Lotus Music & Dance in partnership with Robert Browning Associates presents
Sunday, December 7, 2025 at 4:00pm
WORLD DANCE FESTIVAL:
Dancing Across Cultural Borders
Japanese Folk Dance Institute of NY
Saung Budaya
Trinayan Odissi Dance Collective
Kinding Sindaw
The Ailey Citigroup Theater
405 West 55th Street, NYC
Tel. 212-627-1076
Sunday, December 7, 2025 at 4:00pm
WORLD DANCE FESTIVAL:
Dancing Across Cultural Borders
Japanese Folk Dance Institute of NY
Saung Budaya
Trinayan Odissi Dance Collective
Kinding Sindaw
The Ailey Citigroup Theater
405 West 55th Street, NYC
Tel. 212-627-1076
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-This annual dance festival, now celebrating its 10th anniversary, highlights a culturally diverse spectrum of distinctive expressions through music and dance. The program features two exciting collaborations: “Hidden Faces and the Harvest” performed by the Japanese Folk Dance Institute of NY led by Kevin Suzuki along with Saung Budaya led by Amalia Suryani performing Indonesian folk dances; and “Cross-Cultural Ramayana” performed by the Trinayan Odissi Dance Collective led by Bani Ray, along with Kinding Sindaw led by Potri Ranka Manis performing Southern Philippines indigenous and sultanate dances.
Kevin Suzuki, artistic director of the Japanese folk dance company, was inspired to do “Hidden Faces and the Harvest” after participating in a program with Saung Budaya and seeing the similarities between the two disciplines in theme and movement. For example, you will see movements that originate from daily life and work in the fields, as well as the use of veils or masks in both traditions. In the “Cross Cultural Ramayana,” while the great epic originated in India, the 2,000-year-old story from the devotional imagination of the poet/sage Valmiki traveled by word of mouth over water and land to Southeast Asia, the Philippines and beyond. The Ramayana is a multifaceted ancient tradition. At its core, it is a story of courage, responsibility and love. Yet it is also a complex treatise on the moral challenges that confront human existence. In India it is read in every regional language and performed in local theaters and on television. In the southern islands in the Philippines, the Hindu influence of the Vidyayah Empire during the 4th and 10th centuries left its legacy upon the local folklore. A version of the Ramayana lives on in the oral culture of the Maranao people of Mindanao. Today, the story is retold by these two traditional dances, each with their own take on the story, in order to make it their own. Tickets: $20 students, seniors; $30 general admission; $125 benefactor |
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