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With the world premier of Ahimsa – The Path Of Peace an original thematic dance presentation based on the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., Nadanta has once again demonstrated why it is ranked among North America’s premiere Indian dance companies. Staged at the prestigious Ford Community And Performing Arts Center in Dearborn, Michigan on Saturday, August 13th to large and appreciative audiences, the performance marked the latest in a series of increasingly sophisticated and challenging Nadanta productions under the artistic direction of Chaula Thacker.
Ahimsa was a change of pace from last year’s dance-intensive production of Nataraj – The Lord Of Dance. Dealing with events within living memory, the Amritsar Massacre in 1919, the Salt March in 1930, and the American Civil Rights struggle of the 60’s, Ahimsa used a blend of multi-media images and spoken words to augment the emotive dance sequences Thacker created to represent these milestones of the nonviolence movement.
The philosophical underpinnings of nonviolence as a tool of political change were presented as dialogues between Himsa, the embodiment of violence, and Ahimsa the proponent of the peaceful way. These semi-spiritual beings were portrayed in the midst of the events that form the story’s framework, and their conversations served to highlight both the immediate impact of violence, and the long-term power of nonviolent resistance to overcome it.
Thacker once again demonstrated her ability to involve the audience in the production by including them in the staging. The Salt Marchers, for example, concluded their dance sequence by exiting the stage and walking through the audience while singing and chanting. Himsa, Ahimsa, and Dr. King all spoke from balconies within the theater at various times, which also added an immediacy and intimacy to their interaction with the audience.
As audiences have come to expect from Nadanta, the company was well-rehearsed, the costumes colorful and exciting, and the performance itself was flawless. Nadanta’s group of gifted young performers were also used masterfully by Thacker in the concluding scenes of Ahimsa in which they sang We Shall Overcome in multiple languages while dancing on stage. This, and the assassination scenes of Gandhiji and Dr. King, could easily have degenerated into maudlin sentimentality except for Thacker’s deft control of the staging and gentle manipulation of the audience’s emotions.
Ahimsa is also a milestone in Nadanta’s deliberate outreach to the non-Indian community. The audience was a representative cross-section of the Southeastern Michigan community. Their after-performance comments indicated that Thacker’s staging and choreography, plus the fundamental message of nonviolence at the core of Ahimsa, had touched them at a deeply emotional level.
With the premier of Ahimsa completed, Nadanta is negotiating with the U.S. Public Broadcasting System to produce a one-hour program based on the work. A multi-national tour is also being investigated. But, regardless of the outcome of those ventures, the world premier of Ahimsa has solidified Nadanta’s place in the top ranks of North American Indian dance companies.
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