Toronto Tuesday 01.31

Classical dance and music of North India

Certain Summer Sundays in Kensington Market (Toronto downtown-west) are designated as ‘pedestrian only’, an occasion where artists of all kinds replace the vehicular traffic on street. The entire block gets converted into a pedestrian mall filled with live music, dancing, street theater, games and special events. Last sunday, artsits from the Chhandam Dance Company (headed by Joanna D’Souza) and Toronto Tabla Ensemble (headed by Ritesh Das) dazzled the audience with spectacular Kathak dance performances accompanied by impressive rhythms on the Tablas.

As a student and a keen follower of North Indian classical music, I must say that I have seen several performances over the last 10 years, both good and bad, but mostly the later. The quality of Kathak (north Indian classical dance form) and Tabla (drums that are essential to north Indian classical music) taught in these schools is the best among the best. When I came to Toronto, one of my biggest regrets was not being able to watch quality classical arts, so imagine my delight when I came across these teachers and their students last year.

The music was composed to prompt the artists to showcase different peculiarities of their art. Building the excitement bit by bit, it finally reached the climax and culminated in a teehai that left me enthralled.