About 25 University of Michigan students and community members gathered in the Michigan Union Saturday evening to attend the RootEd Foundation USA’s One Step Closer Koncert, aimed at educating audiences about Indian classical dance styles, specifically Bharatanatyam. Bharatanatyam is a style of South Indian classical dance in which a single dancer performs complex narratives, representing multiple characters and emotions through the use of facial expressions and body movements. The RootEd Foundation hosted these educational “Koncerts” on the same day in eight cities across the country.
The event was led by LSA junior Mithra Arun, who performed a series of dances each accompanied by an explanation. Arun started the event with a dance called Alarippu, which represented the blossoming of the dancer to a seven-beat cycle. She followed this dance with four more performances: “Sudar Todi Kelai,” “Sri Valle Devasenapathe,” “Rathiri Pozhudhu” and “Thillana.” These dances told stories of love, adultery and heartbreak and incorporated characters from Indian mythology.
Arun told The Michigan Daily that providing this space for education allows for audiences to better connect with the art form.
“The way art finds meaning is … through audiences’ and artists’ connection and just being able to bring this art form to wider audiences rather than just people who might be familiar with it,” Arun said. “It’s not just something that you can come and watch. … If you understand it then you’ll get a lot more meaning from it.”
Arun said the aim of the RootEd Foundation’s work is to bridge the gap between audiences and provide a space where anyone can learn about and enjoy Bharatanatyam.
“We’re just trying to create a space for classical art forms so that people can come back and understand what it’s about and know how to engage with it critically and be able to enjoy the performance,” Arun said.
LSA senior Aparna Sarma attended the event and told The Daily that performance arts are tied to Indian culture and can help audiences preserve and cultivate passion for the culture and life as a whole.
“It’s hard to just be a casual appreciator of art and dance and music,” Sarma said. “But you know, those are the styles that keep our passion for life alive, our passion for our culture alive and even keep the strings of our traditional life.”
Sarma is also a Bharatanatyam dancer and said that the practice of the dance stems from true passion and desire to perform. She told The Daily this art form allows dancers to connect with themselves and their own values, as well as their culture and audience.
“Performance art is more than just a form of expression because … you’re not necessarily so incentivized to practice it unless you really like it,” Sarma said. “That taught me a lot more … not even just about my culture and traditions, but also about my values and how I can progress in life in terms of what I emphasize.”
LSA senior Anika Palkhiwala, who also attended the event, told The Daily that she believes the event was important to the campus community because it allowed for people of different backgrounds to come together and learn about each other’s cultures.
“I think Michigan especially has so many people of different walks of life and it is very cool and important to see where they come from and be able to show what they’re doing to other people,” Palkhiwala said. “It opens you to people of different backgrounds and cultures.”
Daily Staff Reporter Tenzin Menrinetsang can be reached at [email protected].
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