As previously stated, I went to an Indian dance recital on Thursday night where I somehow made a complete ass of myself. But I'll get to that later.
I was to meet Daywalker and her friends, at the Henri-Bourassa metro station. She neglected to mention which entrance, however, and it took 20 minutes to get together. On the way I passed an Indian couple dressed in an Indian way, looking confused and lost. I thought about asking them if they were her friends, but that seemed so gauche to ask the only Indian people in sight if they knew one in particular.
I finally found Daywalker a block away with her new boyfriend and another friend of hers that I met a couple of months ago. We were still waiting for these other people when a conversation ensued:
"Yeah."
Tall? With an Indian guy?
"Yeah!"
"Oh, they're right this way."
And I led her to her friends, the very people that I saw walking around looking confused and lost.
As we were walking to the theatre, we broke off into separate conversations. I spoke with Adi. Turns out that in the classical Indian music community, he is quite famous. Adi is Aditya Verma. He has made many CDs and has even performed live in front of half a million people. He even trained under Pandit Ravi Shankar. I am impressed.
The performance started shortly after we arrived. It was emceed by a cute, elderly Chinese woman who gave an introduction to each segment in perfect Parisian French. There was a story accompanied with each performance as well, spoken using the passé simple, a tense that is never actually used in spoken French anywhere.
The first performance was some type of Indian singing, with two female singers, a male singer, two male bongo drum players, a guitar player and a conductor. I actually know the conductor, he's a guy that works at Grumpy's, and gave Rose her first girl drink last year. The performance was well done, but it didn't move me like the next one.
A pipa is a Chinese bowed lute, played upright like a cello, although it isn't big enough to sit on the floor. The second performer was an accomplished Chinese girl whose name I cannot recall. If you saw her play, you would truly know what people mean when they say that "the instrument was like a part of her". Her fingers were so deftly and gracefully that I couldn't watched open-mouthed. The sound was incredibly (you can hear how it sounds fron the pipa link) beautiful and peaceful, even when she was aggressive. She played with a guitar player, a throat singer and someone else who I can't recall right now.
Next there was a pair of Japanese women, one of whom played a shamisen. The other played a large twelve-stringed table-base instrument that I didn't get the name of. They were dressed in kabuki garb. I liked these two, although not quite as much.
Despite what the others said, I thoroughly enjoyed the throat singer. Anyone that can sing two notes at the same time, and can carry on two separate rhythms at the same time has my respect.
Lastly, the highlight of the evening: traditional Indian dancing. This was performed by 18 young women. Have you ever seen Indian art where the people have smiles so perfectly carved into their faces, and whose makeup is so perfect that they being to look like very scary dolls? It was like this times 18. They smiled, wide-eyed, throughout the whole thing. It was disturbing at first, but I got used to it quickly and settled into the performance, which was quite impressive. Lively, elegant and well-coordinated, especially on such a small stage.
And then I made an ass of myself, but I'll have to save that for my next entry.
