– Anuz Thapa
Manhattan, New York: When interviewed one week prior to the event, they informed me that they were planning to raise ten thousand dollars. But on the day of the function, they were too excited to announce that they were able to raise fifteen thousand dollars. With smile on their faces, they said” We danced for Nepal”. And yes, they surely did.
Simona Ferrara and Lloyd Knight are the brains behind the charity event “Dance for Nepal”. They made people dance for Nepal on 30th June 2015 at the famous Union Square Theatre in Manhattan, New York. It was one great show which many would be remembering for a long time. It took them whole one and a half month to get this done.
Simonna, the executive producer of the event was so saddened by the news of the havoc brought about by the April 25, 2015 ill-fated disastrous earthquake, that she made up her mind to organize a charity event for Nepal. She discussed this idea with her friend Lloyd Knight and he took her up on, “Yes, let’s dance for Nepal.”
Knight, Principal Dancer of the Martha Graham Dance Company, was also the Artistic Director of ‘Dance For Nepal’. He used his connections to ask for the support of the artists to put the show together. “Amazingly, whoever we went for, said yes,” beamed Lloyd. “People were so eager to join hands with us for this cause that we even had to turn down some performances due to time constraints.”
The benefit event featured spellbinding performances from around a dozen of dance artists from American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet and the likes. “We would really want to thank them for their generous support because they danced for Nepal,” said Faye Rosenbaum, producer of the event. “It was impossible for us to pay them to get them to the show, but they were really kind to give out their skills for the earthquake survivors of Nepal. Without them, we would never be able to raise this amount of money.”
The two-hour beautiful and striking performances featuring world-class artists helped to sell more than 430 seats at the Union Square Theatre. The money raised by Dance for Nepal goes to Disaster Recovery International Foundation’s Nepal Relief Fund to assist in the long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts of the people of Nepal.
Simona and Lloyd feel they are always connected to Nepal though they have never been there. “We can’t explain why and how but we have always felt that this country has some kind of strings attached to us, “they shared.”We are happy that we could dance for Nepal.”
[email protected]/Photos: Dipika Shrestha ([email protected])
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