After returning from India in May, a group of students and friends and I got together and created a Tantra Dance performance for the Mind Body Spirit Festival in London, the UK’s largest alternatives festival.

Vanya and Dinesh

My friends Vanya and Dinesh who are fashion designers from France created the costumes. They found their design inspiration during a visit to Khajuraho and other Tantric Temples in India.

We had twelve performers, some of whom are couples and some of whom simply partnered each other for the dance event. All of our performers have attended numerous Tantra groups with me and as you can see from the photos are vibrant and juicy people. We got together the day before to design our performance and rehearse, taking over Qiming and Gordon’s fabulous session room in Portobello Road, London. Luckily, Kaethe was there, who has been doing theatre for many years and could thus help us with choreography. I wrote the main dance theme on a scrap of paper, and after we worked out the kinks, I typed it up. We went through the 20 minute performance about a dozen times.

At the end of the day we celebrated with Booja Booja ice cream. For those of you who have not yet discovered Booja Booja, you have something to look forward to! It is raw, non dairy, contains no sugar and is the very best ice cream in the world. It is available at most health food shops in the UK. Yes, pleasure and health can dance hand in hand!

I had never thought of putting Tantra into a Dance performance, but since we were asked by the organisers of the Mind Body Spirit Festival to do so, I thought, well, why not? In fact it is a fabulous way to offer a taste of Tantra to people. We were able to transmit the joyous, vibrant, sensual, loving and sacred qualities of Tantra in a colourful extravaganza.

During the performance, Kaethe took care of the music while I hovered around in the wings and at intervals during the event, read out poetry taken from ancient Tantra scriptures. I must admit I did feel like a proud mother hen watching such a high energy show.

Poetry sample:

“All of us in different ways

Think of god

Beyond senses and feelings

And yet it is only

In the essence of loving

That God is found.”

From the Baul Mystics of Bengal, India

We received numerous compliments after the performance.

We were flying high and came up with the idea that the theme of Tantra would make a fabulous ‘West End’ musical. So if anybody out there is inspired to take on such a mammoth project, the talent is all lined up!

Love and Blessings

Sarita