Do It: Indian dance gets contemporary flair

SATURDAY

>> Indian dance gets contemporary flair

Award-winning dancer Aparna Ramaswamy, a co-founder of the acclaimed Ragamala Dance Company, will perform her updated version of traditional Indian dance at Orvis Auditorium on Saturday.

Based in Minnesota, the Ragamala Dance Company is known for bringing a contemporary flavor to Bharatanatyam, an energetic, angular dance form of South India. Ramaswamy, along with her mother and company co-founder, Renee Ramaswamy, has appeared at major performance halls around the world, including the Lincoln Center in New York; the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; and the National Centre for Performing Arts in Mumbai, India. Each has received awards in performance and choreography and recognition from major artistic organizations.

Aparna Ramaswamy will be accompanied by a small band of musicians in “They Rose at Dawn,” a solo work that depicts women as mysterious but revered carriers of ritual. In a review of the show, The New York Times praised “the sharpness of her hands as they burst into lotuslike shapes, the spring of her jump, the subtle bobbling of her head atop an otherwise still body.”

>> De Lima and school groups to join in at Family Fun Day

Join longtime local comedian Frank De Lima for a day of amusement at Dole Plantation Family Fun Day on Saturday.

The event will offer entertainment by several Central Oahu school organizations, including the Wheeler Middle School Band at 10:45 a.m., the Iliahi Elementery School Ukulele Club at 11:30 a.m. and the Leilehua High School Performing Arts Club at 12:15 p.m.. The Wahiawa Hula Studio kicks things off at 10 a.m.

De Lima, long known for his caricatures of local people and for his appearances in TheCab commercials, takes the stage at 1:30 p.m.

The event offers reduced fares for many attractions, such as a buy-one, get-one-free admission for the famous maze. Food booths and keiki games will also spice up the day and help raise funds for local schools.

SATURDAY-SUNDAY

>> An annual gathering and international spectacle heads to Waikiki

Asian-Pacific cultures will take center stage in Honolulu this weekend when the Honolulu Festival returns to town.

More than 120 cultural groups, mostly from Japan but also from the Philippines, Korea, Taiwan, Canada, the mainland and Hawaii, are scheduled to appear during the festival at Ala Moana Center, Waikiki Beach Walk and the Hawaii Convention Center. The convention center will also be the site of the “Ennichi” Carnival, featuring traditional Japanese games, food, origami demonstrations, yukata dressing and other activities. More than 100 crafts booths will have wares for sale, and visitors can learn how to make their own crafts.

Movies will be screened at the convention center starting at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday in Room 311. At noon on both days, there will be a screening of “Persona Non Grata,” a film about Sugihara Chiune, a Japanese diplomat who helped save Jews during World War II by issuing them visas that granted them passage out of Lithuania to Japan. Writer Akira Kitade, who has authored a book on Chiune, will speak at both screenings.

If you’re antsy to go bon dancing, there will be three dances for you, at 1:10 and 3:10 p.m. Saturday and 1:55 Sunday, at the convention center.

The event culminates with Sunday’s Grand Parade down Kalakaua Avenue. The parade will feature Mikoshi, the palanquinlike floats that are traditional in Japanese parades, which were made by local high schools for a contest. This year’s winner, from Maui, can be seen up close at the Hawaii Convention Center at 11:30 a.m. Saturday as well as in the parade. A fireworks display from Nagaoka, the Japanese town famous for its fireworks, closes out the festivities Sunday evening.

TUESDAY

>> Artists explore the influences of immigration

A group of local performance artists, motivated by President Donald Trump’s recent attempt to ban immigrants from certain countries, will join together in a program that demonstrates immigration’s influence on American culture.

The group, comprising performers for groups like the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra, professors and lecturers at the University of Hawaii, and teachers at many local schools, have formed the group Artists for Social Justice, which “aims to bring artists of different disciplines together to bring awareness to social justice issues,” a statement said.

Its program “Arts in Conversation: Immigration” will feature music by composers who immigrated to America, such as Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, Austrian-born film composer Erich Korngold, Iranian composer Reza Vali and Japanese-born Takuma Itoh, a UH professor whose piece “Iridescence” will be performed. Other works will have immigration themes, such as Antonin Dvorak’s “American String Quartet” and a spoken-word piece, “I am the daughter of immigrants,” by Filipino-American Toni Pasion.

Many of the performers themselves are immigrants: Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Ignace Jang was born in Paris; UH piano professor Tommy Yee, pictured left, is from Canada; and award-winning soprano Rachel Schutz, pictured inset far left, a lecturer at UH who has performed in Hawaii Opera Theatre productions and in local concerts, is from Wales. Other performers include mezzo-soprano Maya Hoover and pianist Jonathan Korth, pictured at right, symphony violinist Rachel Saul and violist Colin Belisle, harpist Megan Bledsoe Ward and cellist Anna Callner.