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March 12, 2010

Accessible India at the Dennos

Dance ensemble performs, photo exhibit opens

By VANESSA McCRAY

TRAVERSE CITY -- Explore India through dance and photography at the Dennos Museum Center.

The Traverse City museum, located at Northwestern Michigan College, will host the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble at 8 p.m. March 20 at the Milliken Auditorium. That evening, event-goers may also attend an opening reception for a photography exhibit depicting scenes and people from Varanasi, India, by photographer Larry Snider. That exhibit remains at the Dennos through June 13.

The dance ensemble features five women who perform the classical Indian dance form Odissi. It's a "sculpturesque" dance that recreates poses seen in temple art, said Nrityagram's Artistic Director Surupa Sen.

"It looks like moving sculpture -- very rounded ..., very sensuous and delicate," she said.

Dancers live and train together in a community in India, where they also study mythology, yoga, Sanskrit and martial arts. Their local appearance was arranged in conjunction with the Wharton Center for Performing Arts in East Lansing, where the ensemble will perform March 17.

Sen compared the dance form to a language, passed down over the centuries that evolves with the dancers' interpretations but remains rooted in tradition.

"What we do very much belongs to us," she said.

The performance is "accessible" to audiences in the United States because of the costumes, the production and explanations of the dances, she said.

The Dennos will combine the dance event with an exhibit launch for about 30 of Snider's photographs. The Chicago-based photographer travels extensively and has a particular interest in Asia.

His photographs from Varanasi, located on the Ganges River and a holy destination for Hindu pilgrims, were taken from 2005 through January of this year. He cruises the streets and riverbank looking for interesting things and people.

"I just know it when I see it," he said.

He will speak at 2 p.m. March 21 at the Dennos about his photography and travels.

Tickets to see the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble are $25 in advance or $28 at the door. For tickets, call the box office at 995-1553 or visit the Web site www.dennosmuseum.org.

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