The Sri Shakti Academy swirled, clicked their ankles, donned costumes, walked briefly in the audience, emerged from cocoons, talked, impressed and absorbed us all in their concluding dance of the trilogy of performances, Tao of the Heart.

The subtitle was ‘A contemporary dance production san cultural boundaries’, which indeed it was with some lovely vignettes and performances involving flamenco, contemporary dance and even some comedy routines to illustrate the theme of duality.

The thought that struck most forcefully though was the grace and beauty of the classical Indian dance, and especially when it was performed next to the contemporary moves. And this was another duality, that of ancient India meeting here in the port city of Hong Kong, the modern world, in this case through modern dance and Flamenco. But that meeting is one which is happening daily and repeatedly in India and worldwide. In many ways this meeting is the challenge of our time.

India has this ancient Vedic culture that permeates life there still today. This ‘Sanatana Dharma’ the ‘eternal truth’ manifests itself usually in Hinduism but in this sense I mean it in the belief that the spirituality of India – and it manifests in all religions there which seem to be highly spiritualised, be it Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and especially Hinduism is somehow closer or more embodying of the Divine. Here is a land, religion and culture which despite its obvious faults – the caste system  is an obvious one – has a vitality and a daily practice of spirituality that is unique in this world.

And here we were in Hong Kong watching a beautiful dance performance and the grace (in both senses) of the classical dance compared to contemporary fare was like the difference between a gourmet cake and a brownie. They both taste good…

So whilst this dance was genuinely a mixed fusion and international performance, both in its participants as well as in content, it was for me personally about being touched by the elegant and sophisticated Indian dance and highly inspiring music sung live by Jairam Parameswaran which touched and elevated me.

One of the questions of our times, if not the question is how the synthesis of our existing cultures and globalisation meet. And here we see in this dance one solution, the classical training of Indian dance in its innate reverence to the Divine meeting, playing with and delighting with new forms and approaches to dance, music and the eternal questions of life. The great Indian seer Sri Aurobindo has phropesised that India and its spirituality has a special role in our time and that the solution to our contemporary problems will emerge there. And here was a glimpse of how that could be, the fluidity of newness meeting the anchoring and axis mundi of the ancien regime and the two dancing their way to union. There is no choice but to dance this particular dance, whether you do so in the Sheung Wan Civic Theatre, in a mindfulness health practice, yoga class or therapy session. The old which doesn’t meet the new is dying, but the old that embraces the new can thrive.

It was also a delight to go to a performance that had the audacity to tackle themes of such depth and profundity as the very nature of life, our duality and ultimate oneness. That Hong Kong can create such a troupe is a credit to this city. We are lucky that the Sri Shakti Academy has its home here and offers us their quality of dance.

We live in a land where at least in recent times Taoism was the main religion. And the image of Yin and Yang with a little bit of black in the heart of the white and vice versa echoes the Vedantic truism that there is no black and white, no ultimate good and evil but shades of grey, and degrees of ignorance and forgetfulness. The Heart is meant to be the place of final unity, where all is love so the title pointed in the direction of a final unity.

The evening was broken in to 7 section.
First of all was Yin and Yang. There was a lovely dance of Yin in white with a black sash and Yang in black with a white sash, mixed in with some astounding Indian dances. This was followed by Matter and Spirit with one of dancers acting the muse saying ‘That which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above it like that which is below.’ And repeating it, like a mantra for all of us reminding us that in the words of my spiritual teacher ‘there is no separation with God’.
Ego and Spirit followed, the two befriending one another on stage and hopefully in all our lives and this was followed by Logic and Intuition, the two great contrasts spiritually, Bhakti and Jnana. There seemed to be a sort of prison of cloth, the prison I suppose of logic. This seemed the least fluid stage though perhaps that is the nature of logic.
Next was ‘Himsa and Ahimsa’ and the Bhagavad gita’s challenging injunction: ‘For a warrior, nothing is higher than a war against evil but if you do not participate in this battle … you will incur sin, violating you dharma and your honour.’ This goes against the Ghandian grain and the dance was juxtraposed by the Buddha like Leonard Wong doing tai chi and the warriors with their swords and shields, surrounding him. There were some wonderful touches with the lighting throughout the evening and the image of Leonard on a dais highlighted in a red light surrounded by clashing swords was evocative. It was not clear to me whether the renunciate tai chi practitioner was contributing to the victory in the battle of evil by his very power of peaceful being as some spiritual groups proclaim or whether he was a sideline to the militaristic action. A question in these days of war in Iraq and Afghanistan for all of us, at least in who we vote for.
Stillness and flow followed and TS Eliot’s evocative lines ‘At the still point of the turning world,.,, there the dance is…except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance,., and there is only a dance.’ Here Flamenco and Indian dance were juxtraposed, in slowness, and speed.
The last section was called balancing all dualities in the Collective Centre.

“I taste the supreme bliss of the Infinite, even while playing ardently, with precision and energy. In the world of division, the special part that Thou has entrusted to me.“
The Mother (Sri Aurobindo Ashram)

What a command to balance all dualities, male, female, peaceful and warrior, to name a few. And philosophically should we balance our dualities or do we find balance in being ourselves, perhaps very male or perhaps very peaceful. In other words do we find non-duality, where all is God and nothing is anything else in being true to our individual natures or do we fuse into some androgeny? Like all good pieces we were left with more questions than answers. All the dancers appeared in what I guess was a harvest or farming type dance in bright saris, interweaving like in European sacred dances. When all the dancers were on the stage dancing in their interwoven circles the curtain came down on this moment of bright, active and vital life. It felt very fitting to leave them in bright kaleidoscopic swirls of movement, much like a glimpse of life say on Pedder street would do too. It gave us the chance to take our own dualities and offer them to the Source for final unity.