Beth Anderson
Kummi Dance
Year: 2011
Duration (in minutes): 4 minutes 30 seconds
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: solo instrument with piano
Instruments: piano, violin
Publisher: Self-Produced
Description: also available for violin and piano;
Commissioned by String Poet, Long sland, New York.
based on a poem by Pramila Venkateswaran about a group of women doing a traditional Indian dance. The pianist plays the piano in the traditional way and also claps.
Kummi Dance*
By Pramila Venkateswaran
It's evening. Lamps are alive. Temple bells ring
as I sashay out in a bright red skirt and a zari top.
Sukanya, Radha, and Paddu run to meet me in their finery:
Skirts flying, we dance in a circle, clapping as we move
our hips, and twirl, plaits flying, steps beating
the earth awake to bells and song.
Clap, clap, clap, we dance the kummi
the whole land claps the kummi round and round.
We call our sweethearts, the ones promised to us,
to fill us with joy, more passion than we know;
soon it will be time to wear our mothers' wisdom.
Clap, clap, clap, we dance the kummi
the whole land claps the kummi round and round.
We are birds widening the sky of earth,
feet flying, skirts barely touching the ground,
anklets ringing, faces bathed in jasmine and sweat,
breath in our bodies bursting the hooks
holding our blouses in place.
Clap, clap, clap, we dance the kummi
the whole land claps the kummi round and round.
• Popular folk melody of south India, sung, and danced to during festival season.