On December 19th, more than 700 people from the New England community witnessed an unusual wedding – a wedding through dances with brides of various backgrounds, cultures, and religions.  It was a unique show, dubbed as “Kuryat Sada Mangalam,” produced and choreographed by Jasmine Shah of Aangikam Dance Academy.

The show started with a small skit, showing how a boy and a girl get engaged to be married – right from the traditional custom of arranged marriages to the latest Internet-ads and everything in between.  It went on to depict the many ceremonies leading up to the Indian marriage.  It is a difficult task to weave the wedding customs of even one community into a dance musical.  Yet, the show was effective in blending the customs from many different regions.   

In the first half of the show, many customs like Kankotri (Invitation card), Mehndi (Henna), Sangeet (music), and Pithi (application of turmeric/sandal wood paste) were all incorporated and portrayed by dances with appropriate music and choreography.

The second half of the show began by the arrival of various “brides” from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Bengal, and Assam.  Each bride wore the representative outfit and described some part of the custom from their region.   A Baraat (groom’s arrival) was also staged with the bride’s mother greeting the groom on stage.  The Baraat was followed by wedding dances from the many cultures of India.

The highlight of the performance was not only the range of participants’ ages and abilities, but also the sheer number of them, a whopping 175! Jasmine-aunty, as we affectionately call her, did a great job creating a medley of music ranging from popular wedding songs of Hindi films to popular folk songs of many regions.  The choice of songs and colorful costumes, the choreography, and the performance blended smoothly to give the audience the real experience of being at a beautiful, multi-cultural wedding.

Following the performance, all of Jasmine’s students and their families had a surprise party to show their appreciation for her dedication and service to the community.  Since Jasmine’s birthday also happened to be on the next day, it also served as a big birthday celebration, perhaps the largest surprise party at this scale. She was presented with a plaque, a gift certificate, and roses from all her students.  In addition, a homemade movie was made with the theme of “Jasmine Jaissi Koi Nahin”!  A potluck dinner contributed by each family took place afterwards.

Please click here to watch some clips from the performance

http://www.k2channel.com/video/Glimpses1024K.wmv (for faster connection, better quality)
http://www.k2channel.com/video/Glimpses512K.wmv (for medium fast connection, medium quality)
http://www.k2channel.com/video/Glimpses256K.wmv (for dial up connection, lower quality)

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