The Hawkes Bay Indian Cultural Centre is hosting its second charity dance event in March to help support Kidneys Kids NZ. The first charity event by HBICC was held in 2017 called ‘Made for a Cause 2017’ at the MTG, Century Theatre in Napier which turned out to be a huge success.
Following the event, HBICC set a new precedent for themselves to help a community through a dance programme. Made for a Cause 2017 was able to raise $1250 from the event and donated the sum to Hawke’s Bay Cancer Society.
“It was my dream to support a charity through the dance program, and we decided to do it by celebrating our second anniversary on a bigger scale and to donate a part of the proceeding to a charitable organisation,” Deepti Sreejith, classical dance teacher and an organiser at HBICC told The Indian Weekender.
The Hawke's Bay Indian Cultural Centre (HBICC) was established in 2015 with the aim to promote Indian arts, particularly Indian classical dance. This initiative was received positively by the community and people from all walks of life and communities came to join the dance classes.
“We managed to establish classes for young children aged from four years old and also for adults,” Ms Sreejith added.
On the first anniversary, the organisation added teaching Indian classical music and yoga lessons that also gave the courses more community interest. Bollywood actor and musician Rajan Kapoor started the music class at the centre.
“As the organiser of the HBICC, I managed to perform nearly 50 shows within the Hawke's Bay region on different stages and also was invited to perform at the New Zealand Parliament on the occasion of the first-ever Baisakhi celebration in the Parliament in April 2016,” Ms Sreejith said.
The success of the 2017 event programme led the organisation to look for a bigger place to host the event anticipating heavier footfall for 2018. ‘Made for a Cause 2018’ will be held on Saturday, March 10, with the show commencing from 4:30 p.m.
“The show will mainly showcase different types of classical and semi-classical dance forms performed by the students of HBICC along with Indian music. There will be three-course Indian meal provided to the invitees before the show. The tickets are $28 each (including service fee) and are available from the Napier Municipal Theatre or the "Ticketek" website,” Ms Sreejith added.
There is a lot of effort taken for this event by some people who wholeheartedly love arts such as Jithin Thomas, who learned Carnatic music and is leading the music side this time. Sreedevi Shenoy will handle the costumes and her hand-painted work on one of the dance costumes which will be the highlight of the show, and Felix Davis, an IT professional from Wellington will be doing the technical work for the show.
Dr Colin Hutchison, who is the Renal Physician and the Director of Acute and Medical Services at the Hawke's Bay hospital will be talking on the occasion regarding the awareness of kidney health.
Hope this will give you an idea and background on the event.