Sharon students take a trip around the world through dance

SHARON — Students at Sharon Center School were taken on a voyage around the world on Monday, March 21, when the Connecticut Ballet visited the school to perform a program called World of Dance. The program featured four dancers who each represented a different country: Peru, India, Indonesia and Brazil. Each dancer wore a costume that corresponded to the dance he or she performed and the country it represented, and each took a moment to tell the audience what they were doing before they began their dance.The first performer, representing Peru, wore a brightly colored dress and taught the students how to say a few words in Spanish (although many of the children already knew them). The dance from Peru was a traditional one that is performed at the fiesta del sol, which means “party of the sun.” The children first got the opportunity to try out a few steps before the performer broke into a full-scale whirlwind of motion and color. The second dancer represented India, and taught the children how to greet each other by saying, “Namaste.” She wore a sari and had bells on her ankles, which she explained were to help the audience hear the intricate footwork. Storytelling is an important component of Indian dance, so the story behind the dance was explained first. It was about the god Krishna as a child. Krishna’s mother caught him eating dirt and sand one day — and when she looked into his mouth, she saw the whole world. The segment of the show dedicated to Indonesia focused on the island of Bali, which has its own language and culture separate from any of the other islands in the archipelago. She first spoke of the differences between dances for men and women, and taught the students how to do the dances for each gender. The one she performed was a more modern one than the others the students had seen; it was from the 1940s, and was a choreographic representation of youthful energy. The final performer was a man who performed Brazilian capoeira, which combines gymnastics and martial arts. He used a musical instrument with a long neck and a single string. At the bottom of the instrument hung a gourd, which helped to amplify the sound of the instrument. He explained that the musical instrument came from Africa, and arrived in Brazil with the slaves, hundreds of years ago. Both the instrument and capoeira were derived from the African culture of those slaves. He then executed a rapid series of cartwheels and flips, that at times resembled American break dancing. The children were enthralled, but were warned not to try capoeira at home without getting some instruction first. This dancer had studied the art for 16 years.