Cultural fusion

Pia Sen started Notinee Indian Dance because she wanted to enjoy the dances she learned as a child, not because she thought it would become popular. She certainly wasn’t expecting to create a troupe that would perform from Sloss Furnaces to Las Vegas.

“It might be fun to teach dance, but it’s Birmingham, Alabama. Who’s going to learn Indian dance?” Sen recalls.

The folk-fusion dance group started 10 years ago with a few friends in a tiny room in Irondale. Sen said Notinee started to attract more people, especially families.

“And somehow magically, I guess, it clicked, and then we kept growing,” Sen said. “If I think back on it, it’s amazing.”

The dance troupe includes both adults and children. Notinee blends two classical dance styles from separate regions of India with folk dances and modern styles. Some of the dances they practice have been passed down for thousands of years; others were popularized in Bollywood movies.

Notinee dancers have performed in Alabama and in Cincinnati, Orlando and as part of a large ensemble performance in Las Vegas that included a live elephant on stage. However, some of their more unique dances have been in Birmingham.

Sen said the troupe has performed in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Shakespeare at Sloss, “Secret Garden” at the Red Mountain Theatre and with the Birmingham Boys Choir. Adapting Indian choreography to the terrain of Sloss or the music of “Secret Garden” was a particular challenge for Sen.

“I had a wonderful time doing that,” she laughed.

After first meeting them, I had the good fortune to see the Notinee dancers in action not only at a practice, but also at the Durga Puja celebration in October. Durga Puja is a day of worship for the Hindu goddess Durga, and the Bengali Association of Greater Birmingham’s event was part religious ritual and part talent show for Birmingham’s Indian community. Amid some great food and performances by Notinee and other singers and dancers, the centerpiece was an elaborate and beautiful shrine to Durga.

That attention to detail extends to the dances as well. Indian dance is a whole body art, with finger positions and facial expressions as important as the steps or turns.

“I didn’t know my fingers could cross and do things,” said UAB professor Jianhua Zhang about her first classes at Notinee.

Sheila Rubin, who teaches Bharatanatyam classical dance at Natyananda Dance School, said her dancers have to learn 52 distinct hand movements, seven different neck positions and more for every part of the body. She learned while living in India for 12 years, and many of her students take about that long to reach the level of mastery to give their two-hour, solo graduate performance.

“It’s a form that takes a lot of years. It’s a very difficult, demanding form,” Rubin said.

History and traditions

Most of Notinee’s dancers, particularly the children, are of Indian descent. Performing in the dance group gives them a chance to be in touch with their culture.

“You can imagine, it’s hard to get any culture if your kids are Indian and you want them to be exposed to something, so this has been a great opportunity at least for my daughter to learn something because some of the dances we do are based on long cultural traditions or old religious traditions … so you learn about history and what’s going on in India right now just by accident,” said Rupa Kitchens, who joined Notinee with her daughter.

But Notinee also attracted many dancers with no connection to Indian culture. Zhang is from China; Maria Pisu, who has been with Notinee since it started, is from Italy, and Dora Singh, a retired pharmacist, is from El Salvador.

“I think this group is unique,” Zhang said. “We’re from all cultures, and we not only learn dance but also the culture is fascinating. I learn so much about India and other places, too.”

Several families take the stage together at Notinee. Dora Singh’s children are part of the troupe as well, and she said outside of class they also enjoy Latin and ballroom dance styles. Her husband, Sanjay Singh, takes pictures for the group and is always bringing new ideas.

As I sat and talked with the circle of dancers, he pointed out the recent “vertical dance” performance by BANDALOOP at UAB and suggested that Notinee take its next performance onto the side of a building.

“We will not be doing that,” Sen replied.

Many of Notinee’s adult dancers work as professors, researchers or physicians. For them, Notinee is also a chance to unwind and express a creative side.

“I sit at a desk every day. So this is very welcome at the end of the day,” Pisu said.

Dora Singh said practice at Notinee is her creative time. Her favorite part?

“The part where I come here and I forget about everything else because I’m totally focused on learning,” Dora Singh said.

Notinee and Natyananda are not the only Indian dance groups in Birmingham. There are individual teachers and schools teaching belly dancing, Bollywood dancing and traditional styles as well. Natyananda is one of the oldest, as it will reach its 40th anniversary in 2018.

“It’s a wonderful, amazing, thriving art form, and I wouldn’t have expected it in Birmingham, Alabama. But I think like any places, the people who come are the people who are naturally interested in learning about other cultures,” Sen said.

Rubin said the first time she tried Indian dance was a “this is it” moment. In her 40 years of teaching, Rubin said she has seen Indian dance grow in popularity among younger dancers. Though the Hindu mythology is unfamiliar to many in the U.S., Rubin said the emotions and stories are very similar.

“Being human is the same no matter what country you’re in,” Rubin said.

One of the other performers at the Durga Puja was Nivedita Rao, who was not a Notinee or Natyananda student but had clearly devoted years to her dancing skill. As I was photographing her dance, which centered on the relationship between the gods Shiva and Shakti, Sanjay Singh leaned over from his seat to tell me that her dance had been performed the same way for 2,000 years.

See for yourself

Several Indian dance groups will be coming together for the UAB Indian Cultural Association’s Diwali celebration this month. The celebration of the Indian festival of lights will be 6 p.m. Nov. 12 at the Alys Stephens Center. Rachana Kotapalli, who is helping organize the event, said the Diwali celebration will include free admission and dinner. Rubin said Natyananda will also perform at the Alabama Dance Festival in January.

With thousands of years of history behind the various styles of Indian dance, even the most advanced performers at Notinee and Birmingham’s other schools still have plenty to learn.

“I think there is such a depth of dancing. You can dance for fun and then after 10 years I discovered I’m only scratching the surface. You can go deeper in terms of technique and performance,” Zhang said.