Fluid sweeping movements, clapping hands, and beautiful voices will all be part of tonight's cultural show in Warner Auditorium held by the South Asian Students Association (SASA). Tonight is the second annual cultural show; the first one was held last year and "was a huge success, it was packed," according to Shilpa Davé, Assistant Dean of the Multicultural Resource Center. The cultural show is completely student run and includes a mixture of both traditional and modern dances and songs. Tonight's performance will also include a folk dance performed by students of Case Western Reserve University.
Students junior Lakshmi Ramakrishnan and senior Shilpa Mankikar are co-chairs of SASA and helped to organize tonight's performance. SASA was chartered in 1990 as a social organization for students of South Asian descent: including students from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet, and Sri Lanka," said Ramakrishnan. In addition to holding the annual cultural show, SASA also has books and videos in their collection and meetings twice a month for planning other speakers.
The events for tonight's performance include a dance choreographed by senior Seema Shah. Shah's dance is a mixture of Garba, traditional Indian folk dance; Baharatanatyam, Karnatak (South Indian music style) Classical Dance; and Western modern dance. When asked about her past experience and her ideas for tonight's performance, Shah said "I've always done folk dances since I was little, and I took dance class throughout high school . . . I had a general idea of what I wanted to look and feel like."
Shah and nine other women, (Ramakrishnan and Mankikar among them), will perform her dance to music by world-famous Indian master Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and remixed by Chris Yap.
Dancing is not the only lovely aspect of tonight's performance: vocal performances by Durga Roy, Aisha Ahmed, and Angeli Murthy will be important parts of the show as well. Roy will be singing a Ghazal, a type of love song in the classical tradition of India. The texts of ghazals come from romantic Urdu poetry arranged in couplets; each couplet is connected by the mood that serves as the unifying force between them. The ghazal Roy will perform is from the point of view of a courtesan who is singing to her beloved.
Senior Aisha Ahmed will be singing several songs including modern movie songs, wedding songs, and a couple of love songs. Another piece will be sung that involves both Ahmed and Roy. Murthy will be performing a religious/folk devotional song.
Tonight will not be the only opportunity for Oberlin students to see and hear remarkable cultural performances. The "Colors of Rhythm" concert is another cultural event that will include some of the same performers as tonight's show. "Colors of Rhythm" took place last year and will take place this spring as well. According to Ramakrishnan, "Colors of Rhythm is not sponsored by SASA, it's open to all different multi-cultural groups."
Both concerts met with success last year, and Davé is just one voice of enthusiasm about the students' work: "They're amazing, [it will be] really good dance and song, a really good time. . . to learn about where other people are coming from doesn't always have to be through a speaker - it can be through the arts."
Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 126, Number 9, November 14, 1997
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