The colours of heaven

THE GATES closed early at Narada Gana Sabha on Tuesday evening. They always do, since there is very little parking space anyway. With difficulty, you go into one of the by-lanes, park and stroll back.

Then comes the real surprise. A full hall. That too for an innovative dance performance by the Battery Dance Company, U.S. in origin, cosmopolitan in composition and contemporary in style.

Now wait a minute. We saw the same ingredients at many other places such as the Other Festival. But there were no houseful signs anywhere...

May be it is because Battery is familiar or may be because, as Trident's Anupama says, it is the presentation and the associations that matter.

Well, it began at the beginning. From Zero. It helped that a hoop was part of the act. It was meant to translate this : `what by being not is - is not by being.' Confusing ...? If it helps, the full title was Zero...Two...Blue...

Heaven...Seven. The next one, the latest from the Battery stable, was Mother Goose which featured some deft play with light and shade. `Layapriya' marked the culmination where the Indian element came from the soloists, Karaikudi R. Mani, G. Harishankar, V. Vasan and S. S. Kannan.

In many ways, Battery's Tuesday evening show fitted with its mission: building new audiences.

This is done though an annual free public dance festival, providing lecture-demonstrations and instructional programmes for school children and through its tours. Battery says that it has helped build awareness and appreciation for world culture among American school children and mainstream audiences.

It doesn't end there: Over 250 dance companies and community groups participate in a subsidised rehearsal space programme at Battery's lower Manhattan studios.

By R. K. Radhakrishnan

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Section  : Southern States
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