Some months ago I received an email from my boss – as some of you know I work for a UK based fundraising consultancy firm – saying “Elena, we’ve got a charity evening in our house in September, it’s for a local church, why don’t you come and do your Tibetan dancing?” Can you imagine my surprise?
As we Khaiteros are always up for an adventure, on Friday 8th September, together with my wonderful London Khaita companions Gao Ya and Maciek Sikora, we travelled to perform Khaita for an opening of a weekend long event dedicated to raising funds to restore the beautiful ancient St Mary church in Great Bealings, Suffolk, UK.
We participated together with local artists – there was some literary recitation, singing, piano performances and us dancing. We had the honor to open and to close the event. For the closure we performed the Tashi Dangpo dance with khatags and at the end of the dance we offered them to the event organisers. We explained that, according to Tibetan tradition, the khatags were a symbol of our best wishes for the prosperity and success of the church project.
The day after we visited the church where an exhibition by local artists was taking place that day. We were delighted to discover one of the khatags placed at the entrance of the church with a written explanation above it.
People liked the idea so much that everybody wanted to take a photo with the khatag. The scarf was spread out so that you could see all the symbols and writings well!
Special thanks to dancers Gao Ya and Maciek for making it to the rehearsals at the end of their long London working days and to Luda Kislichenko and Pancho Company for supporting us from Tenerife.
Elena Dumcheva
Upcoming Khaita events in the UK:
– Himalayan Arts Festival of Music & Dance on Sat 7th – Sun 8th Oct 2017 at Lekdanling, London, including Khaita workshop and dancing with the Tibetan community on Sat 7th Oct.
– Khaita workshop on Fri 24th Nov – Sun 26th Nov 2017 at Lekdanling, London, including circle dances on Fri night and Sat; and a day dedicated to Dzamling Gar Song and Dance on Sun 26th Nov.
– weekly Khaita every Wednesday at Lekdanling, London.
