Contemporary dancer and choreographer Astad Deboo gave a command performance for Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Sylvia at the Winter Garden of the Grand Escalier Hotel in Stockholm on June 2, 2015 at which their daughter Crown Princess Victoria and her husband Daniel were also present, reveals an email received from the dancer. Also in attendance were President of India Pranab Mukherjee and other political notables as well as members of business delegations. The event was organized by the Indian Ambassador to Stockholm, Banashri Bose Harrison as part of Mukherjee’s state visit to that country, notes the press release.
(Left) Audience with Swedish Royal family, President Pranab Mukherjee and others;
(below): Astad Deboo dancing to Vandé Mataram with singers; (bottom):
with Charlotta Huldt-Ramberg Photos: Amit Kumar
"The performance was very well received. Not only were the distinguished guests impressed with (my) grace and balance control but also that at the age of 68 I am dancing with such stamina,” Deboo wrote with justifiable pride. The audience was treated to three performances that evening: a dance against the backdrop of Vandé Mataram sung by a Swedish women; another with the local folk song Oh Varmeland You Fair sung by Swedish soprano Charlotta Huldt-Ramberg with Indian singers Shipra Nandy and Suparna Sanyal; and to music played in the dhrupad style of Indian classical music. Rabindranath Tagore’s iconic Ekla Chalo concluded the performance, reported the rediff.com website.
The press release mentions that "Deboo’s costumes have, like his innovations in dance, always raised his performances to new levels and often contribute to the definition of stage as perspective and image.” They were created by Monica and Karishma of Jade in shades of deep pink, gold and red.
The indefatigable performer shared his schedule for the rest of the year with Parsiana. He will now begin the creation of a new work on the theme of the ageing body with 32-year-old Swedish choreographer Rani Nair which will premiere next year. Next he will perform in The Hague and after that will present a new work titled Terra Madre (Mother Earth) for the Spoletto Festival in Italy. Deboo plans to develop a work with Japanese flautist Yukio Tsuji which will premiere on July 9 with two additional shows on July 10 and 11. A dance tour of five cities in India — Bangalore, Cochin, Bombay, Madras and Delhi — is on the cards for the month of August with the Korean production of Hamlet-Avtaar. Deboo plays the role of the ghost of Hamlet’s father. September will see him perform at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, premiering a performance based on Sufi poems. In October Deboo will perform Hamlet-Avtaar at the festival of performing arts in Seoul after which he plans to create a new site specific work at the Stone Park on South Korea’s Jeju Island. There is a tour of Myanmar in the pipeline for November.