Steppin' out

Im back after my blogging hiatus.  It was a consuming month, and I was doing a LOT more of the same.  But the volume of school visits and English trainings and debate trainings and Ismaili Center story tellings have intensified.  I can feel my adult-life bandwidth expanding just a bit. 

But the most pivotal detail of this last week: dark patches of brown spotted alongside of the mountain-crown skyline.   Snow melts and spring rears its feathery face!  We have almond blossoms creeping over fences in yards and more and more flocks of university students strolling the streets later into the evening.

Over the last two months, I've been really missing the all-access pass I had to see performances at the Kennedy Center.  But I am convinced that performance is a part of every society, and I have been hungrily seeking out musical performances in the capital.   I have seen a variety of shows now, but I'll give you a flavor of the few that stand out.  Each are uniquely Tajik.

Xohi Borbar Theater looks like a convention center from its exterior architecture, and has a particularly Soviet feel.  The stone, circular building resembles a grounded concrete UFO or the top of a massive submarine.   Like so many Soviet public buildings that were built later on in the USSR, this Theater also strikes me as strange.  Many of the theaters and apartment complexes in Dushanbe have carbon copies in other ex-Soviet states....remnants of the USSR and cool efficiency.  But like a tired schoolteacher on the verge of retiring, the building is now wheezing with overuse.  Nothing was done to maintain its infrastructure, and though these pictures may suggest otherwise, don't be fooled.  The space is not inviting.  Bathrooms are few are far between, the temperature in hall is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and there are no vendors...so don't come hungry.   Other concepts the Kennedy Center allowed me to take for granted - ushers, punctual start times, functioning sound systems - are also noticeably absent =p

 This concert, however, was given by Shabnam-e-Suraiyo, who is the Mariah Carey of Tajikistan.  Nay, the Madonna.  Her act was coupled with Tajik rapper Bakha 84.  We waited for 84 whole minutes for the pair to finally ride out on motorcycles.  Although the entire concert was lip-synced, I like to suspend my disbelief in times like these and really just give into the celebrity worshiping that the audience displayed.  Especially the women next to me who came to the concert with a hairdo that was clearly a premeditated trip to the salon.

Here the dynamic duo are performing their joint hit a la motorcycle gang. 

And here's the song...sorry for the glitchy track:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhrj0R9CdWo 

I'm pretty sure every songs' beat is taken from a more popular western R&B or Hindi film song.  I cant figure out this one though...oh, globalization.

So that's Tajik pop (which no morning mashrutka ride is without).   But we can't talk about Tajik performance without some classic shashmaqon, Tajik instruments, and ladies swirling in National Dress.   I went to a concert put on by the Pakistani Embassy, but which featured Padida Dance Theater, the most prominent dance group performing classical and contemporary.  As a testament to how small and internconnected this country is, the lead dancer of the company also does the choreo for Shabnam-e-Suraiyo.

Dancing is a fairly deeply rooted part of Tajik cultures.  I've found it takes almost nothing to convince a group of people to start dancing if there is a happy occasion to celebrated.  Luckily, dancing is the language I learned way before any others ;)

And lastly, and most recently, I was offered tickets to watch the ballet in Dushanbe.

The Nutcracker.  I've seen this ballet in Houston, New York, DC, and now Dushanbe.

Picture taking was shameless throughout the production.  

No trip to the theater is complete without tantalizing food...Georgian Walnut-stuffed Eggplant rolls.  With some Tajik pomegranates sprinkled on top. 

It's the good life.