Thesis research: Barefeet Theater & social upliftment thru the arts

So as I am beginning to look for possible collaborators from among fellow artists in Zambia, new doors started opening up. My meeting with Barefeet Theater group has really been an eye-opening experience.

At Barefeet Theater (BFT), the actors work with street kids and use theater as a medium of social upliftment. After several phone calls and emails, I finally met Tobias who had invited me to their Christmas play last month, “All Hail, Chief of Chibombobombo”, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol. The play was directed by Paula visiting from the UK and the assistant director was Adam who’s the local white head of the group. When I spoke to them later, I found out that all the actors were street kids and black youth who were picked up and were being trained to become actors, singers and dancers. That art is being used as a way to instill confidence, to educate and expose them to the outside world is a lofty objective. Obviously Barefeet Theater has international funding from European non-profit charitable organizations that are in the noble business of service to the arts and society.

Taonga Tembo from BFT took me to visit a community school in a compound where local poor children of all ages try to get an education. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work that well because some of them don’t have money to pay for school unless they find a sponsor. The boys and girls of all ages 5-19 are grouped not by age but by level of reading, writing ability. So for eg. one classroom where basic arithmetic is being taught could have up to 40 students of mixed ages. Taonga and his colleagues do theater-related workshops with these groups where they take up topics such as Children’s Rights, or AIDS. They discuss about it and create performance pieces as a group. For those kids that are not able to learn in a typical classroom setting, this is a hands-on approach to learn. After developing the piece, they take it to the marketplace or homes to give small performance and carry the message to the local community. What a wonderful way of using art as a tool for educating at grass roots level. As I saw them perform their traditional dancing with drumming, I was overwhelmed with emotion. I decided that I will work with some of these people.

I was given a warm welcome and when I told them I’m looking for dancers for my production, they were enthusiastic to pick up some Indian dance moves. When I told Taonga that I will be back next week to work with them, he assured me that word will spread easily and I can easily expect a much larger number of participants who will flock to learn Indian dancing! I decided that not only do I want to use some of them in my production Shakuntala, but as my husband suggested, I hope to continue my interaction with them in the coming months while I am in Zambia to teach them Indian classical & folk dances. That will be my social service to people in this part of the world, the less fortunate ones that are deprived of opportunities and resources. I'm sure the local dancers will expect some remuneration or honorarium to cover expenses (travel and chai-pani we we call it in India!) which I must be prepared to shell out from my pocket.

Looking at the situation here in contrast to North America where I came from, and comparing it to American affluence, there is so much to be done. The realization that dancers must create work not just to entertain audiences, but also to educate and enlighten gets reinforced. I really feel privileged to be here and to be able to contribute in any small way possible - even it's if going to be a few drops in a large ocean....

Music Season India - Dec. 2010

The whirlwind 3-week trip trip to India was filled with fun, food, frolic not to mention music mania, rustling silks, jostling crowds and sizzling brownies! I'm going to try and give a summary of our activities while we were in Chennai last month. We stayed at serviced apts Nakshatra, a bed and breakfast joint which was clean and adequate. The cook made excellent food and madras filter coffee!

Cutcheris and artists

Some outstanding musicians that we were able to catch were Malladi brothers at Narada gana Sabha, Bombay Jayashree and Sreevalsan menon at Music Academy, Ganesh-Kumaresh violin duo, Salem Sriram, Visakha Hari's Gajendra moksham, a lec-dem on "Music and Lyrics" by Neyveli Santhanagopalan and many more.

Solo/duet Dancers that enthralled audiences - Priyadarshini Govind, Mythili Prakash, Meenakshi Srinivasan, Sheejith and Parvathi Nambiar, Rama Vaidyanathan, Janaki Rangarajan and Nalini-Vijay's Samhita. Why is everyone copying Shobana in costumes and choreography?

Group productions and dance dramas that we watched are Radhika Shurajit & group, Dhananjayanas all-male ensemble, Anita Guha's awesome professional kids, Kalakshetra's Panchali sapatham and Mallika Sarabhai's Darpana. It's very difficult to say which was the best because of the variety in the presentations and high quality in every production.

Restaurants and food - yummy!
One prime attraction in visiting India is the food that we get to eat - home cooked and restaurant food. We ate at Pizza corner, Cream centre, Saravanabhavan, Chaat corner (Mumbai) Tanjerine, Little Italy, Rajdhani in Express mall, Ananda bhavan. Except Tangerine and ananda bhavan, everything else was blissful. It's a different matter that some of us got sick eating street side food, but that's part of the immunity-building-skill for the body.

New Year's Eve party

On dec. 31st night a family get-together brought 35 near and dear ones (aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, kids, parents, grandparents) together for an enjoyable few hours. Entertainment was provided by the 4 youngsters Anjna, Rajna, Ashwin and Aishu who jointly presented the Sabha Awards - a humorous parody of glamorous glittering award functions. Very funny! The dinner was followed by more entertainment in the form of Antakshari and other party games. Unforgettable times!

Other highlights of the trip included a one-day trip to the shore-side rock temples at Mahabalipuram with Saumya and kids (who were visiting from the US), shopping for saris, salwars and dance costumes at shops like Pothys, Naidoo Hall, Tulsi Silks, Srishti, Kumaran, Rasi etc. Visits to various tailors, shopping malls like Express avenue and multiplex movie theatres (we saw Guzarish, Band Baja Baraat, Manmadan Ambu) pretty much completes the picture of our memorable India trip.

If one is prepared to overlook the congestion, traffic, and chaos everywhere, and compromise on efficiency and quality, we can have the time of our life in India. Things are much cheaper than the US or Africa. And abundance in everything.

Oh, one last thing. The issue of toilets. Yeah. Didn't really expect dry bathrooms everywhere, but the scarcity of public restrooms is an issue the authorities must really look into - especially on highways. The movie halls and malls are equipped with good bathrooms but not necessarily kept clean always. Few things that bothered me - no bathrooms tissue, no hook on door to hang your purse (how on earth do we balance our handbag and do our job?), nonworking dryer and no paper towels to wipe hands.....aghhhh! Hopefully these things will get better one day in India.