Bav­ina Sookdeo

Mere Maa is Hin­du for my moth­er, a fit­ting name for the fourth An­nu­al Mere Maa con­cert at the Di­vali Na­gar on Fri­day, put on by na­tion­al dance icon Michael Sal­ick­ram and his dance com­pa­ny, the bmo­bile Shiv Shak­ti Dance Group. The con­cert is the high­light of the dance group's 25th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions. Show­time is 7 pm. Com­mu­ni­ca­tions of­fi­cer of the Shiv Shak­ti Dance Group, Ren­nie Mo­hammed, said Sal­ick­ram-chore­o­g­ra­ph­er and head dancer of the top lo­cal In­di­an dance troupe-start­ed host­ing the Mere Maa con­cert af­ter his moth­er died in 2008. "His moth­er was his biggest fan," Mo­hammed said. "and to keep her mem­o­ry alive, Michael hosts this con­cert. It is from this he gets his in­spi­ra­tion." Mo­hammed said cel­e­brat­ing a 25-year an­niver­sary was pure bliss.

"It is a huge mile­stone," he said. "It is amaz­ing the amount of con­grats we're get­ting. We're over­whelmed." Shiv Shak­ti means pow­er of God, and the group tru­ly por­trays this. The name Shiv Shak­ti in T&T is one that is syn­ony­mous with colour, cre­ativ­i­ty, In­di­an cul­ture and ex­cel­lence. The group is known for its con­tem­po­rary style, which is tak­en from au­then­tic East In­di­an dance styles. He said the con­cert aims to show how dance has evolved. It al­so co­in­cides with In­di­an Her­itage Month, so high­light­ing where In­di­ans came from to where they are now will al­so be a fo­cal point. The Shiv Shak­ti dance group has won many awards, and Sal­ick­ram is the on­ly male dancer to have won the first prize in the pres­ti­gious Mas­tana Ba­har com­pe­ti­tion. "It is re­al­ly amaz­ing to see the tran­si­tion that has tak­en place es­pe­cial­ly with the in­flu­ence of ca­ble TV and chan­nels like ZeeTV," he said of the growth of In­di­an dance in T&T. How­ev­er, Sal­ick­ram, who has been a dancer for 40 years, in­sist­ed that a lot more can be done to im­prove and pro­mote In­di­an dance here in T&T.

"In­di­an dance in this coun­try is some­times mis­un­der­stood. If one stud­ies it prop­er­ly then we will def­i­nite­ly have great dancers. A lot more can be done here in T&T es­pe­cial­ly in terms of guid­ance for up­com­ing dancers" Sal­ick­ram, main­tained. So what chal­lenges has this icon faced? "Be­ing a male In­di­an dancer dressed in cos­tume was a chal­lenge in it­self," he said. "I got a lot of neg­a­tive feed­back but a lot of pos­i­tive feed­back as well. Over the last 25 years we have done an amaz­ing job. We lis­ten to all the com­ments and we re­mem­ber that peo­ple give com­ments based on their in­tel­li­gence. "To every­one, I have to say, pur­sue your dream with pas­sion and the love that you feel. Even god­dess Si­ta was chas­tised in the Gi­ta; so lis­ten to what peo­ple have to say but don't let neg­a­tiv­i­ty ever keep you back. Dance is in­deed a great art form." At first glance, one would no­tice all the beau­ti­ful colours and cos­tumes worn by Shiv Shak­ti dancers. Any­one know­ing of Sal­ick­ram's cre­ativ­i­ty will not hes­i­tate to be­lieve that he is the de­sign­er of all the cos­tumes. But the de­signs are ac­tu­al­ly done by In­di­ra Sal­ick­ram, Gail Boodoos­ingh, Tara­matie Ma­haraj and oth­ers. For those who will be miss­ing out on the colour and cre­ativ­i­ty of this con­cert, have no fear. There will be a re­peat some­time in Ju­ly.