Date:17/07/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/07/17/stories/2002071709410300.htm

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

21 youngsters team up for a cause

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE July 16. Andrew Lloyd Webber and A.R. Rahman better sit up and take notice. There is a bunch of young Bangaloreans about to give them some serious competition.

On Friday, Gurunanak Bhavan will see a 21-member troupe calling themselves "Elixir" perform The Essence of Life — a dance, drama, song ensemble — to raise money for the City-based "Hand in Hand" charitable trust.

The youngsters are from Clarence High School. There are 16 girls aged 15-16 and five in the 10-11 age group. And, as Hiteshi, one of the classical dancers, puts it: "It's totally our show.''

These youngsters would do today's high-flying business executives proud. They have done it all — from conception, to buying clothes for costume design (wholesale from Chickpet, Mamoolpet), to choosing and practising the dances and songs, and even, getting the tickets printed.

As all great things, the show was originally an idea. All the older girls went to Clarence from Sophiyas. "Sophiyas has a tradition of dance. And we girls have been dancing together for a long time,'' Hiteshi says. Her friend, Kanika Batra, broached the idea first. "She along with Soumya Venkatesh and Sazana Jayadeva got us all interested.''

That was when they decided to go the whole hog. One of the dads knew someone at "Hand in Hand", which is how they thought of performing for charity. Kanika's father, Rakesh Batra, "who is also into theatre'', helped them with sponsorships.

As it stands now, the older girls will perform a dance from the film, Taal (Indo-West fusion), Enigma's Return to Innocence, and the energetic number, Absolutely Everybody (theme of Ally Mcbeal). The younger ones will do I Just Can't Wait to be King from Lion King. There will also be two or three songs. For this, they have a three-member boy band to lend support.

Tickets (Rs. 60) are available at Weekender, Residency Road and Jayanagar 4th Block; Supermarket, 5th Avenue, Brigade Road; Orchids and Roses, Cunningham Road, and at the venue. The show starts at 7.15 p.m.

And, as for references to similarities with Rahman-Webber's Bombay Dreams, Elixir maintains the musical was not their inspiration. Perhaps Friday will reveal how Bangalore dreams.