MaDFest 2012 Petaling Jaya

How could we miss MadFest 2012? It was free, convenient, and promised a potpourri of Malaysia's cultures. The program organizers wanted to go beyond just Chinese, Indian and Malay performances. The evening of music and dance included: dances from the Punjab, Africa, and Indonesia; Capoeira (Brazilian combination of martial arts, dance, and music); an Orang Asli (indigenous people) dance and a court dance from northern Malaysia; Persian and Sahaja yoga singers.

Here are some pictures from a high energy, entertaining evening.

The beginning - dances arrived on stage by dancing in the aisles

The Sahaja Yoga singers had the audience dancing in the aisles

Capoeiri Group - an athletic performance tour d'force
(even the women showed their skills)

Chinese Drummers

Orang Asli dancers with a motif similar to African dancers.

An African dance group

The Dance of a 1000 Hand (Indonesian) was mesmerizing. We weren't able to get a good shot of the performance.This youtube performance is similar to what we saw it last night, but with a larger troupe. If you view this, may want to skip first two two minutes people wandering through the performance is similar to what was going on during MaDFest.

 

The last performance was exhilarating. A small group sang "Stand By Me." I am not sure why but something led me to expect them to follow up with "Little Darling." The whole troupe got on the stage and seemed ready to dance the night away. Looking forward to the next MaDFest.

A reprise with all groups on the stage