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Prepare for food, dance, music and lots of words at the Shared History festival, which binds South Africa and India.
INDIA in its many rich colours will be swirling around Johannesburg over the next month, with music, dance, theatre, literature and food the cornerstones of the annual Shared History festival.
South Africa has close links with the sub-continent, and is home to a large Indian population. Shared History: The Indian Experience is a collaboration that runs from 15 August to 5 October in Johannesburg, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Pretoria and Cape Town. Teamwork Productions, Tribhangi Dance Theatre and the Indian High Commission together bring India's culture in a multitude of forms in collaborated works with South African performers.
Look out for the Tribhangi Dance Theatre; Wazwan - cuisine from Kashmir; Painted Narratives from India; Shared Spaces, Shared Realities: The Communities of Newtown, Fordsburg and Mayfair, in conjunction with the Fietas Festival; The Wellbeing Experience; and Words on Water: India and South Africa In Conversation, among others.
Tribhangi Dance Theatre
Starting the Joburg leg of the festival, on 26 August, will be the Tribhangi Dance Theatre, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary of its annual season of African and Indian dance collaborations.
Tribhangi Dance Theatre kicks off the festival in Joburg
This latest presentation will include kalari, or martial arts; contemporary Indian styles; and a combination of Indian classical dance forms. And this year musicians from India and South Africa will also take to the stage.
Jayesperi Moopen, the choreographer and creative director of Tribhangi, introduces a third dimension in her work, including a more traditional approach that is interwoven into her own personal style of African and Indian dance forms.
Moopen believes that work should be created with truth and meaning. She has performed at numerous international events and believes that the response and appreciation of global audiences to the work is testimony to how audiences relate to forms that break barriers and combine different dance traditions to create interesting and dynamic dance narratives.
She has worked with organisations in Toronto, in Canada and Birmingham, in England, and this season introduces a collaboration with Hema Sundari Vellaluru, a choreographer from Bangalore, in India. Her training includes Barathanatyam and Kuchipudi, a dance form from Andhra Pradesh.
Tribhangi is on from 26 to 30 August at the Fringe, at the Joburg Theatre Complex, in Braamfontein.
Awaken the Young Citizen
This youth empowerment workshop was developed by Teamwork Productions and the High Commission of India together with Tehelka Foundation. It focuses on youth development.
A non-profit trust based in India, the Tehelka Foundation works for youth empowerment through community engagement and citizenship activities. It also aims to build bridges between marginalised young people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds to facilitate social change.
This year Puneeta Roy, a founding trustee, will conduct the workshop, which will incorporate 1mile2, an online global arts project that connects artists, ecologists, local communities, local authorities and arts organisations. The project examines the cultural, biological, aesthetic and environmental diversity in a square mile, as seen through the eyes of its local community working with an artist and an ecologist.
Roy will ignite a sense of pride in young students towards their country and allow them to rediscover the city and enable the installation within the mile.
With a background in film and television, she conducts workshops using theatre as a tool for self-exploration and growth. She sees potential in the youth and believes that through them, social change will happen and that a more equitable society is possible.
Taking place from 2 to 4 September, Awaken the Young Citizen is part of the Fietas Festival.
Cuisine from Kashmir
Wazwan is a multi-course meal in the Kashmiri tradition; its preparation is considered an art as days of planning and hours of cooking go into its making and serving. Kashmiri cuisine can be traced back to the 15th century, and the ultimate formal meals are the Royal Wazwan. Of its 36 courses, between 15 and 30 are prepared with meat.
 The Kashmiri cuisine experience
Seven dishes are a must for any occasion: rista, meatballs in a fiery red gravy; rogan josh, lamb cooked with Kashmiri spices; tabak maaz, ribs of lamb simmered in yogurt till tender, then fried and served as a snack or side dish; daniwal korma, mutton curry with lots of coriander; aab gosht, spicy lamb curry; marchwangan korma, hot lamb preparation; and gushtaba, textured meatballs in white yogurt gravy.
A photographic exhibition will be held in conjunction with Wazwan of Kashmiri Food, by Suzanne Hayano, whose pictures tell of the traditions of Indian cuisine.
The Kashmiri experience is from 7 to 16 September at Le Canard, 163 Rivonia Road, Morningside.
Painted Narratives
India's stories will be told in the exhibition, Painted Narratives from India: Preserving History through the Art of Story-Telling, and Shared Spaces. Traditional art forms from many communities will be used to tell tales of folk heroes and kings. Ecology and social issues will provide the subject matter.
Anjana Somany is the curator, and this exhibition will trace the tradition of painting from antiquity to the present. Craftsmen will be on hand to demonstrate their technique and skills.
And for Shared Spaces work was commissioned that documents the rich and diverse history of the Vrededorp, or Fietas, area. It will take place in conjunction with the Fietas Festival, which is curated by Feizel Mamdoo. The annual cultural celebration is held in Vrededorp, where the community of old was torn apart by the apartheid regime.
A photographic exhibition and installations of the Pageview and Vrededorp communities will run from 20 September to 5 October at the Craft and Design Centre, in Sandton's Nelson Mandela Square from 11am to 5pm.
Tamil music
Susheela Raman, a Tamil singer from the South Asian diaspora, has performed with Jimi Hendrix, Fela Kuti and Aretha Franklin. She is a composer and interpreter, with four albums to her name - Salt Rain (2001), Love Trap (2003), Music for Crocodiles (2005) and 33 1/3 (2007).
Raman will perform with her guitarist, Sam Mills and the Rajasthani musicians, Nathoo Lal Solanki and Chugge Khan. Solanki is a classical nagara, or folk drum, player; Khan, who also sings, plays various instruments, including khamaicha, khartal, morchang, vatang and dhol.
The shows are on 5 September at noon, at The Wellbeing Experience, Zoo Lake; on 6 September, at Jazz on the Lake, Zoo Lake; and at 7pm that night at Summer Place, 69 Melville Road, Sandton.
Wellbeing Experience and Retreat
Organic and Ayurvedic food stalls, Ayush herbal products, crystal therapeutic gemstones, numerology, astrology, tarot card reading and yoga workshops will be on offer at the Wellbeing Experience at Zoo Lake on 5 September.
For yoga enthusiasts, there will be classes in more than 10 disciplines, including Ishta, Iyengar; Jivamukti; Art of Living - Bihar Yoga - Kundalini; Sahaja - Sri Sri; Pranayama; Shivananda; Satyananada; Hatha; Vinyasa; Warrior; Ashtanga; and children's yoga.
Raman and Mills will perform and there will be lectures on Ayurvedic practices and meditation sessions. In addition, there will be a two-day yoga retreat in the Drakensberg at the Alpine Health Resort, Jagerust.
Sarpagati Dance Company
Sarpagati is a dance theatre performance inspired by the snake worship in Indian culture. It draws upon ritual, myth and symbolism associated with the snake.
Shabana Azmi, the actor, poet and writer
"The Way of the Serpent" refers to the manifestation of energy within the context of the lower three chakras, which symbolise elements of earth, water and fire. These relate to three fundamental drives that form the basis of survival - the drive to accumulate, to procreate and to dominate.
Sarpagati is in five sections: Kundalini, Earth, Water, Fire and Garuda.
Kundalini refers to the awakened serpent energy. Earth is the element that represents the basic drive for a secure material base of life. Water symbolises a dynamic equilibrium and encompasses sensuality and the drive of organisms to perpetuate through procreation. Fire symbolises intensity and power, the drive to conquer and the passion to excel. Garuda is when the serpent is transformed into the golden bird and with the birth of compassion, the path of the higher chakras begins.
It will be staged on 15 and 16 September at the Dance Factory, in Newtown.
Words on Water
Internationally acclaimed Indian and South African authors will, for the first time, engage in conversation on some of the most prolific writings and insights. The literary programme offers poetry, style, sex, cricket, politics and music.
"In the context of intensifying relations between South Africa and India, this festival aims to bring a kaleidoscope of contemporary Indian culture to mainstream South African audiences," noted Navdeep Suri, the consul-general of India. "In recent years, India has produced a number of award-winning writers in English. The literature component of the festival showcases leading Indian writers for South African audiences."
Among them are Ramachandra Guha, a best-selling non-fiction writer whose most recent book is India Since Gandhi; Amit Chaudhuri, the author of The Immortals, his fifth novel; Shobhaa De, who has written 15 books and who writes for Indian and international publications as well as several television shows, including India's first daily soap, Swabhimaan; and Arshia Sattar, who translated Sanskrit tales from Kathasaritsagara and Valmiki Ramayana.
South African authors will be joining the Indian authors. Angela Makholwa, Zukiswa Wanner and Pnina Fenster will team up with De t talk about popular fiction and the art of being stylish. William Kentridge, Sarah Nuttal and Chaudhuri will talk about depictions of Joburg and Calcutta. And Mandla Langa, Jacob Dlamini and Guha will discuss postcolonial politics and ways to write about it.
A poetry session will bring together Ingrid de Kok, Keorapetse Kgositsile and Chaudhuri. Veronique Tadjo will join Sattar to discuss translation. Cricket fans can listen to Guha and Andre Odendaal on the art of writing about cricket.
"The future is looking increasingly Indian. Many South Africans know little about the cultures of India," says to Isabel Hofmeyr, the acting director of the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand. "This literary festival will open a window on to the rich world of Indian writing in English."
The literary discussions are free, at the Origins Centre at Wits University on 12 September and at the Wanderers Club in Illovo on 13 September.
Shree Nrityagram Dance Ensemble
The Odissi, or Indian classical dance ensemble, is created through dancers, musicians and choreographers living together for years, developing their ideas and perfecting their techniques. They complement their dance with the knowledge of mythology and Sanskrit and yoga, meditation and martial arts.
Surupa Sen has been the principal dancer of the Nrityagran Dance Ensemble for the past 10 years. The Ensemble will be in Joburg on 19 and 20 September at 7.30pm at the Dance Factory, Newtown.
Film Retrospective
Shabana Azmi, the actor, poet and writer, has performed in more than 100 Hindi movies, and she has been a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Acting is not her only passion; she has also been a member of the Upper House of the Indian Parliament and an activist working in slum redevelopment and in fighting Aids and injustice.
She has also taken her talent to the stage and performed in several plays and demonstrations denouncing communalism.
Joburg Retrospective will be held at Nu Metro Cinema, Monte Casino from 18 to 24 September. For one night only, Joburg film audiences will hear about the life and work of this artist and activist in a one-hour conversation, on 21 September.
Music
Indian classical music lovers know flautist Pundit Hari Prasad Chaurasia for his contribution to music. He has won numerous awards including a Grammy and in September, he will perform in Joburg, at the Linder Auditorium on Wits's Education Campus, on 25 and 26 September at 7.30pm.
For more information about Shared History, contact Nafeesa Dangor on 082 886 2663 or email
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