MAC’s music concert series is back for 2017 with a stellar line-up of Tasmanian musicians!

This beautifully eclectic program of performances promises something for everyone.

Doors and bar open at 5:30pm

All shows start at 6:30pm

$5 on the door

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TASTE OF THE FUTURE I – ASIA

Fri 22 Sep

5.30 PM – Doors/ Bar Open

6.30 PM – Pushpanjali (Neeralaya Dance School)

6.35 PM – Chinese Music  (Shuang Shuang and Chinese Students)

6.55 PM – North Indian Dance (Dancing Divas)

7.00 PM – Carnatic Music Singing by Adhi

7.30 PM – BREAK

7.45 PM – Indian Folk Dance Based On Drums – Dancing Divas – Collaboration with Santhanam Vaidhyanathan

7.50 PM – Wedding Sequence Dance (Neeralaya Dance School & Adhi)

7.55 PM – Chinese Dance – 2X (Shuang Shuang team)

8.05 PM – Tamil Cultural Dance (Neeralaya Dance School)

8.15 PM – Indian and Chinese cross cultural dancing (Dancing Divas & Shuang Shuang)

Pushpanjali

The Neeraalaya School of Dance is Tasmania’s premier Bharatanatyam dance troupe, an ancient style of divine classical dance with origins in the Tamil Nadu region of South India. Arthy Raja formed the Neeraalaya School of Dance in October 2016 after arriving in Australia in 2009. She has studied and practised Bharatanatyam for 17 years, first as a disciple of Kavitha Vijayakumar in her hometown of Chidambaram (India), and later with Vrinda Ravi in Newcastle (NSW).Arthy now shares her expertise, teaching classes promoting this ancient, elegant form of dance and performing the unique South Indian Classical dance style to Tasmanian audiences. Their natural, relaxed performances connect intimately with the audience, expressing music through sophisticated footwork, elegant hand gestures and facial expressions.

Pushpanjali(folded hands full of flowers) is the first dance in Bharatanatyam performance. It is the salutation to the lord of dance Nataraja, Mother earth, the Guru, the musicians and the audience. Solo performance by Arthy.

Chinese Music by Shuang Shuang’s group

A medley of songs from different eras of chinese culture. A mixture of traditional and pop. The instrument you will see live is the erhu (chinese violin)

Shuang Zhang is a conservatorium trained Chinese opera singer and dancer, now living in Hobart, Tasmania. She has been singing for more than a decade, specialising in traditional Chinese Opera.

Shuang arrived in Australia with her mother in 2012, and has been living and working in Tasmania ever since. She sings with a band and has been performing at various festivals and concerts around Tasmania. She is also an accomplished dancer, trained in traditional Chinese, jazz and hip-hop styles. Shuang is excited to share her love of classic Chinese performances with the Tasmanian community she has fallen so in love with. She is joined tonight by Sam, (Er Hu) and members of the Chinese Students association

North Indian Dance by Dancing Divas

The Dancing Divas are an Indian dance group established by Bhuvana Veeramani. They perform a fusion of classical, Bollywood, folk and western dance styles, presented with passion and exuberance, the dances express joy and happiness.Bhuvana has always loved dancing and has developed her own unique style,which is the inspiration behind the establishment of the Dancing Divas. She has been dancing since she was eight and was trained in a traditional style called Bharatanatyam.

This piece is a fusion of folk dance and Bollywood style of dancing. The music is predominantly from the North of India and comprises of beats, simple lyrical style and fusion music.

Carnatic Singing by Adhi

Adhi means beginning, and our group is the first Carnatic music group in Hobart and Tasmania.

Singer Sakthi Ravitharan is accompanied by Santhana Gopala Krishnan Vaidhyanathan. Our genre is South Indian classical music known as “Carnatic” music. It is an ancient form of music based on śruti (the relative musical pitch), swara (the musical sound of a single note), rāga (the mode or melodic formulæ), and tala (the rhythmic cycles). Our group consists of a duo: a vocalist who is trained in both Carnatic and western classical styles of music, and a percussion player who plays an instrument called “mridangam” (double-sided drum). A tambura, which acts as a drone throughout the performance sets the reference musical pitch.

Indian Folk Dance With Live Drums – Dancing Divas and Santhanam

This piece performed by the Dancing Divas with live drumming from Santhanam is a tribute to the thousands of women who carry water for many miles for their families. The lady in the performance has been searching for water and becomes very tired. As she takes rest, she dreams that she finds a statue who dances with her and gets her spirits up again.

Wedding Sequence Dance by Neeralaya

This piece of dance is to narrate the wedding sequence of Prince Rama and Princess Seetha adopted from one of the largest ancient epics in world literature ‘Ramayana’.  Swayamvar was a practice of wedding in ancient India in which the girl chooses a person from an assembly of suitors who wins the competition arranged by her father. she garlands him and a marriage ceremony is held immediately. In Hindu epic Ramayana, King Janak  tells that he has promised to marry his daughter princess Seetha to the person who can lift god Shiva’s bow and string it. Kings from all over gathered to attend the competition and marry Seetha. Some got scared even to touch the bow, some failed to lift the bow including the great demon king of Lanka ten head Ravana. With Shiva’s blessings, Rama lifted, stringed and broke the bow and married Seetha. Seetha Rama swayamvar  is performed every year at temples to sustain the life on the earth with the belief that Lord Rama brings spring rains and the goddess Seetha who is born to mother earth gives us the fertile land to cultivate for the best crops to feed the world. Singer: Sakthi , Miruthangam: Santhanam, Prashanthi as Princess Seetha and Arthy as the competing kings.

Chinese Dancing  by Shuang Shuang group

Vikky and Cassie duet

Traditional dance by Duet. Ancient dance for the court from Middle china.

Tamil Cultural Dance (Kavadi Chindu) by Neeralaya

Kavadi chindu is a generic name for a variety of Tamil folk songs. They are light compositions in Tamil which are popular for their simplicity, emotional content and appeal. The Song we perform today  was popularized by Annamalai Reddiar, a great composer from Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu in praise of Lord Muruga of Kazhukumalai near Tirunelveli. Kavadi Attam (“Burden Dance”) is a ceremonial sacrifice and offering practiced by devotees during the worship of Lord Murugan,the Hindu God of War.The kavadi (“burden”) itself is a physical burden, the bearing of which is used by the devotee to implore Murugan for assistance, usually on behalf of a loved one who is in need of healing, or as a means of balancing a spiritual debt.Devotees process and dance along a pilgrimage route while bearing these burdens.Kavadi attam is performed mainly at a festival called Thaipusam  which is celebrated in many different countries outside of India mainly in Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Reunion island and by their diasporain western countries such as Australia, UK, Germany, France, Italy, South Africa etc.

Indian and Chinese Cross Cultural Dance by Dancing Divas and Shuang Shuang and Friends

This piece is a tribute to both Indian and Chinese forms of dancing, where in the dancers are dancing to both kinds of music. It is a piece which shows that dance transcends across the continents and what unites us all is the love for music and rhythm.

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View the whole Friday Nights Live program here…

Image: Neeralaya School of Dance, Arthy Raja. Photo: Oliver Berlin