Nrityageet is a major production and achievement. It is outstanding among Guyana’s foremost, important and longest-running annual dance productions. It holds a prominent place in the history of dance in Guyana.
Nations erect monuments to commit to posterity moments of glory, their heroes, significant events, milestones and personalities in nation building, episodes and institutions that have had an impact, or left a mark on their history. On May 5, as a part of the commemoration of Arrival Day, 2019, the nation of Guyana unveiled a new monument to East Indian Arrival in Guyana, erected at Palmyra in Berbice. That now adds to the ostentatious pieces of public art, of concrete cultural trophies in the country – a public and permanent acknowledgement of contributions to human development, to social, economic, political and cultural heritage.
On the same weekend, May 3 and 4, 2019, 70 miles away in Georgetown, the Nadira and Indranie Shah Dance Troupe closed the curtains on the annual dance production, Nrityageet, with performances of “Nrityageet 40 – Unity in Diversity Through Dance” directed by Dr Seeta Shah Roath, celebrating Indian Arrival in Guyana. That they have been doing this for 40 years, in the context of theatre anywhere, is a remarkably long run, and in the context of theatre in Guyana, a monumental achievement.
