TRADITIONS DEFIED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20762, 3 January 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

TRADITIONS DEFIED.

INDIAN GIRL DANCER. WEALTHY BANKER'S WIFE. A slim, beautiful Hindu girl, who is married to a wealthy Brahmin banker named Sokhey, has become famous in a night in Paris by her wonderful displays of Indian dancing at the Salle Pleyel. This girl calls herself Menaka, and is a Brahmin 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 the Paris correspondent of tho Daily Express visited Menaka in her flat 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 a 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. "it is only practised by the Nautchgirls, and this, indeed, is the only typo of Indian dancing that is known in Europe. It is a very deformed type, and not in the least .comparable to tho dances which I am trying to make known, which are either the true folk dances or in some way derived from them.

" When I gave my first recital in Bombay I was well received—but it was a hard fight. However, I had influential friends to help me. The Maharajah and Maharanee of Baroda, and the Maharajah of Kashmir gave their patronage. " Indian dancing is not only a question of swaying on the ankles and making motions of the hand which, by the way, all have their, particular meanings, although they have been distorted and ignored by the Nautch-girls. Real Indian dancing has life and vitality. "■ The orchestra I use is composed of wood and string instruments and a few drums. Most of the former instruments are Indian."