Eastern Indian River dance?!

I enjoyed the performance of Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh's Indian fusion dance on 12/10. The first dance expressed an Indian story about how the Godness Spring was allowed to return to the earth again. Although there were only nine dancers, their sync movements created the effect of a much bigger group of river dnacers. In addition, they had very delicated hands and fingers movements combined with rich facial expressions to tell the story. The other three dances were very mordern which reminded me of Alvin Ailey. The last dance was expecially interesting because each of the dnacers were sitting on a swivel chair to roll and move on the stage to create a flow.

The dancers came from all different ethnic background. You can read more about the group at thier website http://www.dakshina.org/

The performance was followed by a Bhangra flok dance workshop/party. I learned quite a few Bhangra dance moves and had a great time. Bhangra flok dance was a Punjabi dance traditionally performed during harvest festivals and weddings, characterized by the beating of a large, two-headed drum, and it is now a popular style of music combining traditional bhangra drumming with modern Western instruments and rhythms. More info is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhangra

No wonder the performance was picked as a Wash Post Weekend's Best Bet this weekend.