TRADITION DEFIED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17452, 29 December 1930, Page 10

TRADITION DEFIED

INDIAN DANCER’S TRIUMPH RICH BANKER’S WIFE . PARIS, Nov. 9. A slim, beautiful Hindu girl, who is married tp a- wealthy Brahmin banker named Sokliey, lias become famous in a night in Paris by her wonderful displays of Indian dancing!-at the Salle Pleyel. She calls herself Meriaka, and is a Brahmin herself and, therefore, a member of tho highest caste in India. She broke all the traditions ami prejudices of a thousand years, and risked ostracism by her family aqd caste by dancing in public.

BLOOD RED NAILS When visited to-day in her fiat 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 grapery. Her nails were blood red an ancient Indian .tradition, arid not- a- fashion invented bv (no women of the west,-

She said in perfect English bow she came to take up dancing as a. career. 1 “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 tho only type of Indian dancing that is known in Europe. It is a very deformed type, and not in the least comparable to the dances which I am trying to make known, which are cither the true folk (lances or in some way derived from them.

BOMBAY RECK I’TP IN “When I gave my first recital in Bombay I. was well received —but it was a ligi'd'fight. However, 1 hud influential friends to help me. The Maharajah and Maharanee of Baroda, and the Maharajah of Kasmir gave their patronage. “Indian dancing is not only a question of swaying on the ankles and making motions of (lie hand which, by the way, till have their particular meanings, although they have been distorted arid ignored by tho nautoh-girls. Real Indian dancing lias 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.”