A Dancing Collaboration
The next day we made it to Cuddalore, a small city on the Bay of Bengal, where we all slept on a huge blanket on the concrete floor at the Arcot Lutheran Church's Saint David Fort. The building was 250 years old, situated between a tidal river and the ocean, and the only ornery were patterned crosses for bars on the gates, doors and windows. The four-day Phongal Harvest Festival (like a new year holiday) was in it's culminating days, having burned away the old and was now welcoming back the Sun into the hearts and hearths of the land. The greeting, 'Happy Phongal!', was shared freely during this time. Every morning in these areas women make beautiful colored flour mandala designs on their doorstep, and this next morning I was inspired to make my own lotus/heart/rainbow at the entrance to the fort. It felt good to make this kind of art and it was a good practice in non-attachment to watch it deteriorate throughout the day by the wind and leaves and footsteps of life.
The Arcot Lutheran Church Cultural Exchange Group came one day for a workshop exchange. They were a team of twelve traditional dancers and musicians from Tamil Nadu and they were really talented and energetic and great musicians. We had fun facilitating an acro-balance workshop with them and they shared some of their new work, a mime/theatre piece about the dangers of polluting the well-water. That night we were both performing together at a huge marble-floored, high-ceiling, marriage hall/auditorium. We were told the people of this town usually are mired in poverty and health issues and that our presence was very special and uplifting for them. The local group performed before us and then drummed center-stage while we did the fire dance part of our show. The highlight for me was at the end, when our whole group came on to bow and we encouraged them to stay with us and they continued to drum their high-energy rhythms! Both of our groups danced together on-stage in pure joy and life unrestrained expression for five minutes before all coming together for a big group dance climax and bow. It was an awesome feeling to be spontaneously combining our skills and art in this way and a great way to celebrate the harvest of our dreams.
Accommodations were a little hard sometimes.
Acro-balance workshop was a hit with these dancers.
Part of their dance show they shared with us.
At the Fort with my mandala in front
On-stage at the marriage hall Rotary Club sponsored event.
All of us together after our awesome dance jam bow session!
We often made the print and TV news in these heavy industrial waste regions.
The Arcot Lutheran Church Cultural Exchange Group came one day for a workshop exchange. They were a team of twelve traditional dancers and musicians from Tamil Nadu and they were really talented and energetic and great musicians. We had fun facilitating an acro-balance workshop with them and they shared some of their new work, a mime/theatre piece about the dangers of polluting the well-water. That night we were both performing together at a huge marble-floored, high-ceiling, marriage hall/auditorium. We were told the people of this town usually are mired in poverty and health issues and that our presence was very special and uplifting for them. The local group performed before us and then drummed center-stage while we did the fire dance part of our show. The highlight for me was at the end, when our whole group came on to bow and we encouraged them to stay with us and they continued to drum their high-energy rhythms! Both of our groups danced together on-stage in pure joy and life unrestrained expression for five minutes before all coming together for a big group dance climax and bow. It was an awesome feeling to be spontaneously combining our skills and art in this way and a great way to celebrate the harvest of our dreams.
Accommodations were a little hard sometimes.
Acro-balance workshop was a hit with these dancers.
Part of their dance show they shared with us.
At the Fort with my mandala in front
On-stage at the marriage hall Rotary Club sponsored event.
All of us together after our awesome dance jam bow session!
We often made the print and TV news in these heavy industrial waste regions.
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