Shadhona's Fireflies wins over Indian audience

“Fireflies” has been conceptualised by Courtney Sato and choreographed by Amit Chowdhury; music has been
directed by Nirjher Chowdhury. Photo: Shadhona

While the entire nation was praying that a very young team of Bangladeshi cricketers could win the Asia Cup 2012, in Delhi another youthful team of Bangladeshis won their way into the hearts of art connoisseurs of the Indian capital. Under the aegis of cultural organisation Shadhona, “Fireflies”, a production based on Tagore's book of poems with the same titled, was staged on March 22, 2012 at the Nrityakatha Dance Festival, held at the Kamani Auditorium, organised by the Lokchhanda Cultural Unit. The three-day festival hosted six experimental productions by six well-known dance groups, according to a press release.
When Rabindranath Tagore visited Japan, he was fascinated by the Japanese epigrammatic poems, called Haiku. Tout de suite he wrote a short book of poems called “Fireflies”. These poems resemble the sayings of a wise man rather than poetry. The compact style conveys memorable poetic expressions with great force and intensity. The brevity and crispness of these verses combined with the wit and wisdom contained in them make these poems extremely delightful. Each epigrammatic 'firefly' represents a brief yet luminous thought on life, beauty, or Divinity. The Bengali version of some of these poems are also to be found in the bilingual “Lekhan” (1926) and “Sphulinga” (1946).
Shadhona has now transcreated this ethereal work of Tagore into dance and music. The presentation has been conceptualised by Courtney Sato, a young dancer from Hawaii. Dance has been choreographed by Amit Chowdhury, and music directed by Nirjher Chowdhury.
In the March 31, 2012 issue of India's leading daily, The Hindu, a review by Leela Venkataram, the foremost dance critic of India, reads as follows:
“Nothing could beat the slick artistry of 'Fireflies' presented by Shadhona group from Bangladesh working for South Asian unity through music and dance. These Haiku-inspired winged fancies of Tagore, more prose then poetry, are wise luminous ideas on life/earth/God/and a multi-cultural world, pointing to clean thoughts of an open mind. And catching the fragrance of this unsullied purity of mind, was the refined elegance of the production with six dancers moving with the greatest of grace and symmetry.
“Like fireflies, winged thoughts flew in the air -- like just dancing without aiming at a destination, like offerings made to wayside shrines rather than grand temples at end of the road, like rivers reaching the sea, like work finding fulfilment in depths of leisure, like the silence of the Bindu in lyrics like “Akash bhora, shoorja tara…” like Life accepting darkness for its spouse for the sake of creation. Full marks to Amit Chowdhury's choreography, the melodic softness of Ninjher Chowdhury's music designing and of course the overall supervision of Lubna Marium.”
Dance in Bangladesh had come of age.