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Saratoga Sampler
Indian dance group caters to a Western audience
By Mary Ann Cook
DANCE THROUGH TIME: Indian dance with a Western slant is what Alexandria D'Souza Dance/Music Guild is all about. It's a family affair. Alexandria, 16, and her mother Ruth Alexander are the dancers. Alexander, 7, plays the Indian drum for background music and father Daniel sometimes serves as emcee.
The group presents one paid and one free concert each month. Unlike other classical Indian dance groups, this one tailors itself to a Western audience, employing Western and gospel music in English to serve as accompaniment, as well as Indian music.
It's a way to bridge the gap between the two cultures. Alexandria is a junior at LGHS and has been training and performing since she was 5. Five years ago she and her mother became professional dancers by graduating from an Arangetram ceremony, which literally means "ascending the stage."
Their presentations run the gamut from classical Indian to Bollywood type dance numbers. Indeed, Dancing Through Time is the title of one of their performance pieces. The family performs for senior groups, churches and schools, waiving their fees for the smaller venues.
The family performed in a Cape Town, South Africa, church at Christmastime to much acclaim. That's Ruth's native land. Daniel is a test engineer with 2Wire and has several patents to his name. Ruth studied to be a fashion designer and creates the costumes for this family dance troupe.
It's their way of giving back to the community, says Ruth. Note that all but papa have the name Alexander in some form, which is Ruth's birth name. So how do they keep their offspring straight? It's simple: Alexandria is called Allie.
TO JERUSALEM: Saratogan Jane Jacobson recently attended the national board meeting of Hadassah in Jerusalem, Israel. Jacobson is president of the Northern California region of Hadassah. And she is no stranger to Israel, having lived on a kibbutz in the '60s.
Later, for three years in the '80s, the Jacobsons lived near Tel Aviv and Jane was director of the Museum of the Diaspora. Today she directs Temple Emanu-El in San Jose. So on this most recent trip to Jerusalem she was amazed at the growth of the city.
Her most heartwarming moments were touring the hospitals, Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus Hadassah, which had been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for serving everyone regardless of nationality or religion. "When you see Arabs and Israelis working side by side, it gives you hope down the road."
The board took in the dedications of a new sports field at the Hadassah Neurim Youth Village for troubled youth and a new fire engine for northern Israel. The fire engine had already been used to douse fires started by incoming missile attacks in the northern section.
At the Israeli parliament the group heard Prime Minister Ehud Ohlmert.
RESIDENT PRESIDENT: Sally Johnson is stepping down as president of the Greenbriar Homeowners and Taxpayers Association after 16 stellar years, and association members feel she should be heartily praised. It was under her guidance, and that of committee head Katie Alexander, that Azule Park was brought into being.
The park, next to Blue Hills School, is now 4 years old. The association was founded in 1971, has 177 members and a 16-member board of directors. Gary Brandenburg is the new president; Carol Luetz is newsletter editor.
Greenbriar holds a spring social, a Fourth of July party, hires a huge garbage bin twice a year for large-scale disposal and compiles a list of recommended tradespeople. The board even addresses neighborhood squabbles, remaining one of the few active homeowner associations left in Saratoga.
MEMOIRS: Louise Webb's memoir class at the Saratoga Senior Center read samples of their work at a lunchtime program there. Subjects included embarrassing moments--such as Mabel Brix as a young bride clambering into the wrong [male-occupied] bed in a sleeping car berth.
Accomplishments was another theme, with Jim Oggerino recounting his educational journey to a career as a nuclear engineer. Another subject was a best gift, the approach Joan Gomersall took, describing a magical night on a dinner cruise, waltzing to the Blue Danube on the Blue Danube.
Other memoirists were Celia Fritzell, 95, who took a helicopter ride in Hawaii on her 90th birthday; Jo Mary Keith, who sneaked into the comparative anatomy lab in college; and Max Van Rhee, Jane Stewart, Loraine Campbell, Jeanne Roths, Dee Stewart and Ginny Johnson.
Memoirs: The best present we can give our children and grandchildren, Webb says.
SHORTS: Four short plays will be presented at Los Gatos Town Council Chambers on March 9 at 7:30 p.m. One of the playwrights is Rebecca Royce, a nurse at Community Hospital of Los Gatos. Two others are Dennis Carter and David Schreiber, and I'm one, too.
SHOW AND TELL: Assistance League will hold its Antique Show and Tell fundraiser March 10, 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., at Hotel Los Gatos. For tickets: Jan Ehrhardt at 408.356.4274.
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