I have seen them dance before. They are good.
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Asian Culture Night is one of the more colorful events in Anchorage each year. Different ethnic and national groups from the western Pacific Rim and the continent of Asia take turns hosting performance groups from their regions -- Southeast Asia, China, the Philippines, Japan, etc. This year the host is India, which is to say Alaskans with family ties to India. But the performers are not from the subcontinent famed for sun and spices. Instead the main attraction is an Indian Dance Group from Russia.
Not the warm part of Russia, either. Mayuri -- Hindi for “female peacock” -- comes out of Petrozavodsk in Karelia, between St. Petersburg, the Finnish border and the White Sea, which is part of the Arctic Ocean. Alaskans will recall that Karelia is the site of Valaam Monastery, from which St. Herman and other Orthodox monks traversed some 5,000 miles as the first missionaries to Russian America in 1794.
Vera Evgrafova, the group’s founder, fell in love with Indian dance after she watched a Hindi movie as a child. She threw herself into the dance and the culture from which it came and, in the past 28 years, has built up a company with a corps of 60 adult dancers and school-based studios with more than 400 children.
The connection isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. “Hindi culture is huge in Russia,” said Anchorage businessman Sanjay Talwar, who was involved in bringing the group to Alaska. “From Moscow to India is only a three-hour flight. You see a lot of Russians in New Delhi and a lot of Bollywood films are actually shot in Russia.”
The blonde Russians often don dark wigs to sustain the Indian ambiance, Talwar said. They study the costuming and crafts of the art form and also Hindi, since the dancers sometimes sing as well. And they’ve toured Europe and America as well as India.
What impressed the Alaska search group wasn’t their reputation, however, but how good they were. “We found a lot of groups from India that were more interested in fusion. But we didn’t want a rap group,” Talwar said. “We wanted someone who could authentically present the dances. And these people are excellent performers.”
The troupe will arrive in Anchorage this weekend to rehearse, present some performances for school kids and visit the world’s farthest north Hindu temple. The public performance takes place April 15 in Atwood Concert Hall.
An Indian dance troupe from Russia -- really -- highlights Asian Culture Night
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Asian Culture Night is one of the more colorful events in Anchorage each year. Different ethnic and national groups from the western Pacific Rim and the continent of Asia take turns hosting performance groups from their regions -- Southeast Asia, China, the Philippines, Japan, etc. This year the host is India, which is to say Alaskans with family ties to India. But the performers are not from the subcontinent famed for sun and spices. Instead the main attraction is an Indian Dance Group from Russia.
Not the warm part of Russia, either. Mayuri -- Hindi for “female peacock” -- comes out of Petrozavodsk in Karelia, between St. Petersburg, the Finnish border and the White Sea, which is part of the Arctic Ocean. Alaskans will recall that Karelia is the site of Valaam Monastery, from which St. Herman and other Orthodox monks traversed some 5,000 miles as the first missionaries to Russian America in 1794.
Vera Evgrafova, the group’s founder, fell in love with Indian dance after she watched a Hindi movie as a child. She threw herself into the dance and the culture from which it came and, in the past 28 years, has built up a company with a corps of 60 adult dancers and school-based studios with more than 400 children.
The connection isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. “Hindi culture is huge in Russia,” said Anchorage businessman Sanjay Talwar, who was involved in bringing the group to Alaska. “From Moscow to India is only a three-hour flight. You see a lot of Russians in New Delhi and a lot of Bollywood films are actually shot in Russia.”
The blonde Russians often don dark wigs to sustain the Indian ambiance, Talwar said. They study the costuming and crafts of the art form and also Hindi, since the dancers sometimes sing as well. And they’ve toured Europe and America as well as India.
What impressed the Alaska search group wasn’t their reputation, however, but how good they were. “We found a lot of groups from India that were more interested in fusion. But we didn’t want a rap group,” Talwar said. “We wanted someone who could authentically present the dances. And these people are excellent performers.”
The troupe will arrive in Anchorage this weekend to rehearse, present some performances for school kids and visit the world’s farthest north Hindu temple. The public performance takes place April 15 in Atwood Concert Hall.
An Indian dance troupe from Russia -- really -- highlights Asian Culture Night
