thinking in Western terms of a bunch of little kids doing a demonstration of tap or jazz dance. The kind of stuff I watched my sister do when I was younger, but the Indian version.

It turns out I was way off the mark.

First off, Ram's daughter is not as young as I thought she would be, in fact she is a high school student. Secondly there was no class, only the one dancer.

In the tradition she learned under, once the dancer reaches a certain point the guru allows the student to perform a show for an audience of friends and family. It is almost like a rite of passage, as well as an endurance test for the dancer, as she performed for the better part of four hours.

The dance started off with the dancer, Jay, performing a dance in thanks to the musicians, audience, God and her guru. The second dance illustrated her mastery of the basic moves.

There was quite a crowd, with people coming from Kansas and Atlanta pointed out to me, and by the end Ram was beaming like a proud Papa. We mingled with the crowd during the intermission and had Samosas (the Indian chimichanga) and coffee.

After the intermission, there were several other dances, that seemed to increase in complexity, culminating in another dance praising God, the musicians, her guru and the audience. Followed by a presentation of gifts to all those involved and some words by the parents. The audience was given gifts as well, a small bag of Indian sweets and a small icon of Ganesh. In between the dances, there was a moderator who would give a great explanation of the dance to come and some history behind the chosen piece.

I've included a sample from my camera, which I was quite pleased with (being my first foray into video with it). My only regret is that it does not fully capture the complex facial movements involved in the dances.

Dusty and Stell were at the show as well and afterwards we decided to grab some dinner. We ended up at Avocado Roll n' Sushi. The first time I went here, I kind of formed a snobbish opinion of the place. I have gotten tired of these "fusion" restaurants like Pei Wei and PF Changs, where they seem to so Westernize the food that it is about like what you can find in the freezer section of any grocery store. Overpriced, bland food served in a forced nouvaeu chic atmosphere. But Stell summed it up best, when I remarked that I thought the sushi was below average. (All of the items seem to have avocado and cucumber). She pointed out that you don't go there for sushi, you go there for the sushi rolls, and in that class there are few better.
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