High commendations for Nrityageet 35

– dance production retains colour, spectacle

The performance of Nrityageet 35 last weekend to mark Guyana’s celebration of Arrival Day on May 5 will have to be highly commended. It was a full dance production with some colour and spectacle, as varied in quality as it was in forms and styles, but in the end a major achievement.

It was directed by Dr Seeta Shah Roath, performed by the Nadira and Indranie Shah Dance Troupe and a number of guests, mixed in impact and energy, but representing a demonstration of history, dedication and endurance.

Nrityageet is a tradition in Guyanese dance theatre. It demonstrates artistic pursuit and perseverance creating a monument that refuses to go away. Merely to sustain an annual dance production as consistently and for such a long time as this, is for that alone, worthy of high praise. But to have done it when most of the major players lived overseas for most of that period, surviving the untimely death of one of them, and to have grown to celebrated standards, winning a national award and various theatre awards, is the achievement of history on the Guyanese dance stage.

The Nadira and Indranie Shah Dance Troupe, MS, was founded by the Shah sisters Nadira and Indranie in collaboration with Seeta, in 1979 and started the show Nrityageet to celebrate Indian arrival in Guyana. They did this first with explorations of Indian dance, researching and performing various forms of classical and folk dances before their interests widened. These wide interests were