Skip to main content

13-Year-Old Chinese Girl Performs 'Arangetram' In China, Scripts History

A 13-year-old Chinese girl scripted history when she performed Bharatanatyam "Arangetram" in China, a landmark in the journey of the ancient Indian dance form that is gaining popularity in the neighbouring country.

Lei Muzi made her solo dance debut here on Sunday in front of the celebrated Bharatanatyam dancer Leela Samson, Indian diplomats and a large audience of Chinese fans.

For ardent Chinese fans of Indian classical art and dance forms who devoted their lives to learning and performing them for decades, her debut was a moment of history and a milestone as it was the first-ever "Arangetram" -- Bharatnatyam's graduation ceremony -- in China.

For the performers of the ancient dance from South India, Arangetram, as it is called in Tamil, is their debut performance on stage in front of teachers and experts besides the audience.

Only after Arangetram are the students allowed to perform on their own or train aspiring dancers.

"This is the first-ever Arangetram by a student fully trained in China and performed in China," said T S Vivekanand, the First Secretary of the Indian Embassy in charge of culture who attended the event.

It was a properly done Arangetram in a very traditional way, he told PTI here.

"Lei's Arangetram is the first time that Chinese students trained by a Chinese teacher have completed in China, which is a landmark in the history of Bharatanatyam inheritance," noted Chinese Bharatanatyam dancer Jin Shan Shan, who trained Lei, said.

Shruti Rawat, the wife of Indian Ambassador Pradeep Rawat, was the chief guest at Lei's Arangetram.

The event was attended by a large crowd of fans who cheered her over the two-hour-long performance during which she danced to several classical numbers.

Besides Leela Sampson, a team of musicians who were flown in from Chennai sang the classical numbers for Lei to perform.

She is due to perform in Chennai later this month.

Lei was trained for over 10 years at the Bharatanatyam school run by Jin, who herself was the first accomplished Bharatanatyam dancer to have held her Arangetram in 1999 in New Delhi.

Jin was one of the numerous Chinese students who were trained by eminent Chinese dancer Zhang Jun.

Lei, also known as Dudu, says she fell in love with Bharatanatyam since she joined Jin's school in 2014.

"I completely fell in love with it. I kept dancing till now. For me, Bharatanatyam is not only a beautiful art and dance form but also the embodiment of Indian culture," she told PTI.

"This fascinates me greatly, as well as the gorgeous and graceful movements during a dance item. Overall, I extremely love Bharatanatyam. For me, it is already a daily activity to do, and I am truly interested in the culture of India," she said.

Jin, who is widely known in China and India and has held numerous performances, said she is proud to see one of her students complete her Arangetram.

"Bharatanatyam has brought us close together. For ten years, Lei has come to my home every weekend to attend classes, which not only let me witness her growth but also made us family," she said.

"It reminds me of how my guru, Leela Samson, taught me when I did my Arangetram," she said.

Sunday's Arangetram is a festival for us, Jin said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/emQzcjV

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sri Lanka Must Achieve Debt Restructuring By September: IMF

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday reaffirmed that Sri Lanka must achieve its debt restructuring process by September, which is also the time for the global lender's formal review of the bailout facility it extended to the cash-strapped nation. On March 20, IMF extended a nearly $3 billion bailout facility to debt-ridden Sri Lanka that would help stabilise the country's economy after it was jolted by a devastating economic crisis last year. In a statement issued on Tuesday at the end of a nearly two weeks staff visit to Colombo to assess the progress made by Sri Lanka since the agreement was reached, the IMF said the two sides had discussed the developments on debt restructuring. "Sri Lanka must achieve debt restructuring by its first review due in September. We also discussed progress on debt restructuring, noting the ongoing discussions with both foreign and domestic creditors," the statement read. Sri Lanka is still struggling to normalise its crisis-hi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Amazon Rainforest Tribe's Secret To Healthy Life And Slow Ageing Revealed

Deep in the Amazon rainforest, a semi-nomadic indigenous community is thriving. This community defies conventional norms on ageing and health. The Tsimanes, consisting of 16,000 people, live a fully subsistence lifestyle, relying on hunting, foraging and farming to survive. Scientists have been studying this unique group for two decades, and have uncovered remarkable findings till now. Martina Canchi Nate, an 84-year-old Tsimanes woman, digs up yucca trees, cuts down plantain trees and carries heavy loads with ease, faster than her younger companions, as per a BBC report. This level of physical activity is not unusual among Tsimanes of her age. Researchers have discovered that this group has the healthiest arteries ever studied and brains that age more slowly than those in North America, Europe and elsewhere. The Tsimanes' secret lies in their active lifestyle, with an average of 16,000 to 17,000 steps per day. They spend less than 10 percent of daylight hours in sedentary activ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Egypt Unveils First Ancient Royal Tomb Since Tutankhamun In 1922

Egypt's antiquities authority says it has found the ancient tomb of King Thutmose II, the first royal burial to be located since the famed discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. The tomb, discovered near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor in southern Egypt, belonged to King Thutmose II of the 18th dynasty, who lived nearly 3,500 years ago. Thutmose II was an ancestor to Tutankhamun himself, and his half-sister and queen consort was Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Her giant mortuary temple stands on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor a few kilometres (miles) from where the tomb of Thutmose II was found. Although preliminary studies suggest its contents were moved in ancient times -- leaving the tomb without the iconic mummy or gilded splendour of the Tutankhamun find -- the antiquities ministry on Tuesday called the discovery "one of the most significant archaeological breakthroughs in recent years". It has been excavated by a joint Egyptian-British mission, led by the Suprem...
Post a Comment
Read more