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This is an archive article published on February 2, 2010
Faith Full
As the Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre troupe from New Zealand prepares for their first India performance in many years,the stress is less on mock combat movements,and more on stylized skill.
As the Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre troupe from New Zealand prepares for their first India performance in many years,the stress is less on mock combat movements,and more on stylized skill. The troupe will stop by Delhi in March as part of the second International Festival of Sacred Arts that begins on February 13. In the performers songs and energetic dances,the contrasting elements merge to tell remarkable stories of history and heritage.
The sword-dancing lamas of the Buzen Nyingma-Pa sect of Ladakh are surprising since Buddhism denounces violence. The Buzen Nyingma-Pa sect is the only one in India in which monks use swords and other arms in their ritual dances, says Preminder Singh of The Attic,an arts centre,which is organising the festival. The festival,he says,attempts a multi-disciplinary exploration of the sacred. We have talks on Food Meditation and Sacred Textiles,films on secret mystic societies and workshops on harmonic chanting among others, says Singh,adding that their budget for the festival is a whopping Rs 1 crore. Intellectuals like Laura Wexler of Yale University,Prof PS Ramakrishnan of JNU and Unesco and Kapila Vatsayan are among the speakers,but it is the artistic performances which Singh is counting on to draw in the crowds. Delhi is always in a state of frenzy. Sometimes,we must pause if not stop, he says.
And that which has stopped must start again. Like the poetry of the 17th century poet Mirza Abdul Qadir Bedil after whom the park Bagh-e-Bedil on Mathura Road is named. Singh informs that Bedils poetry,written in Persian,the court language of the Mughals has almost never been sung or recited in Delhi since qawwali singers prefer Urdu and Sufi texts. On the evening of February 25,Bagh-e-Bedil will ring with the qawwal Chand Nizami and his group giving a special performance of Bedils Persian qawwali,thus re-opening what was literally a closed chapter.
Among the other performers is William Barton,28,an aboriginal didgeridoo player who will reveal the music from the past. The didgeridoo is a flute-like wind instrument from northern Australia that is more than 1,500 years old and Barton learnt to play it from his uncle,an elder of the Wannyi,Lardil and Kalkadunga tribes of Western Queensland. Today,he is considered one of Australias finest traditional didgeridoo players, says Singh.
The festival is also a homecoming of sorts for the Grammy-nominated flautist Nawang Khechog,a Tibetan monk whose God-like melodies drove singer Joan Baez to write an impromptu poem on him at a dinner for the Dalai Lama in 1991. My music springs from my experiences as a world-travelling Tibetan nomad, says Khechog,who has performed at the Pentagon,Carnegie Hall,Boston Symphony Hall,and opened the Earth Summit at the UN General Assembly (in 1992). A monk who studied Buddhist philosophy and meditation under the Dalai Lama himself,Khechog aims to utilise music as a means to inspire compassion,non-violence and spirituality. Delhi awaits.
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