Shas­tri Boodan

The Cunu­pia-based Ap­sara Dance Com­pa­ny cap­ti­vat­ed au­di­ences on Fri­day with a cel­e­bra­tion of In­di­an dance tra­di­tions at its third an­nu­al con­cert, held at the NCIC Na­gar.

The evening fea­tured a fu­sion of clas­si­cal styles—in­clud­ing Bharatanatyam and Kathak—with the colour­ful en­er­gy of Bol­ly­wood chore­og­ra­phy. In to­tal, 15 metic­u­lous­ly staged per­for­mances show­cased the skill and artistry of the group’s dancers, with in­ter­ludes of vo­cal en­ter­tain­ment that added depth to the cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ence.

Ap­sara’s pro­duc­tion man­ag­er, Richie Seep­er­sad, said the event was about more than just en­ter­tain­ment.

“It’s about giv­ing young peo­ple a plat­form to show­case their tal­ents and be­come role mod­els in their com­mu­ni­ties,” he said.

“En­gag­ing youth in pos­i­tive ex­tracur­ric­u­lar ac­tiv­i­ties al­lows them to chan­nel their en­er­gy con­struc­tive­ly and con­tribute mean­ing­ful­ly to the de­vel­op­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Seep­er­sad high­light­ed the val­ue of the arts in youth de­vel­op­ment, point­ing to his 14-year-old daugh­ter, Sabri, as a prime ex­am­ple. A ded­i­cat­ed Ap­sara dancer, she has al­ready passed four CXC sub­jects while con­tin­u­ing to ex­cel in her artis­tic pur­suits.

“She en­joys danc­ing, and it helps her stay fo­cused,” he not­ed. “Her achieve­ments re­flect what’s pos­si­ble when young peo­ple are en­cour­aged and sup­port­ed.”

Ap­sara’s an­nu­al con­cert con­tin­ues to grow in pop­u­lar­i­ty and pur­pose, serv­ing as both a cul­tur­al bea­con for the com­mu­ni­ty and an in­spi­ra­tion for youth across the coun­try.