Inspiring performances enhance love story

The meeting of East and West can have some lovely results. On July 30, a Sydney audience witnessed one such fusion in Contemporary Dance Academy’s A Love Story. More than forty young dancers, from juniors to advanced level performers, graced the spacious stage of the Pennant Hills Community Centre to perform in a contemporary Indian style. CDA’s director is Shwetambra Barar Tandon, a highly accomplished and acclaimed dancer in the genres of classical ballet, contemporary, jazz and Bollywood. She is assisted in her teaching by Kanchan Verma, another very experienced dancer.

The story was inspired by the well-known Shakespearean tale of Romeo and Juliet. Two young lovers, Sonali and Yuvraj, from warring families were the lead characters. The performance used contemporary and Bollywood choreography to portray their story through dance. Each scene was unique and made good use of the numbers of students, with varying stage formations that kept things interesting. Another impressive component was the costumes, which were bright and beautifully coordinated with wellchosen colour schemes. The costumes were handmade by the mother of one of the dance teachers, and obviously took a great deal of time and effort.

One of the stand-out scenes of the evening was the party scene, where Yuvraj

(Ruhee Dixit) transfers his infatuation from Maya (Bhavana Bhat) to his future wife Sonali (Sandhya Menon). The scenes featuring junior dancers, such as the wedding scene were abundant with cuteness, and the enthusiastic performance by the little ones tugged at the heartstrings of the audience. Sandhya Menon was charming as Sonali and her talent was particularly showcased in one of the final scenes where she takes the potion that will be her escape from being wedded to her suitor, Yash. The other notable performance was by the expressive Srishti Yadav who played Yash. The final scene saw Yuvraj and Sonali tragically commit suicide, much like the characters that inspired them. This scene, although graceful, could have been performed more expressively to better portray the anguish that the two lovers would have felt.

Music for the story was drawn from Hindi movies through the ages, and each piece very nicely captured the essence of the scene it was chosen for. Overall, A Love Story by Sydney’s Contemporary Dance Academy was colourful and entertaining with inspired choreography, gorgeous costumes and talented dancers who most importantly, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying their time on stage.