Legendary Bollywood star Hema Malini will perform a traditional Indian dance program with her daughters Esha and Ahana Deol on Oct. 1 at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts on the New York University campus.
The program, entitled Parampara (a Sanskrit word denoting a succession of teachers and disciples), will consist of the Bharatnatyam and Odissi classical Indian dance forms, among the oldest dance forms in India, says Simmi Bhatia, the executive director of the South Asian Music and Arts Association (SAMAA) and the event's organizer.
"She performed here in 2003, but this is the first time she'll perform in the U.S. with her daughters," says Bhatia. "It's unique in the sense that she's doing one kind of dance form--the Bharatnatyam--and her daughters are doing a second, different dance, Odissi. They'll do it like a duet--between Hema and her daughters. They're traditional dances--but it's not traditional to perform them together."
The Bharatanatyam dance form is from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and is considered the national dance of India. It is performed to the classical Carnatic music of Southern India.
Odissi originated in the Eastern India state of Odisha and is the oldest surviving Indian dance form.
A true Bollywood diva, Malini has appeared in over 150 films in her award-winning 40-year career. She starred as the voluble horse cart driver Basanti in the classic 1975 Bollywood blockbuster Sholay, which also starred her future husband Dharmendra.
Esha Deol is also an actress, while Ahana Deol is an aspiring director. Malini, who is also a film producer and director as well as a member of India's Bharatiya Janata Party, is also the stepmother of actors Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol.
Malini is a Bharatanatyam dancer-choreographer, too. Her Parampara program is the second event for SAMAA, the New York-based nonprofit organization founded last year to promote quality music and arts from South Asia through live performances, education and advocacy.
"Hema is from Bollywood, but is also a performer of pure classical dance," says Bhatia. "We don't want to change the classical angle, but we don't want to take away the Bollywood angle. We're not about fusion, but we're trying to mix both of them to glamorize the classical works."
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