Kindred Soul: The Legacy of King and Gandhi Produced by Silambam

Kindred SOUL: Celebrating the Legacy of King and Gandhi is an original collaborative production featuring members of the Scott Joplin Chamber Orchestra and the Silambam Houston Dance Company, and featuring celebrated vocalist Christina Wells.

The performance will include music from several genres of Black music tradition, including soul, jazz, blues, and ragtime, performed live, and interpreted through the centuries-old Indian dance tradition of Bharatanatyam – a versatile, expressive, rhythm-centric dance form rooted in the rich cultural heritage of South India.

Under the musical direction of Dr. Anne Lundy, Artistic Director of Community Music Center of Houston, and the choreographic direction of Dr. Lavanya Rajagopalan, the performance will create an artistic conversation in which the vocabulary of Indian classical dance will interact with the landscape of Black music tradition. This conversation explores the trajectories, philosophies, similarities and influences in the lives of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King.

This collaborative performance intends to explore cross-cultural commonalities, to spark curiosity about diverse artistic traditions, to ignite conversations about shared human experience, and to create a sense of community through art.

Silambam seeks to increase the appreciation and understanding of Indian artistic traditions across cultural boundaries, through comprehensive arts education, outreach, and exceptional arts programming, and by creating opportunities for young artistes to develop, perform, and collaborate.