Rather than take an exhausting journey across foreign lands, a short stroll to the Fowler Museum at UCLA tonight can transport students to South Asia.
As part of the Fowler Out Loud series, tonight’s South Asian Classical Music and Dance event offers a blend of dance, music, song and storytelling from India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
The performances aim not only to entertain but also to increase education and appreciation of South Asian culture.
Ravi Deo, a fourth-year ethnomusicology student, organized the event to celebrate South Asia’s rich traditions and serve as an outlet for student performance, which has not always been available for those interested in South Asian classical art forms.
“There hasn’t really been a platform at UCLA for classical South Asian arts to be performed, and that’s mostly why I wanted to put together this production,” Deo said. “There are plenty of students artists who have trained for years in these classical art forms, but there’s really no place to showcase it here at UCLA.”
Deo set out to change this, organizing the event in partnership with the Indian Student Union as part of South Asian Heritage Week at UCLA. He was attracted to the Fowler Museum’s Out Loud program in particular because of the museum’s appeal to a wider demographic.
“I wanted it to be a more approachable show,” Deo said. “I like Fowler because it really reaches out to lots of different groups of people.”
Deo elaborated on the numerous types of performances that will be featured, which include styles covering every expanse of South Asia.
“In dance, there’s the style of Kathak from the North, Odissi from Eastern Central and Bharatanatyam from the South,” he said.
Cynthia Lee, a graduate student in choreography, will be performing a dance in the Kathak style from Northern India. An expressive style that first captivated Lee as an undergraduate, she described the dance as one with deep ancestry in South Asian tradition and religion.
“Kathak has pretty strong roots in both Hindu and Muslim culture and mythology. Its movement is characterized by a lot of rhythmic footwork and a lot of turns,” Lee said. “The body in general is less stylized than other forms of classical Indian dance, so it’s a little more pedestrian, a little more every day.”
Lee hopes to appeal to those attending tonight’s performance who might be unfamiliar with the lesser-known style.
“I hope that they would be interested in the particular richness and unique characteristics that are part of the dance form and feel inspired to learn more about them,” she said.
Mehvish Arifeen, an international student from Pakistan and first-year ethnomusicology student, will introduce the audience to Kafis, classical Sufi poems rooted in Islamic religious tradition that are sung to the rhythm of tablas, a drum pair from Northern South Asia.
“The poems that Sufis wrote are about love and God and toward the universe and nature,” Arifeen said. “When you translate it, it sounds like you’re singing for a woman or man, but you’re not. You’re actually singing for God, so it has multiple meanings behind it.”
Arifeen looks forward to shedding light on what is a very popular and revered art form in her homeland. Her exposure to South Asian classical music came early in life, and she learned various different musical forms besides Kafis.
“I sing pretty much anything,” she said. “I sing music from North India, but I love the poetry in the Kafis, so those are what I mostly sing.”
Deo especially encourages those without a background in South Asian tradition to come experience these classical forms, such as Kafis or Kathak, firsthand.
“Part of the performance is not just physical movement or the production of sound, but cultural understanding, and that plays a large part in any sort of performance,” he said.
Before the show, performers will be available beginning at 5 p.m. to offer rare insight into a tradition that often goes unnoticed by the average student.
“We’ll be having small informal demonstrations outdoors in the amphitheater where people can come and speak with the artists,” Deo said. “Maybe the artists will be doing their makeup or tuning their instruments, but people can interact with the artists and actually see their art up close.”