BRIANNA MORRIS-GRANT
The Gold Coast will become the scene of a dance spectacular as “Meera” opens early next month.
Meera’s upcoming release will see a cast and crew of 300 take to the stage at Home of the Arts, bringing together Indian classical, contemporary, tap, jazz, ballet, pole dancing and more.
But the show’s creator Aarti Bajaj said she’s been struggling to get some of the Gold Coast engaged.
“Sometimes we go out there and the words we get are, ‘oh, is it an Indian thing?’ and it’s not an Indian thing, it’s just a beautiful story, like Romeo and Juliet, like Aladdin, it’s for anyone and everyone,” she said.
“I think most of the time it’s just a mindset, to view things the way they have been promoted. We unfortunately have categorised and put things in boxes.
“We categorise things and that means we think we either relate to it or we don’t, we’re trying to say that art and beautiful stories transcend these boundaries.
“It’s a universal language that doesn’t belong to any one community.”
Meera tells the story of a royal princess in Northern India, who throws away the “norms of society” to follow her love for the Hindu god Krishna.
Principal of Clover Hill State School Gayle Alessio, who previously hosted one of Ms Bajaj’s dance workshops for her students, said she wanted them to engage with other cultures.
“I want them coming to an understanding of the various social and cultural contexts of art forms,” she said.
Meera has already garnered attention across the Gold Coast, with its curtain raiser event opened by Mayor Tom Tate.
For Ms Bajaj and her team, the excitement is building in the lead up to performance, but she had some words of advice for everyone in the audience.
“Please come and look how beautiful it is when humanity comes together, I’m sure it’s going to be magic,” she said.
“The fact that the wider community has put in so much effort for one production to come to life, you won’t be disappointed.”