TRADITIONS DEFIED

Evening Star, Issue 20688, 10 January 1931, Page 2

TRADITIONS DEFIED

INDIAN GIRL DANGER WEALTHY BANKER S WIFE. A slim, beautiful Hindu girl, who is married to a wealthy Brahmin banker named Sokhey, lias become famous in a night in Paris by her wonderful displays of Indian dancing at tho Salic Pleyel. This girl calls herself Menaka, and is a liraumin herself, and, therefore, a member of the highest caste in India. She broke all the traditions and prejudices of a thousand years, and risked ostracism by her family and caste by dancing in public. When tho Paris correspondent of the ‘ Daily Express ’ visited Menaka in her Hat in Paris on November 9, she was wearing one of the beautiful dresses in which she dances with rich jewels clasped about her neck. Her shoulders were swathed in a glorious gold shawl; her little feet peeped out from long gauze-like drapery. Her nails were blood red—an ancient Indian tradition, and not u fashion invented by the women of the West, Menaka told in perfect English how she came to take up dancing as a career. “Dancing in public is considered quite beyond the pale by my caste,” she said. “ Jt is only practised by the Nautchgirls, and this, indeed, is the only type of Indian dancing that is known m Europe. It is a very deformed type, and not in tho least comparable to the dances which I am trying to make known, which are cither the true folk dances or in some way derived from them. “When 1 gave my first recital in Bombay 1 was well received—but it was a hard fight However, 1 had influential friends to help me. The Maharajah and Maharanee of Baroda, and the Vlaharnjali of Kashmir gave their patronage. “ Indian dancing is not only a question of swaying on the ankles and making motions of tho hand which, by the way, all have their particular meanings, although they have been distorted and ignored by the Nautch-girls. Ileal Indian dancing has life and vitality. “ The orchestra 1 use is composed of wood and string instruments and a few drums. Most of tho former instruments are Indian.”