Erasing Borders: Festival of Indian Dance Outdoors 2012

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From Russia with Love, Bollywood in NYC

Mayuri Dance Group from Russia at the Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance. All Photos by Kabir Chopra

Indian Dance Kicks Up Its Heels in Downtown NYC

On this golden summer afternoon, it seemed quite a good option to be jobless, a tourist or a window shopper browsing the Financial District rather than a hedge fund guy or a banker immersed in a dry office!

In a surreal juxtaposition, sparkling Bollywood, Indian music and dance had come to NYC's downtown business area, with costumed dancers doing high kicks against the skyscrapers and bringing the 'nakras' and 'chakras' of Indian dance to this rather sober part of town.

Jaikishore & Padmavani Mosalikanti at Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance

Tourists gaped from the top of open double decker tourist buses which rolled past the plaza with its unexpected celebration of Bharat Natyam, Kuchipudi, Kathak and 'filmi' Bollywood dance. Right on One New York Plaza was Erasing Borders: Festival of Indian Dance, a free event co-presented by the Indo-American Arts Council and Battery Dance Company as part of the 31st Downtown Dance Festival.

As Jonathan Hollander, Director of Battery Dance Company put it, dance needs to be more accessible and this was a wonderful way to taste the array of dance companies presented out in the open. Aroon Shivdasani, artistic director of the IAAC introduced dance which had its roots in India but had found its way to New York in roundabout ways.

Downtown Dance Festival - Sonali Skandan's Jiva Dance

Jaikishore and Padmavani Masalikanti, who held the audience captive with the powerful triumph of the Goddess Durga over Mahisha, and later an enticing 'thali' dance, were the only ones who were directly from India.

Indeed, the fact that Indian dance in all its forms has pirouetted all across the Indian Diaspora and beyond was obvious from the back stories of the dancers in the plaza: Bageshree Vaze, the graceful Kathak dancer is a native of Pune but has grown up in Canada and her latest Damaru/Mudhra had premiered at the Harbourfront Center in Toronto.

Sonali Skandan and the Jiva Dance are very much a part of New York, bringing their own sensibilities to the ancient dances of Bharat Natyam. In fact, one of the dancers was from Nigeria. Sonali Skandan, Artistic Director of Jiva Performing Arts is on the dance facility of Sarah Lawrence College and has been involved with the Heritage School in Manhattan. She presented works she had choreographed – highlighting Swarupa, the infinite form, through expression and abstract dance.