Dances of India Will Stage "Beauty and the Beast" For Their Annual Charity Show in October

Unlike Disney India's stage version of Beauty and the Beauty, which does add a lovely Indian flavor via design and choreographic changes, Dances of India use authentic Indian classical and folk dance for their annual charity show.

From their Facebook page:

Dances of India is an annual charity show featuring Indian classical (Kathak and Bharatanatyam), folk and popular dances performed by the students of the Kathak and Bharatanatyam classes of the Los Alamos Family YMCA and guest artists from Los Alamos and beyond. This dazzling performance features a family friendly story (Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin) performed as a dance-drama and is filled with beautiful costumes, thrilling music and energizing dances. Intermission brings a bazaar with delicious Indian snacks as well as clothes, jewelry, spices and other items for sale in the lobby. Best of all the show is FREE to the public. The organizers however welcome donations from individuals and organizations in support of a designated charitable organization.

From the little information we can find on this production it would seem this is an adaptation of the well known French tale, rather than a somewhat 'Westernized' adaptation of the Indian version of Beauty and the Beast, The Monkey Prince. The emphasis for these annual shows is on storytelling and being family friendly so it's very likely this version includes many nods to the Disney version so it's easy for younger audiences to follow along. What isn't clear is whether this version incorporates any elements of the Indian version of the tale, but either way, it makes a wonderfully different lens through which to experience the tale. The combination should be very memorable! (Note re the Kathak style: the word 'katha' means 'story' in Sanskrit and 'kathak' means 'storyteller'.)

Dances of India presented their version of Cinderella,
titled "Doll Story" in 2015

From the press release:

The (Los Alamos) community (in New Mexico) is invited to this year's production of Beauty and the Beast presented by Dances of India, 4-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16 at Duane Smith Auditorium in Los Alamos. 

Admission is free but donations in all forms (cash, check) are much appreciated (suggested $10 per head, $5 for children 10 and under). There also will be an Indian bazaar held during intermission. 

This year's proceeds go to one international and one local entity:

• The YMCA Mumbai street children program that offers shelter and food for street children of Mumbai.

• The Los Alamos Y Teen Center therapeutic intervention programs for girls (who are referred) going through a traumatic period in their lives.

Dances of India will perform Beauty and the Beast on October 16, 2016 in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

This is not the first Indian classical dance version being staged this year. In June Shivapriya presented a popular adaptation "Roopa Viroopa", in Austin Texas, which is a show that has been performed in various places and by various companies around the world in the past few years. In this adaptation the setting is an Indian village:

It story lines follows how a lovely young village belle falls in love with savage tribal - who by the way is a handsome prince who was cursed for his conceit. The story uses various Indian dance forms, particularly the temple dances to tell the story of true love and how it can transcend all other considerations.

The presentation of the Beast Prince looks intriguing in this version! There are photos of this performance available online HERE.

Burton to Tackle Disney's Next Live Action "Fairy Tale" Dumbo ("Dumbo" is a fairy tale now?)

FTNH: *Answers incessantly ringing phone* Hello?

Chirpy PR Person: *yelling*"The famous flying elephant fairy tale is coming to the big screen - as live action!"

FTNH: *winces* Um, Dumbo isn't a fairy tale.

Chirpy PR Person: "But it's Disney and Tim Burton is directing it!"

FTNH: Those are not the criteria for a fairy tale.

Chirpy PR Person: "Oh pshaw - it'll be BIG! Bigger than BIG! It'll be..."

Buddhist Folktale - The Elephant Girly-Face

FTNH: A circus.

Chirpy PR Person: "Well, yes!"

FTNH: -sigh-

Chirpy PR Person: "Doesn't it at least qualify as some sort of folktale? Or urban legend?"

FTNH: Can you think of one?

Chirpy PR Person: "Er, well how about that line "have you ever seen an elephant fly?" and the horse fly, house fly stuff? Isn't that some sort of folklore-y thing?"

FTNH: You're going to make me do the Grumpy Cat face.

Chirpy PR Person: "You mean.. flying elephants have NOTHING to do with fairy tales and folklore?"

FTNH: Well, if you must tie something in, it would probably be regarding the Indian legend of the origin of elephants.

Chirpy PR Person: "And how does that go exactly?"

FTNH: Well, one version says, that after the sun had been hatched out of some giant cosmic egg-thingy, Brahma (supernatural head honcho, god-style) picked up the left over shells and started chanting, only to have an amazing white creature emerge (aka the original elephant), followed by a couple of dozen-plus cloud elephants. These elephants and their elephant-kids could fly around...

Airavata-the elephant by Yuti

Chirpy PR Person: *interrupts* "Did they have huge ears?"

FTNH: *glares at phone*... and even change shape when they wanted to, but their partying disturbed some old grumpy dude who decided enough was enough, cursed them and clipped their wings - in some versions they have actual wings. Basically, they lost all their flying abilities and were stuck on the ground forever. ‡

Chirpy PR Person: "Harsh."

FTNH: *shrugs* Stuff like that happened a lot way back when, apparently.

Chirpy PR Person: "Soooo... *brightens* elephants have been part of circuses for a long time then!"

FTNH: What? No! They were free, not in cages performing... look, it's a legend and has nothing to do with circuses.

Chirpy PR Person: "But this will!"

FTNH: We're back to that, are we?

Chirpy PR Person: "'Cause it's going to be BIG!"

FTNH: Alright - make your announcement thingy and then we can call it quits because there are lots of elephants folktales and fables but they're a long way from anything remotely like Dumbo.

Chirpy PR Person: "Except for the cloud elephants."

FTNH: *Grumpy Cat face*

Chirpy PR Person: *Hurriedly pulls out press report and reads*:

"Disney is betting that the man to make you believe an elephant can fly is Tim Burton. The filmmaker behind “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure,” “Batman,” “Big Eyes” and “Alice in Wonderland” will direct Disney’s coming live-action remake of “Dumbo,” Walt Disney Pictures president of production Sean Bailey said. ... The film is expected to be a mixture of computer generated effects and live actors, although details on the project are still scarce at this early stage of development. Mr. Bailey would only say of the plans for a new “Dumbo” story that “It’s a big world,” indicating that the story will be broader than the original tale of a circus elephant with large ears who learns to fly."

FTNH: By "big world" you mean the movie will be longer than the lovely concise 64 minute classic storytelling Dumbo is.

Chirpy PR Person: *ignores comment* "And it will be Circus-Circus! Burton loves a good circus motif so this is going to be..."

FTNH: *interrupts* A 90 minute version of Pink Elephants on Parade, Burton style? *shudders*

by Ruth Sanderson

Chirpy PR Person: "Can't you give me one thing to hang this on? I mean, Disney is going to be all: "This is our new live action fairy tale" about it, and people are going to call it that too, so can't you think of some reason to get excited about it?"

FTNH: Well, there are a lot of fairy tales about magic feathers...

Chirpy PR Person: *even chirpier* "There you go! Disney's newest live action fairy tale project doesn't have a release date yet, nor do we know what kind of "magic" Burton will use to make this classic story a reality but you'll believe..."

FTNH: *interrupts* I know, I know: anything is possible - even ruining one of the best films ever made.

Chirpy PR Person: "That's not what.."

FTNH: *Presses END CALL* - HEADDESK -

by  Larry T. Quach

Source: HERE

Note: This better not be why Ringling is taking another two years to finally stop using elephants in their circuses.

‡ See another folktale about flying elephants from Soara, India, HERE.

Bollywood Turns Attention to Family Fairy Tales

I saw mention of another Bollywood film about to be released that's being marketed as a fairy tale. That's two in one week so I figured it was time to post an entry on the subject.

The first was "Ala-din", a modern day version of the classic Aladdin story with a ex-genie-ringmaster character with designs on the fabled lamp and a whole lot of Bollywood musical entertainment in between (you can find a lot of information about it in a post from SurLaLune HERE). It's being advertised as a family film despite the distribution company's name "Eros Entertainment" which might lead you to think otherwise. There's a good overview of the film HERE and here's the trailer:

Trailer for Aladin at Listal


The second is a film called "Aao Wish Karein", which, as far as I can tell is an Indian version of the "be careful what you wish for" story along the lines of "Big" (from 1988 with Tom Hanks). It's due for release sometime during November 2009. Here's one of the trailers (which has an odd mix of English and Hindi but is still understandable):


You can find more information about the film HERE in this differently angled article focusing on the music done for the movie (which is getting a lot of attention).

It would seem Bollywood is beginning to pay attention to the younger set and expanding into family films. Some would say it's overdue. Others would say it was inevitable as Bollywood follows the Hollywood model more and more. What it doesn't tell us is whether or not these films will be any good (I've seen both terrific and terrible Bollywood films). I'm curious to see how popular Bollywood "fairy tale films" will be. Whether or not we see more fairy tales (especially Indian fairy tales) tackled via the Bollywood system will likely depend on box office results. Given the fantastical sense commonly digressed into in the musicals I'm guessing the response will be favorable. I do hope so. I'd love to see some of the Indian tales a la Bollywood!