Bring on the Bollywood

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Gita Mistry

Phizzical Bring on the Bollywood, CAST in Doncaster, 2 June 2017, 19:30

"On 2 and 3 June 2017, I attended the Southbank Centre's Alchemy Doncaster South Asian Arts Festival at the CAST in Doncaster Theatre. A splendid venue only 4 years old.  I was there primarily for the musical, Bring on the Bollywood, but there were two other events associated with the show:

• A "Bring on the Bollywood" dance workshop in one of the CAST's dance studios; and
• A "Bring on the Bollywood" Sari Tying Workshop;

which took place on Friday afternoon. I opted for the dance workshop.

At the workshop, I introduced Jane to Bollywood. She said she enjoyed the experience even more than ballet and found everyone extremely friendly. I have to say I was pleasantly impressed with what we accomplished in the short time especially as we had missed the start owing to of an accident on the motorway. Happily, we had not missed much of the session itself. This was very engaging with good instruction and explanation- coaching with a clear definition of movement and meaning of mudras (hand gestures which are used to depict narrative in Indian storytelling influenced by the Kathak style of dance). We learnt rhythm and timing to moves and beats so that by the end of the 90 mins learnt a full routine. Hats off to the lead's facilitation skills and those of the other cast members as we were exposed to many moves to follow and copy. There was a range of age groups from 5 through to 70 with various abilities and backgrounds - some who had never done Bollywood dance and others who were returning after years of doing Indian dance. It was rather fun.

The play that we saw in the evening was directed by Sâmir Bhamra in association with Belgrade Theatre Coventry.  Bhamra was the creative director of the London Asian Film Festival and has been a mentor to emerging artists. He was the executive producer of an international dance festival and delivered three large-scale events during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games including a carnival procession across the East Midlands alongside the Olympic Torch Relay. He developed his skills at the National Theatre and was seconded to Royal Shakespeare Company where he worked on the World Shakespeare Festival under Deborah Shaw. 

Set in India but with plenty of references to London, the show had all the mix of a good Bollywood spectacular -  great dance and music, superb costumes with plenty of changes and good comedy too.  Fun, lively, colourful, family drama, romance, comedy - the cast engaged superbly well and were very in tune with each other.  Quite a feat to hold the audience's attention for some 90 minutes in the first act and another 60 in the second.

Turning to the dancing, there was a lot of traditional Indian styles including Kathak and Bharatanatyam as well as folk dances like Bhangra. We were reminded at the workshop that Bollywood is a fusion of many styles including Western ones."

Jane Lambert adds:

"The Hindi cinema, popularly known as “Bollywood”, is the biggest film industry in the world in terms of ticket sales and one of the biggest on every other measure. It is extraordinarily popular - not just in India and other countries where there is a big Hindi speaking population - but even in countries where Hindi is not spoken.

Sadly, even though there is a big audience for Hindi films in this country, very few folk of non-South Asian heritage take the trouble to see them. That is probably unfortunate because I suspect that we are missing out on a lot of fun. Phizzical Productions Ltd, which is touring the United Kingdom with a stage musical called Bring on the Bollywood, aspires to give those of us who do not speak Hindi a taste of that fun. Speaking as a complete ingenue in this genre I can certainly say that it was fun. However, I leave it to Gita, who knows a lot about South Asian art, to opine whether it was at all authentic.

The plot was a little convoluted. An “overworked, underpaid NHS doctor” flew home to India for her brother’s wedding. Her father is a retired army officer and her mother a lady of leisure. Neither her brother nor his intended bride is looking forward to their wedding. They were promised to each other by their parents but they really can’t stand to each other.

On the plane, the doctor sits opposite a handsome but rather mournful young man carrying an urn. The reason for his unhappiness was that he was jilted at the alter. The contents of the urn are ashes of photos and love letters but for the time being were led to believe that they are the ashes of his dead wife. The young man is on the way to meet his friend who is love with the woman who is engaged to the doctor’s brother.

The young man and his friend find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. The brother offers to put them up at his parents’ home but only at an inflated price. On arrival, the young man meets the doctor with whom he had travelled on the plane. “Of the billion people in India how come I meet you?” He says. But they are attracted to each other and the attraction grows when the brother and sister, his intended bride, her lover and the young man take a hike in the idyllic Valley of the Flowers.
In the valley the last character turns up, namely the woman who had left the young man standing at the altar. She tries to win him back but he wants none of it. He sends her on her on her way. After a lot of parental resistance the young man married the doctor, his friend marries his love and the doctor’s brother joins the army much to his father’s delight.

This was quite a long play. The first act was 80 minutes long and the second 60. But for me, it passed very quickly largely because of some lusty singing and vivacious dancing. Most of the songs where in Hindi but the signature tune “Bring on the Bollywood” was in English. In the workshop which I described in Bollywood Beginner 3 June 2017, we tried the routine of one of the songs. According to Wikipedia

“the dancing in Bollywood films, especially older ones, is primarily modelled on Indian dance: classical dance styles, dances of historic northern Indian courtesans (tawaif), or folk dances. In modern films, Indian dance elements often blend with Western dance styles (as seen on MTV or in Broadway musicals), though it is usual to see Western pop and pure classical dance numbers side by side in the same film.”

In our workshop, we were taught the importance of hand movements and the symbolism of some of the gestures such as the drawing of a bow. At various points of the show Gita whispered some of the cultural allusions which would otherwise have been lost on me.

There were many strong character roles in the play and the actors performed them well. I particularly liked Rohit Gokani who played the retired colonel, Anthony Sahota his spoilt and somewhat wastrel son, Nisha Aaliya, the doctor and Sophie Kangola the intended fiancée who showed enormous patience to me in the workshop, but perhaps it is unfair to single any of them our for special praise because they were all good.

The show is in Hornchurch until the 17 and then Poole, London, York, Oldham, Truro, Oxford and Peterborough. If you live anywhere near those towns I unhesitatingly recommend it."

"I felt elongated and taller and stronger too"

Chris HintonLewis as Heathcliff in Wurthering 

Heights

Last week I attended two beginners' classes at Northern Ballet.

The first was promoted as  "a one off extra ballet beginners drop in class with Chris Hinton Lewis from 19:00-20:15" on Monday evening.  The second was Annemarie Donoghue's over 55 class between 11:30 and 12:30 on Thursday morning.

I thoroughly enjoyed both classes and I felt that I had learnt so much.

By the time I attended my second class I had invested in some "skins" or "thins" as I have often heard them referred to. "Ballet slippers" to you and me.  I have to say that it is not easy for me to get used to them as I have always danced with bare feet in Indian dance, contemporary and even ballet up to now.

All classes start with a warm-up. It is so much better when there is a pianist to set the mood. Actually, I have to say that out of all the ballet classes that I have taken so far, those with a pianist are best. The whole feel of the studio sets me up to work at my best. It really stretches me.  It motivates me at least to try each move correctly.  It helps me concentrate on the instructions which is vital to avoid damaging the body as well as executing the stages of each move correctly.

So what did I enjoy about Chris's class? Well, firstly, his smile, his positivity and his encouragement. Secondly his way of engaging with the class which consisted of students who had reached different levels making sure that we were all doing the moves correctly as best we could. I liked his big sense of humour and the grace with which he directed both the pianist and students.

I had attended Annemarie's class once before (see Coming Back to Ballet 13 March 2015). As on that occasion I found her very welcoming and the class very friendly, I don't think I have ever been in a class with such nice people. But Annemarie is also very professional. She concentrates on the work in hand. No chitchat about children, chocolate or other distractions. She seems very conscious of safety and takes every reasonable precaution. Her students adore her and she brings out the best in them.

After the class Annemarie told me about the Ichino method in which technique all the teachers of Northern Ballet had been trained.  This is very systematic and it works very well for me.  In a previous ballet class I had been shown a pirouette and was told to get on with it. I like to break down moves into stages in order to master it. So that each stage is imprinted in my mind and in turn flows through my body. There is no point in trying to turn clockwise on your left leg with your foot on demi pointe and spotting until you have mastered balancing on one leg in retiré, For some of us that does not come easily particularly as we get older.

I felt elongated and taller after I had finished both classes and stronger too. Most of all I felt confident. I believed for this time I could actually change my posture and body alignment through regularly attending classes at this standard.

Will keep you posted with my progress.

Coming Back to Ballet

I've danced all my life including 30 night show at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. But I haven’t done much ballet. 

It wasn't something that many kids of Asian heritage did when I was growing up in Bradford In the 1970s. I did have a friend at school who was taking ballet lessons. She would show me what she had learnt and was not best pleased when I was able to do the exercises somewhat more easily than she could. She gave up in the end and passed some of her ballet things on to me. 

The only other time I had a go was when I kept Jane company at The Base in Huddersfield. I took a few classes on Tuesday evenings which I enjoyed very much until the teacher moved the classes to a local university on Wednesday evenings which clash with other commitments.

Just before Christmas I created a lavender and sweet martini dessert to celebrate Isaac Lee-Baker’s performance as Wilson in The Great Gatsby. Jane wrote an article about it called Food and Ballet which was read by one of the members of her over 55 class at Northern Ballet.

“We ought to get her in here” said Jane’s friend.

“But she’s not 55 yet” replied Jane.

I understand that the teacher said that wouldn't matter if I wanted to try ballet again, so Jane passed the invitation on to me.

I turned up to Annemarie Donoghue’s class at Northern Ballet a few weeks ago and enjoyed it very much. We did all the barre exercises that I had done in Huddersfield - pliés, tendus, glissés, ronds de jambe and battements tendus – and then some exercises in the centre. We did rises, marches and little sautés with our feet in parallel and then first position. Then a lovely port de bras. Finally some travelling exercises in which Annemarie showed us a movement and got us to imitate it.

Annemarie is a very good teacher and she taught a very friendly crowd. Several of the students complimented me on my dancing which made me feel very welcome. After the class I joined the students for a hot drink and a bite to eat at Café 164. Altogether it was a lovely day.

One thing I enjoyed in particular about Northern Ballet's class was that we had a live pianist. Dancing to the piano and feeling that rhythm was great. Piano is another of my passions. I longed to indulge it. After pestering my parents for lessons which they could not stretch to, I used to sit on the fence at the home of the piano teacher and watch others take their lesson through the lead patterned windows in the hope that would help me learn a thing or two. 

Anyway life is for living and its never too late. So I now attend ballet classes and I am heading back to taking a few more piano lesson too this year. 

There were only two problems with the Over 55 class. The first was that it met during the day which is difficult for me as I run a business. Most of the other students seemed to be retired or in jobs that allowed them a lot of flexibility. The other problem was that I don’t yet have any shoes and had to dance in bare feet which was a bit stressful for my poor soles... I wish I could do ballet in soft cushioned trainers but that would be sin I think... I dare say I will get used to that... So I’ve been looking for classes that meet in the evenings and found Ailsa Baker’s at KNT Danceworks in Manchester.

Ailsa is another good teacher and clearly very popular. I counted 50 students in her beginners’ class. She let me dance in socks - much easier than dancing barefoot . She was very friendly but still commanded everybody’s attention. She made us work very hard in the stretching and strength building exercises. There seemed to be a wide range of ability and experience from professionals to newbies. Ailsa was very encouraging. Because the class was large the vibe was magic and very chatty. Like all the other classes we started with barre exercises and stretches and then proceeded to port de bras and jumps. It was great fun.

As Manchester is a bit of a trek from Bradford I am checking out Chris Hinton-Lewis’s Thursday evening class at Northern Ballet. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Our Three Hundredth Post - Now we are a Team

For the last two years I have been running Terpsichore on my own though I have had great contributions from Joanna Goodman, Mel Wong and, most recently, Peter Groves. Now I have a partner in the blog and other activities that we are about to launch under the Terpsichore sign. The well known chef - Gita Mistry whom the distinguished food critic Jay Rayner described as "The greatest Indian cook in Britain."

Gita is not quite a newcomer to this blog. Inspired by his performance as Wilson in The Great Gatsby she created the most humongous pavlova in honour of Isaac  Lee-Baker which I mentioned in Food and Ballet 20 Nov 2014.

But Gita also loves dance. Watching it and doing it. She has danced for years years in different styles  She has done  bharat natyam, kathakali, dandiya rass  and an old Gujarati style of folk dancing called garba.  Between the ages of 9 and 13 she performed contemporary dance at on the stage in Bradford.  A few years ago she performed in a Bollywood musical at the West Yorkshire Playhouse which ran for 30 nights. Other styles she has enjoys include latino, salsa and even the can-can, Most recently she has taken up ballet and had classes from Annemarie Donoghue and Ailsa Baker.

In the next few months we shall run a series of talks in Leeds and Manchester with dancers, choreographers, teachers and others on the lines of those in London run by Danceworks and the London Ballet Circle. We shall invite top speakers from Northern Ballet, Phoenix and visiting companies. Wherever possible, we shall try to offer some Gita Mistry goodies at those events.

Now that there are two of us there will be a lot more contributions to this blog, Facebook group and twitter streams. There will be just as much ballet but also posts on Indian, street and jazz.

There may be posts on food. Cheryl of Ballet News offers cup cakes to her dancers.  Gita can offer those and a whole heap more.

If you want to get stared why not try these scrummy delights: Mushroom Bajias

(Serves 4)
14 tbsp gram flour
3 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp green rocket chilli
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried coriander
1 tsp cumin
¼ tsp turmeric
Salt to taste
2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves
A pinch chilli powder
2 tsp ground nut oil
150ml luke warm water
750g whole medium sized chestnut or button
mushrooms
Ground nut for oil for deep frying
Preparation
Grate the ginger and finely chop the green chilli.
Prepare the mushrooms by cutting the larger ones in half and keeping the smaller ones whole. Wipe them clean and
avoid soaking them in water as this will make the mushrooms limp.
Method
1. In a bowl, sieve the gram flour and add the ginger and green chilli. Add a little water and using your hand beat
the mixture to form a paste, making sure to avoid lumps. Mix in some more water and continue to beat.
2. Once you have a smooth thick paste consistency, add the dry spices, 2 tsp oil and salt, and beat. Cover and leave
the batter somewhere warm for 1 hour.
3. Approximately half-fill a heavy bottom Lowu or a heavy bottom wok with groundnut oil, and heat.
4. Take the batter and add a little more water to loosen the mixture to form a batter consistency. Mix in the fresh
coriander leaves.
5. (Test the oil by dropping a little batter into the oil if it rises to the top within a few
seconds and becomes crispy then its ready.) Dunk the mushrooms into the batter and
then place them in the hot oil. Give them a few seconds then frequently turn them until
crispy and golden brown, drain off the excess oil. Serve while still hot and crispy.

Enjoy!

Food and Ballet

Gita Mistry's Dessert in Honour of Isaac Lee-Baker

Photo Gita Mistry

Food has lots of connections with ballet. It is of course fuel for the lifts and jumps that delight an audience, But a good meal also complements a memorable evening in the theatre. Sometimes it is part of the scenario of the ballet as in The Taming of the Shrew where Petruchio starves Katherina into submission. Occasionally a great dancer inspires a chef to create a great dish as happened when Anna Pavlova visited New Zealand. Something like that happened on Saturday when my friend Gita Mistry and I saw The Great Gatsby in Bradford (see Northern Ballet at its best: The Great Gatsby in Bradford).

Gita is an artist in her own right. She is a chef who won the BBC's Eating with the Enemy contest a few years ago. She won over 4 of the country's top food critics.  She is also a dancer who has performed at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and other venues. She has even kept me company at the barre more than once.

Like me Gita was impressed with The Great Gatsby. She particularly enjoyed Nixon's choreography with its soaring lifts, the dancers' virtuosity and passion, the costumes which accounted for a fleet of pantechnicons parked outside the Alhambra. One particular dancer stood out for her - Isaac Lee-Baker who danced the hapless Wilson in the ballet. She was so impressed with his performance that she created the dessert that appears above in his honour.

We had intended to courier it to Quarry Hill tomorrow but temptation got the better of us. It was scrumptious. I mean seriously scrumptious.  I might add that it had far too much cream and sugar than is good for a dancer so we really did Isaac Lee-Baker a favour by keeping it beyond his reach.  But Gita has shared her recipe in DanceFood - A Dessert for Isaac Lee-Baker 16 Nov 2014 Gita Mistry Food.  And if Isaac really wants to throw caution to the wind I am sure that Gita could be prevailed upon to make another just for him.

Over the next few weeks Gita and I will be exploring the relationship between food and dance in all its aspects. I can't promise any new dishes but there will certainly be plenty of tips and useful information.