Swaroopa Unni’s Natylaoka Dance School celebrated its fifth birthday last night with a show that clearly demonstrated the development of the school since its beginning. Not least was the difference in auditorium and audience size – always a good metric with which to gauge growth!

The show, called Yaathra, the Journey, was devised based on conversations within the school about who we are and where do we come from, with most dancers identifying with more than one race or nationality and some saying it didn’t matter. Unni interwove these concepts and back stories into these pieces of dance, with moods of welcome and inclusion, isolation and loneliness and of trying to fit in.

Her students were beautifully trained, with minute hand and eye gestures crisp and clear from everywhere in the auditorium. Some appeared a little nervous but they maintained their poise, even when stumbling a little over the intricate steps. Hair, make up, jewellery and costumes were equally beautiful and the rhythmic ankle bells provided a steady undercurrent to the music. (It’s always delightful to see tiny dancers loving the experience of showing what they’ve learnt to their whanau and there was definitely a ripple of ooooohs in the audience when these wee flowers appeared on stage.)

The show opened with a short collaboration with local taonga pūoro artists, and concluded with a song by a visiting singer from India, a lovely circular adherence to the title theme of the journey many of New Zealand’s people have taken, either in their own lifetime or their ancestors’.

The standout piece for me was Soundarya Lahiri, a meditation on the divine mother, danced by Sarangi Sabu. Sabu was delicious to watch, her simple gestures combining fluidly into complex, organic shapes that told this story of the beauty and divinity inherent in all of us. There seemed to be an extra movement relationship between her muscles, joints and bones, and a firmness in the movement of her hands that implied strength without losing any of their elegance.

I congratulate Swaroopa Unni on the success of her school to date and I look forward to seeing its continued growth as Dunedin, a city of many origins and creative threads, learns more of her.

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