50 for 50 with Asha Bala

“A dance form of this complexity, of this richness, of this depth, needs to be front and center, and this is one step that gets it closer to the national cultural fabric of this country.”
— Bharata Natyam dancer and instructor Asha Bala on winning the 2018 North Carolina Heritage Award.
 
 
 
 

50 for 50

50 artists celebrate North Carolina

Arts Across NC

A podcast by and about the NC Arts Council

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If Beyoncé’s Coachella performance has you eager to learn more about HBCU marching bands, hop over to the link in our profile to meet Dick Knight, who became a member of Florida A&M’s legendary marching band program when he was only 16. Dick went on to play music with James Brown and Otis Redding, and he brought the spirit and style of his alma mater’s program to every band he taught during his 47-year-career as a public school teacher. He will be honored for his incredible career on May 23 at the NC Heritage Award Concert and Ceremony! See you there!
The story of Bharata Natyam - an ancient Indian classical dance - is filled with drama around religion, culture, and politics. It began thousands of years ago in the Hindu temples of southern India and was banned during British colonial rule. The dance was revitalized during the Indian independence movement and was embraced as a celebrated national art form after India won independence from Britain in 1947. ____________ Asha Bala, a 2018 North Carolina Heritage Award recipient who was born in Mumbai in 1953, first encountered the dance during this era of national cultural revitalization. “I started learning dance when I was very young. Many people were doing it. We didn’t have television, we didn’t have computers. There was no digital media, so you could just soak yourself into this dance form.” Hear Asha’s story at the link in our bio!
Asha Bala is on a mission to make an ancient South Indian classical dance a celebrated American dance form. Meet Asha, a 2018 North Carolina Heritage Award recipient, in our new podcast episode! Link in bio!
 
 

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