JUST before the outset of province-wide celebration of Multiculturalism Week by the Province, Vancouver Tagore Society celebrated its flagship multicultural performing arts event, the 9th Annual West Coast Tagore Festival, in Richmond on November 16.
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Inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s idea of ‘confluence of culture’, the event turned into an amalgamation of performing artists from different backgrounds and heritages.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), a cultural icon in South Asia, was a polymath, poet, musician, and artist. He was the first lyricist to win a Nobel Prize in literature. Tagore’s songs and literary works have been celebrated across the globe for over a century.
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Vancouver Tagore Society is the torchbearer of Tagore’s work in the Western Canada. Since 2011, the society has been organizing the West Coast Tagore Festival every year.
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A key attraction of this year’s West Coast Tagore Festival was a musical, Colours of Life. Building upon some timeless Tagore songs and showcasing live music, dance-drama, and visual arts, the musical explored how various emotions interplay in our life and connect us to the pulse of eternity.
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Other performances included ballet, tap, and lyrical jazz dances by the Richmond Academy of Dance; Western Classical melodies by Genesis Trio, a Vancouver based chamber ensemble; and Bharatanatyam, a major form of Indian classical dance.
The event was supported by cultural grants from the City of Richmond and the BC Arts Council.