Today in London, Ontario at the Wolf Performance Hall, 251 Dundas at 4:00 Lata Pada and her Toronto troupe and Indian guest artist Satyanarayana Raju will perform a program titled Kshetram (Dancing the Devine). Kshetram fuses devotional poetry with the music and dances of India. A celebration of classical Indian dance, kshetram is comprised of seven pieces that include solos performed by Lata Pada.
In an article this morning in "The London Free Press" James Reaney tells Lata Pada's story of loss and healing and how she has used traditional dance and her own performances as forms of autobiographical expression. Reaney reports, "Lata Pada, of Toronto, lost her husband and both daughters in the 1985 air India terrorist bombing. She transformed her grief into an autobiographical performance that uses music and classical Indian dance to recall her horror and her healing."
"At its heart," says Pada, "Kshetram is based on a spiritual journey, on the notion that our life
on Earth here is only a journey to ultimate realization."
In addition to Kshetram, Dancing the Devine, Pada has performed other personally transformative dances. At the website, Dancing our Stories Personal Narratives from Dance Animation, http://people.uleth.ca/~scds.secd/dos/lpprinter.html , she writes, " Due to my personal history and tragedy in my life, I have experienced the value of dance and art as an important tool to overcome some terrible things that happen in society. Through repeated performances of my work, Revealed by Fire, I have understood the value of the work and seen how people have been transformed by it, how they have been moved to make some positive changes in their lives. This work has not only given me a new meaning in my life, but it has provided a great understanding of the transcendental value of art."
excerpts included from James Reaney, London Free Press Article, "Dancing the Devine a Sunday Delight",Sunday, June 17, 2007, London Free Press
Dancing our Stories Personal Narratives from Dance Animation
More information about Lata Pada http://www.sampradaya-dance.com/about_director.html
