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Asian FUSION
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Cultural Singapore got going in the city Sunday last. PREMA MANMADHAN enjoyed the cross-cultural flavour while H. VIBHU chose the best shots.
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LIKE THE country Singapore, the show its inhabitants put up was cute, cosmopolitan and synergy-laced. The Fine Arts Hall in the city was filled to capacity on Sunday last, watching and listening to crisp, graceful and melodious Oriental fare. The fusion styles that ethnic Malay, Chinese and Indian youths of the Centre for the Arts, at the National University of Singapore, presented was a novelty to the Kochi audiences, who rarely get to see any South East Asian cultural programmes.
The NUS (National University of Singapore) Chinese Orchestra, founded in 1973, displayed stringed and wind instruments, sans percussion, and imbibed the ethos of their cultural complexities in the compositions. In the maiden dance number, titled `River,' specially composed and choreographed for this tour, with the orchestra playing, a group of four ethnic Indian girls performed a fusion dance which went down well before the audience. The costumes were noteworthy. The upper half had the bharathanatyam style and the lower, Mohiniattam! The movements were quasi lasya, South East Asian and bharathanatyam. Without a single line of lyrics, the girls communicated that they came to a river, got into a boat and were rowing away. The movements were more on the lines of the local ballet style, in that they were telling a story, and how! Shanta Bhaskar, a Malayali (Aranmuila Ponnamma's niece) who has been in Singapore since 1955, is their guru. Another dance of the same group had lyrics from a Tamil poem `Unopened Heavens' by Murugathasan, composed in Singapore. Kavalam Sreekumar's singing was as expressive as the dancers. There was classicism, and a fast pace, enough to keep the lay viewer interested.
The rain dance that the NUS Chinese dance group presented was a completely novel experience. In lovely cascading soft blue and white costumes, to the accompanying music that brought out a thunder-filled rainy night, the dancers successfully created that ambience. The costumes were so designed to produce the right effect. The sleeves, twice as long or more than the arms, were used as props to din the point home. Another Chinese dance had very simple pink costumes, in which the bright young dancers told of the joys of harvest time - harking back to Chinese tradition, for Singapore can ill afford farming in so small a territory.
The slow Malay dance with characteristic costumes represented their culture, but the style was fusion, as also the contemporary dances with English songs in the background. A mime-like presentation by a trio and a group dance with long black robes was part of the contemporary fare. The last dance had cultural Singapore in one frame.
What is evident is a young country, trying hard to pick up the threads of ethnic traditional roots, lost somewhere, but eager to continue with it, albeit with compromises, to suit topical conditions. As the director of the Centre for the Arts, Mr Edwin Thamboo said, the aim is to introduce an innovative cultural fusion.
The programme was under the aegis of the Kerala Fine Arts along with Dakshina Bharata Sangeetha Prachara Sabha and Skiltek Group of institutions.
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