Eastern Nights at Bury Light Night

Debenhams in Bury town centre was taken over by incredible illuminations fused with breath taking Indian Bollywood Dancers and Indian dancing, by multi-award winning Ri Ri’s Dance Academy and Illuminos.

Bury Light Night with the theme Eastern Nights, in 2014, saw thousands throughout the night experience the unique mix of lights, sound and dance.

Video Projection

Ten minutes of dance footage, choreographed by Ria Meera Munshi and featuring the Academy’s dancers, was projected live onto the main wall of Debenhams at The Rock, Bury, stunning people of all ages with the fascinating concepts. The attention to detail in each projection, such as the border of Debenhams created by Ria’s jewellery and Ria’s costume changing colour in ‘Mundian To Bach Ke’ Bhangra was simply mind blowing, to say the least!

This video projection, complemented by the dance choreography, celebrated the festival of Navratri and Diwali. In order to highlight this further, a two minute Navratri story was told through movement, expression and dance.

Indian Dance Styles

Each and every Indian dance form is colourful, lively, with an immense amount of meaning behind the gesture, facial expression and footwork, consequently telling a story through dance. A number of Indian dance styles were incorporated into the video mapping projection. Ria choreographed and performed the following:

Bharatanatayam – This is the most practised of Indian classical dance styles, which originated in the Temples of Tamil Nadu

Bhangra – The highly energetic dance form with a contagious rhythm and beat, associated with Punjabi culture.  Traditionally, Bhangra dance is for celebrations.

Bollywood – The universal and most popular Indian dance form. This style underlines a fusion of numerous dance patterns such as Indian Folk and Indian classical dance forms, like Kathak. Bollywood dance is highly recognised worldwide.

Raas-Garba – Taken from the state of Gujarat, Raas (Dandiya)-Garba commonly takes place before Weddings whilst simultaneously celebrating good over evil, during the nine day Hindu festival of Navratri. Both Raas and Garba are performed by men, women and children. Garba dance focuses on movements by the clapping of hands and Dandiyadance is underlined by the use of decorated sticks.

Indian Bollywood Dancers

As well as an innovative live video projection, male and female, Indian Bollywood dancers from Ri Ri’s Dance Academy,dazzled the outdoor stage, located in front of Debenhams. The Dancers executed an amazing fusion Bollywood Performance in conjunction with the video mapping occurring behind them!

A striking piece of visual art which was truly unforgettable and exceptional – Especially to the world of dance, technology, creativity and innovation!