Wearing shimmering, vibrantly colored outfits and intricate jewelry, young dancers performed complex routines, impressing the large audience at the New Art Center during the nonprofit’s Holi celebration on Sunday.
“Holi, widely known as the Hindu festival of colors, is a joyful annual celebration at the advent of spring with cultural and religious significance,” according to the Associated Press. “Typically observed in March in India, Nepal, other South Asian countries and across the diaspora, the festival celebrates love and signifies a time of rebirth and rejuvenation — a time to embrace the positive and let go of negative energy.”
The all-female performers from the Anvita Natyalaya dance troupe and the Vidyanjali Dance School wowed the crowd with their traditional routines as well as a dance drama telling the story of the deity, Krishna.
Newton resident Anvita Venkatesh, 17, whose mother runs the Anvita Natyalaya dance group, said she’s been studying dance for 13 years and wants to continue in the future.
While the two dance groups entertained attendees in one room, children could simultaneously enjoy creating their own works of art in a second space.
Chaitrali Yadav, the New Art Center’s guest artist for the Holi celebration, designed three activities for kids – and grownups – around the holiday to show “a connection between Mother Nature and humans and humanity,” she said.
Visitors could go from one colorful table to another and create coffee-filter butterflies and tissue-paper flowers, as well as craft a rangoli collage (traditional Indian folk-art form that incorporates bright colors and patterns).
Yadav, a folk artist and math teacher from Weston, also made some of her own drawings into pages children could color.
Newton resident Krishna, who asked not to use his last name, brought his young children Mira, 6, and Vinay, 4, to the celebration, where they were engrossed in the crafts and enjoyed the music and dances.
Already a fan of the New Art Center after his daughter took classes there, he said, “I think it’s great that they’re celebrating many different cultures” at the nonprofit using art that keeps kids engaged.
The event ended with traditional “color play” outside, where willing participants, dressed in white, pelted each other with brightly colored powder, most with broad smiles on their faces.
