Our show was a success. The audience was appreciative, the curtain has closed, the after-party was loud and filled with laughter, costumes have been cleaned and put away, and, after over a year’s worth of work, we have a couple weeks off to rest before we start working on the next show. We are dancers and this is what we love to do.
We hope we entertained our audience. We hope we delighted and surprised you with colors and movement, with our energy and passion. We also hope you heard our message.
From its very inception, this show had a theme of celebrating and empowering women,
Amy Rodebaugh and Tiffany Adamski ready to start the show (photo courtesy of Jone Catchings)
At the opening of the show, with the audience hushed in anticipation and the dancers ready backstage, flush with excitement, the first soul-stirring notes of India’s national song, “Vande Mataram” filled the air. Hearts swelled with pride as strong women filled the stage to pay tribute to the motherland, but there is an important dichotomy to note here. India is a country where the land is referred to as “motherland” and where goddesses are praised, and yet India has so many women that are abused, deprived and oppressed. This happens around the world; it is not just India’s problem.
The world seems to be slowly waking up to the injustices suffered by half of its population for many millennia but there is still a lot of work to be done to right these wrongs. Aha! strives to empower our own dancers, helping them find the assuredness and strength to step confidently into their rightful place in the world. We’re also determined to keep the community engaged in this mission of equality, to keep this message prevalent. We live this message every day by celebrating the dancers and all whose paths cross ours.
Throughout history, women have had to be incredibly strong and resilient while bearing injustices and living with pointless shame as they labored without respect or even safety to raise generations, yet they are still seen as inferior all too often. These cultural constructs must be broken down, one by one, person by person. It is long past time for women to be seen as equals, to be empowered and celebrated for their strength and independence, and this production was a showcase of just that. It is a message we live in everything we do at Aha!
Curtain Call (photo courtesy of Shalini Singh-Coates)
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