Taking the tribal acrobatic road shows to the malls with an unusual Afro-pop music, the acrobats from Kenya performed a pleasing show with a growing impression on the audience, about the African cultural arts at the Chennai Citi Centre Mall.
Taste of Africa
The mall wore a different look portraying the African cultural epitomes, fine arts and even an African hamlet. The Mombasa performers from Kenya, professionally trained group for the acrobatics, were on a 10-day trip to Chennai for the Mombasa Carnival ‘10, conducted recently, the first of its kind in India. They performed thrice a day — once at 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. with new performances followed by a 8:00 p.m. show which was a combination of the best acts of the day. The show included body acrobatics, limbo and the vertical pole shows. The energetic men driven by enthusiastic music performed their traditional Mombasa tribal art and were a big hit with the audience.
The pole show received a huge applause from the audience. To top it all, the audiences were extremely excited during the performance of one man who would stand on top of the pole without any support. The performers also entertained the crowd by involving them. The enchanted youth danced at the atrium. A guy from the audience was made to climb the pole and the crowd thoroughly enjoyed it. A student who came with his friends for a movie missed the first 15 minutes of the film as he was glued to the show.
Mombasa carnival was a different experience to the people who spend their time in shopping malls and they were excited to see an international performance there. The acrobats gave memorable, rhythmically crisp performances of varied pieces.
Arulmaran is a Final Year, M.Sc. Electronic Media student at Anna University.
