Kaladharaa Dance shares Indian culture in Utah through vibrant performances

Videos used in interview are courtesy of Sonali Loomba.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Kaladharaa Dance is passionate about sharing culture and tradition with vibrant dance performances throughout the state — including one coming up this weekend.

The nonprofit organization started in 2018 with a mission to promote Indian classical dance and music in the valley, focusing on several classical styles of Indian dance, especially Kathak.

This Saturday, May 31, the group will perform at Urban Arts Gallery from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., eager to present the pieces they’ve been working hard to learn.

Artistic director, Sonali Loomba, said the group hosts several events throughout the year, sharing art forms that have been passed down through the centuries.

“I think it’s almost essential for us to share this culture, otherwise this heritage and this rich culture would kind of fade away, and our next generation wouldn’t know this even existed. I feel like it’s really important to continue that rich heritage that has been passed down to us, and now we are passing it down to our students,” she said.

Annually, Kaladharaa hosts a Baithak event, featuring the dances they’ve learned. Last year, Loomba came up with a “four seasons” program, with a performance for each season that features a few select students at each event. This weekend’s event is a part of that program.

The purpose of this program, she said, is to give students who may not yet be professionals experience during their learning journey.

In addition, students of music teachers will be presenting as well, playing on Indian drums called the Tabla, and the stringed sitar.

“The students feel a little more relaxed because many of them are presenting for the first time. Some of them are women who it was their desire to learn dancing, and they could not at that point. But now they’ve chosen to learn this art form,” Loomba said. “For them, it’s a little more easy to present this art form this way rather than presenting it on a large scale. This has kind of given them a little more motivation and inspired them to continue learning.”

Loomba said she feels the four seasons program has been very fruitful in helping dancers develop and grow in their talents.

“We’ve been able to experiment with a lot more dance styles and a lot more music, so I think this has been proven to be a little more beneficial for all of us,” she said.

Loomba said she is also very excited for this weekend’s show to also feature Nino Reyos, a Native American flute player. She shared that she loves cross-collaborations like this for the education and cultural sharing opportunities they provide.

“I think Indian dancing and the Native American dancing and traditions have a lot of similarities in terms of the spiritual aspect of the art form. I invited him so that all of us from the South Asian diaspora are able to also connect with other art forms which are similar, yet they have their own sort of style and their own sort of way of storytelling,” she said. “I think that’s something I’m really looking forward to because it’s not just an education for myself, but also my students and also the parents.”

She said that she is looking forward to her students being able to showcase the fruits of their labor, and to share what they’ve learned with the local community.

“I am always focusing on inviting the local public, rather than just the South Asian audience, because I feel like we are away from home, and I feel like it’s really important for us to spread the knowledge of our art form to our community here in Salt Lake City,” she said.

To learn more and stay updated with future events, find Sonali Loomba on Instagram, or Kaladharaa Dance through their website or Instagram.