KARACHI: It was poetry in motion, literally and figuratively. Words appeared to sway like jocund trees on a breezy evening.
Teenage artiste Suhaee Abro’s brilliant dance performance based on her mother Attiya Dawood’s poems, ably complemented by young musicians and vocalists enthralled the audience at T2F on Saturday. The theatrical dance show was titled ‘Uraan Se Pehlay’, a phrase taken from one of Attiya Dawood’s nazms.
The dances were choreographed in such a way that the symbolic interpretation of the poems and the aesthetic aspect of the performing art were not compromised. This became evident when in the very first act Suhaee (who has learnt classical dance from Sheema Kermani) made her entry covered with a black chador as one of the vocalists recited with a great degree of intensity, “Maan… rasmon aur riwajon wali orhni wapus le le”. The performance ebbed and flowed with shades of melancholy accompanied by the wailing and moaning of the sarangi and the more pronounced progression of the bass guitar. When the tempo was upped, she in a gesture of defiance, towards the end of the stint, threw away the chador to prove emancipation.
The next bit “Larki ne qurbangah per sar rakhney se inkar ker dia hai” was equally powerful, but with a romantic tinge in the dancer’s moves. It was aided by the well-sung “Pia tosey nain miley”. Next up was the poem “Main hath mein hath daley”, construed with a thumping, frenzied beat that changed the mood of the hitherto heard compositions. This was followed by “Piyar tum mujh se be shak kertey ho”. Suhaee’s eyes became more expressive in the recital, nicely exhibiting a mixed feeling of fear and yearning.
Then she was seen perched on a table with hands shielding her face like a book. It was a difficult bit to pull off, both dance-wise and musically. But the young musicians and the dancer managed it pretty well.
The last interpretation was of Attiya’s famous poem “Piyar zaroor kerna”, which wrapped up the show.
The young musicians and vocalists who took part in the event were Sara Nisar, Aimen Tariq, Ahsan Bari, Sohaib Lari, Ali Haider Habib, Abdul Aziz Kazi, Gul Mohammad and Sara Haider. They, along with Suhaee Abro, showed they had tremendous potential and could make it big in the realm of performing arts.
