The Siddi dance of Karnataka was presented at an event commemorating International Dance Day in London for the first time.
Also, this was the first time ever that the flavour of Phugadi dance of the tribal community was presented on the British soil.
The dance was presented at an event titled 'Dance and Development', organised by Sanskruti Centre for Cultural Excellence and was hosted at the Church of Scientology, Blackfriars.
"Siddis are the only Afro Indian community living in India, with a majority of their population living in Karnataka. This also sets a global context in how India has accommodated this centuries old community and how the community members have made Karnataka their home," said Ragasudha Vinjamuri, founder of Sanskruti Centre for Cultural Excellence who organised the event.
The dance was presented by Preetha Sukesh, Sravanthi T and Mona Patel who are part of Sanskruti group and were locally trained in London. The original costumes for the dance were procured with the help of members of Siddi community in Uttara Kannada district.
Apart from the presentation, a film on how members of Siddi community were encouraged to train in sports was presented, along with another brief video on Suggi dance of Karnataka.
Apart from highlighting the tribal forms of Karnataka the other traditional Indian dances like the Garo dance of Meghalaya, Cheraw dance of Mizoram, Pavara dance of Maharashtra and Kerala's folk dance Thiruvathirakali was presented to a diverse community in Britain.
"Sanskruti has has been Researching and presenting various tribal dance forms of India for the past 10 years in the United Kingdom. I was researching on the Siddi group from the last one year and this was a beautiful opportunity to present the same to an international community," said Ragasudha, who is also a trained classical dancer and a faculty at the University of Sunderland, United Kingdom.