Diwali Celebration: Roundhouse Community Centre

In the early afternoon, I went to check out the Diwali celebrations put together at the community centre. Luckily this was indoors as it was raining. The South Asian Family Association (SAFA) and the City of Vancouver sponsored a week's worth of events to promote and introduce Indian culture to the public. Today, they had set up a market bazaar.

As soon as I walked through the doors, I knew exactly where to go by following the mouth-watering smell of spicy Indian food. Some Indian sweets were offered to me from a tray held by a smiling hostess at the entrance to the event. There was a crowd consisting mainly of families throughout. There were some food stands selling dosas, various chicken dishes, samosas, paneer, pakora and sweets on one side. There were also many stalls selling all sorts of Indian goods.

On the stage, there were performances by various musicians, bhangra and bharatanatyam dancers. Throughout the fair, people were encouraged to get mehndi designs on their hands and help create rangolis. Everyone looked so happy and had such a great time. The evening ended with a basic lesson on bhangra dancing that had most of the people participating.

I really hope they do this again next year. It was great to see so many people interested in Indian culture and having so much fun.



Diyas

Diwali Celebrations: At the Roundhouse Community Centre (Vancouver)

Bharatanatyam dancers.

(no subject)

After dinner (butter chicken, veggies and naan!), I went back to the Roundhouse Community Centre. There was a Canucks hockey game on but I eventually decided to see a bharatanatyam arangetram instead. And I am sure glad I decided to go!

A bharatanatyam arangetram is a sacred ritual marking a student's official entrance or graduation into this dance tradition. This was a free performance. The graduating dancer had been studying this dance for 5 years and performed seven dance pieces over a 2 hour period for us. I learned that she is a professional dancer. She had trained, performed and taught jazz, hiphop and ballet before studying bharatanatyam as a result of a trip to India 10 years ago.

The theatre was almost full and I was fortunate to have accidentally arrived early and got a seat in the front row. Wow... she was amazing! I was thoroughly impressed with her stamina, grace and precision. She was also a bit unique in that she was caucasian and of a non-desi background (*cough... Lori... cough*). I have seen quite a few classical Indian dancers so far and, in my opinion, she is one of the better ones. I'll likely see more of her in the future as she is a part of the dance society whose perfomances I usually try to keep updated on.

At the end of her performance, we were treated to some Indian food. I joined the audience in congratulating and thanking her for an amazing perfomance. The woman who was sitting next to me had never seen this style of dance before. She was in tears as she thanked and hugged the dancer. I was happy to be a part of the audience and did not regret missing the hockey game one bit.

Bharatanatyam Arangetram

It wasn't easy to get photos of the dancer. Because of the low lighting and continuous movements, almost all of my images were comepletely blurred. And as with this dance form, she did a lot of that Indian "head bobbing" thing so her face was often blurred as well... even when she held a pose!



Altar for Shiva (as Navaraja).