| Manick Sorcar Reaching 'Beyond
Boundaries' at the NABC 2004: |
Baltimore Convention
Center |
|
Baltimore, MD, July 2, 2004, 8:30 PM
It finally happened. Manick Sorcar’s long-awaited “Beyond
Boundaries” – the Grand Opening Ceremony was shown
at the 24th North American Bengali Conference at the Baltimore Convention
Center, Baltimore, Maryland. An estimated 8,700 people attended
the conference this year. |
| The hour-long extravaganza of laser-animation-live
action displayed an electrifying show with 64 artists originating
from Denver, Colorado and Baltimore/Washington DC area. The choreographer
for the Denver group was Payal Sorcar and for Baltimore/Washington
DC group was Jayantee Paine-Ganguly. The dance director of the
entire show was Piya Sorcar.
In a Calcutta street scene, under Manick Sorcar’s direction,
popular film star Rituparna Sengupta acted as herself where she
interacted with her young fans. “By far this is the
most spectacular Opening Ceremony we have seen” was
the general remarks of the audience.
|
Fusion dancing
in combination with laser
lighting effects (Denver group) |
|
A scene from Beyond
Boundaries:
Opening Ceremony (Baltimore/Washington DC group) |
|
Fusion dance (Denver
group) |
|
| The excitement over this Opening Ceremony was cooking for a while.
Apart from being a house-hold topic, it also became the front page
news on July 2 in Anandabazar Patrika, internet edition. |
|
|
Fusion dancing in combination
with special laser
lighting effects (Denver group) |
Film star Rituparna Sengupta
and some of her admirers in a scene from Manick Sorcar's Beyond
Boundaries |
A dance from city Bengal (Denver group) |
Anandabazar
Patrika (July 2, 2004) wrote, “Thousands of Bengalis
will witness today the unique Opening Ceremony which is the collage
of the creative-mind and brain-work of Manick Sorcar. When the authorities
told us about the Opening Ceremony, we did’t quite comprehend
how Manick Sorcar was going to mix a string of songs, dances and
skits with animation and tides of illumination. But when we
got a glimpse of it (during stage rehearsal), we could’t help
but express our feelings with one word 'Wow!!'” . |
| The hour-long extravaganza took the audience from rural Bengal
to city Bengal to Bengal abroad and beyond boundaries. Through a
series of popular nostalgic songs accompanied by enchanting dances,
Manick Sorcar cleverly displayed how Bengali culture, which started
from villages, eventually spread around the nation and abroad. |
Selected scenes from Beyond
Boundaries: Opening Ceremony (Baltimore/Washington DC group) |
| The dances, music, costumes, light, color, background
scenes all took the audience step by step from one place to another.
The “Beyond Boundaries” was achieved at the end, where
participants of different background – European Americans,
Asian Americans, and African American harmoniously danced to celebrate
the culture of Bengal with a touch of magic. |
Traditional Bengali dances
(left: Baltimore/ Washington DC group) to modern fusion dances
(right: Denver group)
combining steps of the East and West reaching Beyond Boundaries |
| “Manick Sorcar stunned the audience from the very beginning",
a rave review was again on the front page of Anandabazar
Patrika (July 4, 2004),"his unique presentation
of the Opening Ceremony with magnificent choreography, enchanting
music, and laser-light-magic thrilled the audience…they started
singing aloud with the nostalgic songs". An interview
with TV Asia, which took place right after the show, was
telecast several times with footage of the show for the next several
days. |
Selected Scenes from Beyond
Boundaries: Opening Ceremony
(left: Denver group, right: Baltimore/Washington DC group) |
| Baltimore, MD, July 3, 2004, 8:30 PM |
Dancing with My
Soul: A combination of laser and live action |
|
Sorcar’s unique shows of the second
day, too, took the audience by storm.
Two successive items (1) Dancing with My Soul, and (2)
Underwater Fantasy were shown in the evening (8:30 PM).
In the first, the spirit of a depressed dancer, (performed by
Piya Sorcar), was uplifted by her soul (laser animation),
and in the second, audience was lifted from the auditorium to the
bottom of the ocean to experience the rescue of a missing water
fairy. |
Behind the Scenes: Manick
Sorcar Productions Denver group |
| NABC 2004 Stage Design by Manick Sorcar |
| It might be interesting for the readers to know the
spectacular stage of “Ananda Mancha” was actually the
brain-child of Sorcar himself. At the request of the NABC 2004 authorities,
Sorcar designed the 3-stage performance arena with a massive split-arch
proscenium – decorated with East Indian ornamental motif,
and surrounded by three-dimensional artwork with special lighting.
When asked about his stage design Sorcar said “We live
in USA, the super-market of the world – where we could buy
anything to make the stage spectacular. But that was not my goal.
I wanted to decorate this stage with hand-drawn popular icons of
the daily life of Bengal…our roots come from there, and we
will go with these in our heart to beyond boundaries”
|
A model comes to life.
Sorcar with his model display at NABC 2004 (left), actual stage
(right) |
|
