Review: Basant Utsav B Fest
Torrance, California – About 300 people filled the James Armstrong Theater here in Torrance on an overcast Saturday evening as the two-day May Madhosh dance and music festival kicked off on May 15th, highlighting several visual and performing art forms on stage.
Organized by classical dance instructor Viji Prakash, the two-day festival explored a diverse array of dance forms from around the world, with many local dancers presenting to audiences visual and performing arts representing India, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and urban portions of the United States.
The festival’s first day presented some of the more festive dance forms found in India and the world. Entitled Basant Utsav B Fest, the May 15th event celebrated the union of dance with the Spring season. Each art form presented at the B Fest on May 15th started with the letter “B” – such as Bhangra, Bollywood, Bharatnatyan, Brazilian dance, boogie bush dance, etc.
Less than 24 hours after the final curtain dropped on opening night, the festival’s second day, on May 16th, was entitled “Shakti Through the Decade ” — an event highlighting more than a decade of dancers who performed their respective arangetrams with the Shakti School of Bharat Natyam between 1998 and 2009. The Shakti Dance Company, which includes the School of Bharatnatyam, was founded by Prakash in 1985.
“Basant, or the season of Spring, is one of the most popular muses for all forms of art in India,” the festival’s program explained about the festival’s opening night program. “(Spring is) a season that evokes images of love, vibrant colors, beauty and energy.”
Many of those evoked images were personified through a series of 19 performed acts on opening night and the homage to Bharatnatyam the following evening.
During the opening night festivities, the Shakti Dance Company set the tone with a leading Dance of Invocation, the group’s “invocatory dance in the ancient dance tradition of Bhartanatyam” that specifically paid tribute to Lord Ganesha.
Local dancer Sabela Grimes followed with the first of his many stage appearances with a performance dedicated to American slave rebel leader Nat Turner.
A pair of Bollywood numbers were presented by the NDM Junior Dance Company — itself fresh off an award-winning performance a week earlier at the Neema Sari Dance Competition. The two-part dance routine featured several students of Nakul Dev Mahajan’s dance school performing choreographed sets dedicated to Hindi film stars Preity Zinta and Shahid Kapoor. Among the medley of songs featured in the two-part dance performance were “Jiya Jale,” “Bhumbro,” “Hadippa,” and “Nagada.”
About halfway through the first act, two Persian dancers performed solos, with Prince Andrew presenting the Turkish-themed “Slow Flute and Drum Song” and Olga Kramarova highlighting the popular traditional routine entitled “Persian Make-Up Dance.”
Representing modern ballet was the Long Beach Polytechnic High School varsity dance team, followed by a tap-dance number performed by Kenji Igus and an ancient-themed ballad by Orixas dedicated to several female goddesses.
The same lot of dancers returned to the stage in the second act of the Basant Utsav B Fest program, with NDM Bollywood Dance Productions presenting a modern routine highlighting Bhangra, Hip-Hop and Bollywood themes.
Prince Andrew and Kramarova performed a duet entitled “Dance of Romance,” with Viver Brasil presenting a tribute to Carnival Queens, and Grimes returning to the stage to familiarize the audience with urban-style tap dancing.
The Shakti Dance Company staged another classical Indian dance number in “Kaalinga Narthana,” a joyously dedicated to Lord Krishna.
Also performing was the Naya Zamaan Acapella group, who sang three medleys relying strictly on their vocals and without background music. One of the group’s members, Nick Paredes, subsequently led a free-style dance session with Grimes and Shakti Dance Company’s Kasi Aysola.
Saturday’s opening-day festivities closed with a dance finale, with the festival of Bharat Natyam resuming about 18 hours later at Torrance’s James Armstrong Theater.
Established in 2006, Prakash has regularly put on the Basant Utsav B Fest as part of her regular rotation of dance programs.
“Basant Utsav … is a time of coming together, sharing, and celebrating the beautiful diversity of our art forms here in Los Angeles,” the festival’s program stated. “A plethora of diverse world art forms … showcased their unique artistic diversity.”
