Her first flight

Suhaee Abro makes her choreographic debut.

KARACHI:

Suhaee Abro marked her debut as a dancer in a theatrical performance ‘Urraan Se Pehley’, held at The Second Floor in Karachi, on March 5. Abro, the daughter of painter Khuda Bux Abro and writer Attiya Dawood, is a pupil of veteran dancer Sheema Kermani.

Aligning with the International Women’s Day, the choreographic performance was aimed to create an understanding about gender bias and abuse of women prevalent in the society.

Suhaee performed against the backdrop of of Dawood’s feministic poetry. Her performance was a mixture of classical, contemporary and sufi style, keeping the audience captivated. With every move that she made, she lured the crowd towards her.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Suhaee said, “basically, the idea was to perform to my mother’s poetry,  it was her dream to see me perform to her poetic diction. Urraan Se Pehley  is based on our first poetic diction. It projects a story before flight and freedom. The last performance of the evening was also based on the theme of freedom and hope.”

In the performance, Suhaee plays the role of a woman who lives life in numerous forms. She is a woman who complained to her mother about confining her within the four walls of the house, a woman who looks up to her lover with utmost devotion, a woman who takes flight against the patriarchal system, a woman who does not want to be a possession, and a woman, who longs for true love. Eventually, her search ends when she does find love only to be trapped in the confines of a male-dominated society. And at the final moment, she is once again embraced by her mother, who gives her hope and the will to live.

About dancing to her mother’s poetry, Suhaee said: “My mother always said that I had learnt to dance before I walked!”

Giving due credit to her mentor Sheema Kermani, Suhaee said: “Sheema jee made me who I am today. I am not a born dancer, I work hard for it!”

About her feminist association, the young performer believes: “I am a feminist. Why else would I do what i do?”

The audiences’ approval was what Suhaee was looking forward to — needless to say, she received it. Spotted at the event was well-known psychiatrist Haroon Ahmed who thought: “It was a nice performance.”

Inspite of the appreciation she received from the audience, Suhaee said, “I know it (performance) wasn’t perfect, but people in general appreciated it.”

The music director of the evening was Ahsan Bari and the art director was Sara Nisar. Aimen Tariq narrated Dawood’s poetry. Ahsan Bari and Sara Haider lent their vocals to the music along with various performers including Abdul Aziz Kazi, Sohaib Lari, Ali Haider Habib and Gul Mohammad.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2011.