Canada, My India!

Canada, My India! explores Greater Vancouver’s ethnic diversity. This musical is about the nostalgic memories of an immigrant woman who misses her motherland yet finds connections and similarities in her everyday life to India. Each of her neighbours embodies characteristics of different South Asian music and dance. It is cultural diversity and acceptance in Vancouver that ignites the spirits of all residents, building bridges between one of our largest ethnic groups and other cultures. Performed in English, , My India! highlights the commonalities between various Indian arts and Western cultures and features artists who are among the finest in North America . Canada, My India! is the first locally produced, professional show encompassing classical, folk and fusion arts with the very best that Vancouver has to offer.

 

The performances include Delhi2Dublin, an electro-acoustic collaboration between five established world fusion artists, blending the traditional sounds of North India and Ireland with cutting edge dance rhythms and DJ aesthetics; Entouraas, a dance troupe specializing in the Gujarati folk dance form called dandiya/raas; FootEdge Dance Company, formed by five women with dance backgrounds in bhangra, bolly, jazz, modern, Indian
classical, and other folk dances, these ladieswomen explore South Asian dance in a challenging and ingenious way; Neelamjit Dhillon, a professional musician equally versed in Eastern and Western traditions, with the tabla, saxophone, and sitar being his instruments of choice; Paromita Naidu, trained in ballet and bharat natyam, combines in her art the culture of India, where she was born, and the art forms of Canada, where she grew up; United Bhangra, one of the most entertaining and explosive ‘lLive’ bhangra teams in the Lower Mainland and in North America, they don’t dance to recorded music, but rather create their own; UBC Girlz, a dynamic, high-energy, all-female bhangra team comprised of a talented group of dancers who have proven that bhangra is not only for men; Tarun Nayer, a tabla player, DJ and producer with the Beats Without Borders Collective; and Trisha Rampersad, a classical kathak dancer with a 19-year dance background, all of it in Indian dance forms.