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St Mary’s College hosted a Jayamangala Traditional Indian Dance performance at St. Mary’s Hall on Sept. 23.
Using 2000-year-old Indian temple dances and music, the performers tell stories of gods, mortals, and quests for enlightenment. “Bharatanatyam” is the ancient classical temple dance from southern India.
The dancers who perform this ancient dance undergo intensive training for several years to achieve proficiency in rhythm and expression.
The troupe performed a total of five dances while at St. Mary’s College.
They began their performance with a Prayer Song. They then proceed with a short opening dance piece, called Alarippu, where the dancers were led by verbal recitation of pure spoken syllables to warm up their neck shoulders and heads, in three different speeds.
Next the group moved into a dance about the elephant faced Lord called Lord Ganesh, followed by a dance that tells the tale of a young girl who was in love with The Dancing Lord Shiva. This act was accompanied by song describing Sarawathias, the goddess of learning and knowledge.
The next dance was a simple dance describing the Goddess of knowledge and Learning, followed by the final piece, a fast paced dance involving intricate footwork combined with dramatic poses and pauses.
The East Indian dancers were sponsored by the College’s Asian Studies Program, Asian Studies Club, St. Mary’s Arts Alliance, and the departments of philosophy and religious studies, English, theatre, film and media studies.