Wye Mills, Sunday, May 3rd At the Todd Performing Arts Center (TPAC) at Chesapeake College, the Carole Carole Cascio Fund and TPAC Director, Rob Thompson, hosted a cultural enriching free performance, a World Day of Dance. The World Day of Dance featured Guest Artists and Directors, Deepti Mukund from Natyaboohmi School of Dance, Rose Xinran Qi from RoseQi Dance Arts, and Sylvia Soumah from Coyaba Dance Theater.
Deepti Mukund’s dancers opened the show with four elaborate Bharatanatyam pieces including solos, duets, and group pieces. All of which were delivered with elaborate detail, especially with the precision of Bharatanatyam footwork. Mukund credits the use of mathematics to make the complexity of Bharatanatyam repertoire possible. Particularly, the dances Mukund brought honored and surrounded the Mysore Bharatanatyam style. The Mysore style was prevalent in the early part of the last century in the state of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the South of India, to which Mysore kings were tremendous benefactors. Mukund’s second piece in the program, “Ekambareshwara Shabda,” has been historically presented in the Mysore Court of the Wodeyar kings. “Ekambareshwara Shabda” left audience members with the experience of seeing a traditional Indian dance with authenticity that has been preserved for over 150 years.
The centerpiece of the show, RoseQi Dance Arts, brought seven pieces of Chinese dance with dancers of all ages. As a choreographer, Qi takes pride in mixing traditional Chinese repertoire with contemporary Western dance. For her group’s fourth piece, “Winter’s Radiant Elegance,” Qi took inspiration from renowned Chinese dance choreographer, Yang Liping and her Winter Peacock Production. Integrating Yang Liping’s celebration of the beautiful peacock through Chinese dance, Qi added elements of a Western background to produce a solo piece about the rare and beautiful peacock. This piece was intended to show the embodiment of elegance and spiritual grace the animal possesses, heightened by a snow-like setting which was complimented by solo dancer, Melinda Liu’s, delicate white-dress costuming. Qi was deeply honored to be a part of the World Day of Dance event and to share her cultural background with the other performers.
The performance ended with a West African finale, by Sylvia Soumah. With live drums accompanying her four group pieces, Soumah authentically livened the performance space and captivated the audience’s attention by delivering up-close percussive sound. Even Soumah’s teenage dancers, danced while playing the stick and sangba drums in her last two pieces, “Kassa,” which was a harvesting dance from Guinea and “Ekonkon/Lenjeng,” an honorary piece from Senegal. Because West Africa consists of 16 different countries, all with a variety of different cultural practices and different technical styles for each country, Souhma’s primary West African repertoire focuses on dance from Senegal, Guinea, and Mali, all displayed in each of her World Day of Dance pieces. Souhma was exuberant to share some of the rich, percussive-filled styles with Kent Island and the Eastern Shore—dance that locals do not typically get to see.
After the show concluded, audience members had the opportunity to ask questions of the Guest Artists in a Q&A session narrated by CCF’s Executive Director, Peter Pucci. Questions surrounded inquiries about tradition, passed down stories implemented in the dances, and the training process for each individual style. Audience members complimented and thanked the Guest Artists for sharing their background and elements of tradition for World Day of Dance. The audience felt as though these styles were a rarity to see on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and were indebted to CCF, TPAC and the Guest Artists for the performance experience they so generously brought.
By CCF Summer Intern
Evie Kaye
Washington College
English major
Dance, and J.E.P. minor.
Dance Club Senior Advisor ’26/’27.
