Some months ago I received an email from my boss – as some of you know I work for a UK based fundraising consultancy firm – saying “Elena, we’ve got a charity evening in our house in September, it’s for a local church, why don’t you come and do your Tibetan dancing?” Can you imagine my surprise?

As we Khaiteros are always up for an adventure, on Friday 8th September together with my wonderful London Khaita companions Gao Ya and Maciek Sikora we travelled to perform Khaita for an opening of a weekend long event dedicated to raising funds to restore a beautiful ancient St Mary church in Great Bealings, Suffolk, UK.

We participated together with the local artists – there was some literature recitation, singing, piano playing and us dancing.  We had an honor to open and to close the event.  For the closure we performed Tashi Dangpo dance with khadag and at the end of the dance we have offered those to the event organisers. We explained that, according to Tibetan tradition, khadag were symbol of our best wishes of prosperity and success to the church project.

The day after we visited the church where an exhibition by local artists was taking place on that day.  We were delighted to discover the khadag placed at the entrance of the church with an explanation writing above it

People liked the idea so much that everybody wanted to take a photo with the khadag, the scarf well open so that you can see well all the symbols and writings!

Special thanks to the dancers Gao Ya and Maciek for making it to the rehearsals at the end of the long London working days; and to Luda Kislichenko and Pancho Company for supporting us from Tenerife.

Upcoming Khaita events in UK:

Himalayan Arts Festival of Music & Dance on Sat 7th – Sun 8th Oct 2017 at Lekdangling, London, including Khaita workshop and dancing with Tibetan community on Sat 7th Oct.

Khaita workshop on Fri 24th Nov – Sun 26th Nov 2017 at Lekdangling, London, including circle dances on Fri night and Sat; and a day dedicated to Dzamling Gar Song and Dance on Sun 26th Nov.

weekly Khaita every Wednesday at Lekdangling, London.

[https://www.lekdanling.org/whats-on/]