By Indrawattie Natram

Keeping traditional Indian dance traditions alive

‘DANCE like no one is watching’ is the favourite quote of Essequibo Dance Teacher, Sursattie Singh aka ‘Annie’ of Reliance Village on the Essequibo Coast. Singh, who has formed her own dance group and has been teaching traditional and folk dances on the Essequibo Coast, said that she has the intention of one day opening her own dance school.
During an interview with the Pepperpot Magazine, Singh said everyone has the ability to dance but it takes a good teacher with patience to train her students. Dedicating her life to dance, Singh has been dancing for over 20 years.

Her dance group, the Dharmic Swarswatti Dance Academy has thus far managed to keep the Indian tradition alive with “folk dances”. According to Singh, “traditional folk dances” are a simple trace of the Indian ancestry that reawakens the Indian culture.
This 30-year-old dance teacher said that dancing is like therapy for her as it eases her mind off life’s many challenges and she has developed an immense passion for the art over the years.

“The opportunity to express oneself through the medium of dance holds the benefit of keeping the culture alive,” she said. “It’s a true blessing to be able to express the thoughts of your ancestors; to be on stage and just perform for an audience is simply amazing. Dancing makes you feel alive like you’re young again; I don’t know anything else that can have that effect on you.”

THE KEY TO THE ART
Speaking about classical Indian dances, the dance teacher explained that it is all about the visual language hand gestures, body movements and postures. Movement of the eyes and hands, arms and legs, chest, waist, hip, knee and feet- either alone or in combination with each other- all make up this complicated language of classical dances.

Annie further went on, saying that Indian dance uses a set of emotions or feelings known as “rasas”. The job of the artist\teacher is to transform movement into emotions, such as amazement, anger, hatred, humour, or love and communicate them to the audience.
Shedding some light on her dancing path, she said her journey as a dancer began 10 years ago at the Reliance Mandir. She was inspired by a popular local dancer, Premie Naipaul, who motivated her to start dancing. Singh, who eventually developed the passion after a few months of vigorous practice, said her parents weren’t too keen about her taking up dancing as a career but today she cannot express how happy she is for their support.
“Little did I know that one day, dance would be my life and the springboard of my other interests, from looking at Indian movies… At the age of 30, I cannot live without dance, my journey thus far has been both rewarding and humble,” Sursattie said.

The dance teacher said even when she started to take the stage at a tender age she was frightful but never gave up but instead she dedicated her energies to being a better dancer. Today, she teaches over 30 youths including little children and she always seizes the opportunity to encourage them to dance with ease and to stay focus.
Recounting, she said she started to look at simple Indian dance films where she learned a few dance movements. The lover of dance said she and her cousins used to dance. Singh said that she later realised that she was becoming better at dancing, and as such, she decided to form her own troupe in 2003, “Annie Dance Troupe” now renamed the “Dharmic Swarswattie Dance Academy”.

TRAINING

She said because there was a need for more movement in dancing she joined the Dancing School in Spring Garden where she acquired much dancing skills and techniques. Her motive behind the classes was to introduce new dancing moves mostly traditional dances to the group.

Today, Annie holds her own dance classes every Sunday at the Cotton Field Mandir where she teaches young girls and boys to dance. Annie said nothing gives her more pleasure than teaching the children dances that were inherited by their Indian fore parents.

Her group performs traditional Indian dances. She said the dances are extremely simple with minimum steps or movement. The traditional dances are done by both females and males dancers.
She said it takes days to train the dancers and described the task as challenging but rewarding.
The dancers’ outfits are designed by Singh herself and are mostly brightly coloured, simple and opulent with many styles being ornately decorated. The garments are mostly made with cotton and sometimes silk and are richly decorated with gold beads and glitters.

CHALLENGES
She said sometimes securing sponsorship for her group’s costumes is sometimes tiring, however, she thanked local business entities for always supporting her. This dancer also gave up her job and dedicated her time to teaching dance free of cost. The dance group only performs for cultural events and often represents the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha.