The exotic era of dance

Twenty minutes after the scheduled start time, a loud trumpet blasted us out of our seats to stand to attention to the National Anthem before The Exotic era of dance opened.

Apsara 2012 is a production of Apsara.  The advertisements promised spellbinding performances of "classical, filmi, bangra, salsa, hip-hop, Marathi, Arabic/Turkish fusions and much more .. - 60 dancers" no doubt excluding the people like me in the audience who would have wanted to do our own thing in our seats.

Curtains opened and there was this dazzling set.. yep.. dazzling, there was a broad strip of glittering gold background at the base, and lots of glitter everywhere. There were many dancers on the stage. My 3D vision is deteriorating but some of the costumes seemed to blend in with the background so I could not make out the moves. 

 
Since I love to dance even though I really cannot dance, I am probably not the best person to review any era of dance, much less an Exotic one. The name is interesting. We never heard anything more about the exotic era after the opening.. I know, it is difficult with names, I organise a film festival called Painting the Spectrum..

The MC came on. I remember him from the last show. He was quite good, articulate though I wondered, the tie looked a bit undone and the suit a bit rumpled so not sure if the poor guy had to help out backstage. He said something about not qualifying to dance .. maybe the choreographers next time can arrange a special dance for him to do since he it seems he does want to be part of the show - I remember his joke about dreaming that he was one of the girls on stage at the first performance.

He said the 'girls' and the 'girls'.. and I like that.. the gender bending.. there were a few members of the choreography team with male sounding names but then.. my name is Vidya so who knows..

There did not seem to be any printed programs. There was a video with the 'girls' explaining the show. Great idea.. to use multimedia. Nrityageet also experimented with it. The only trouble was, the video was complete with all the traffic noises and school children singing in the background. There were some nice clips inside the Cultural Centre (with background noises) . I know.. it is not easy.. I have clips of my own with fowl cock crowing and dog barking.

Next time, hopefully they record the video in their studio or in the NCC when it is quiet. The enthusiasm of the choreographers came over so it was good to get that .Next time, if no programme notes.. the Director could probably explain what was going to be on.. or the theme..


So the programme began.. it is true.. wonderful costumes, some of them standing out against the glittering gold background. some blending in with the glittering gold background. Sixty dancers is a lot.. and it was clear that some of the dancers were more experienced than others. A couple of the moves had the dancers running up the steepish steps at the back of the stage.. and well you know.. running up steps to music is not as easy as it looks in Bollywood.


Two motorbikes and the fan
We heard the motorbikes revving up.. and the kind of backdrop which seemed to about some kind of mythical Eastern palace.. well.. it seems we had two big motorbikes coming in with dudes riding with girls at the back with fans. It did not make any sense really but then hey.. I was supposed to be there on a mind break and not think too much

 And then the guys stayed on the bikes for a minute or two..
and we were back to the fans and a nice dance. Motorbikes in Apsara lokh? It would have been nice if say the girls had rode in the bikes themselves.

Therethere were some other props like that.. hardly used.. two men walk in, bring in a dancer, then walk out, then come back.. to put her on the stage.. . and a drum set that was used for about three seconds - a palanquin that was not used.

And then the pirate ship backdrop.. well.. okay.. pirates and it formed a nice backdrop for the skit about the Admin Assistant calling Shanta's to place an order for puri and katahar curry.

Belly dancing, latin dancing, salsa, hip hop..
Nice belly dancing and I was grateful that they used the backdrop of the black curtain rather than the gold thing. Thee Desi boys finale was energetic, good some individual moves and co-ordination.
The best piece was this nice latin piece with a couple who had good Chemistry between them.
Something.. the women seemed to have a lot more fun and enjoying themselves than some of the men. Most of the kids seemed to be having fun, which is good.

The sombrero latin/bollywood piece.. wished that the guys would have laughed a little bit more.. but then again, maybe in India that is not how they dance latin dance. One guy who ran in late in the bhangra dance (I am sure that was not a bhangra move but what do I know, my bhangra moves can also be critiqued)
.. seemed to be out of time throughout his performances.


Apsara 2012 - some items were well done, enjoyable - others not so well done. The group should focus on perhaps not worrying with numbers and ensuring that each dancer is allowed to do what they are good at.


Office, Chinee, bhunjal durk, 
I was looking forward to the skits..they reminded me of the school and community productions.. but.. while we laughed.. some of them did go on a bit and there is an art in timing - especially with punch lines - but all good and maybe Apsara should consider including some other kinds of items and moods in their productions which involve drama, poetry and dance.


400 million viewers
Apsara is proud of their achievement that the Guyana contestant for Miss India Worldwide won and as the MC said, 400 million viewers around the world learnt about a place called Guyana. I felt a bit sad though.. that this production, set in Guyana, and with the great talent and creativity.. seemed exotic to Guyana.. and that not one of the pieces seemed to reflect or portray Guyana - no Guyanese music, context..  So if any of the 400 million viewers of the Miss India Worldwide watched this show -  would they have learnt anything more about Guyana?


Apsaras
Some productions do not use inter-item fillers. There must be a way, somehow.. to fill in those gaps between the items. I have seen shows where as one item fades out.. the light shines on another part of the stage.. for the skit say.. so the show moves on and the audience is kept high.. one thing after another.  Nrityageet used some videos on the side wall to announce some of the items while there were set changes and stage preparations. A skilful MC also helps to fill in the gaps.   Programme notes would have been good. I left before the end but I wished there was a way that the dancers could have been named and credit given to them, especially the little ones. One of the fathers I know, was proud that his son was dancing with the group - and the boy did enjoy his dance. He said that he was glad that the group existed to give his son some focus.


I am glad I went to the show. I am glad that there are people in Guyana who are working on their productions. My own lessons though, are that we all have to learn and that some things like dance,art  and music benefit from ongoing technical training to perfect them. Congrats to Apsara for persevering.

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 Guyana Times review of the show 18 June, 2012