On May 6, Suchanda, a dance institute, in collaboration with the German consulate, presented an Indian ballet based on Goethe’s West-Oestlicher Divan (West-East Divan) at 1, Hastings Park Road. Deeply moved by the 14th-century Persian poet Hafiz and his anthology of poems, Diwan, the German poet wrote Divan between 1814-19. He found a deep, spiritual-romantic appeal in Marianne von Willemer, wife of a banker in Frankfurt. To him she resembled Zuleika ? the symbol of love portrayed by Hafiz. Goethe wanted to depict a world where people of different regions could create harmony through love.

Surangama Dasgupta, the dancer-choreographer, decided to present this classic on stage as a protest against the disharmony plaguing nations and societies today. Bringing out the nuances of the lyrical expressions was a tough job, but Surangama deftly wove together the whole show. She conceptualised this production based on Alokeranjan Dasgupta’s Bengali translation, Prachi pratichir milanbelar punthi.

She used gat, paran, tukra and the varied languages of Kathak; neo-classical music by Keshab Mukhopadhyay provided the right support. Lokeswari Dasgupta as Zuleika and Tapas Debnath as Hatem and Hafiz handled their characters with ?lan.