Cynthia Dettman:  Author

wait there’s more…… music and dance at the Luz House

The Luz House event (see a previous post) just kept rolling along with amazing performances.  I was particularly  moved by a North and South Indian ensemble of musicians playing together.  One duo played Carnatic (South Indian classical) music with a veena, a large stringed instrument with a deep sonorous tone, and the mridangam, a two-headed drum.  The other duo played Hindustani (North Indian) music with a sarod (a smaller, more metallic sounding stringed instrument) and the tabla, the small two drums typical of this style.  They played a piece they apparently all knew, or perhaps it was improvisation on the same raga?  i’m not sure.  They went back and forth anong the musicians, obviously enjoying themselves.  The musicianship and collaboration were musically astounding.

You’ll see in these brief videos that the stringed instrument players and the drummers were equally profiicent and talented.  And handsome to boot!

sarod and veena

Drums

Then came an Uchupidi dance with a solo dancer and a live singing band.  I don’t know about this style, but the music and the dancing were amazing.  How did Indian women get so beautiful and how did Indian men develop such sensuous singing voices?  The dancer explained before the started (rather to my surprise) that the dance was about a woman named Usha who has a handsome man make love to her (she used those words!) and she doesn’t understand the wild sensual feelings she has.  Wow!

Uchupidi dancer

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