Bollywood Fairy Tales, an October Journal and Book Reviews from Nancy Pearl

10/27/2008

Bollywood musicals numbers tells stories with a mishmash of traditional Hindi, Latin American and MTV dancing. Local choreographer Prashanthi Chitre shares how she's translasted classic Western stories with the Bollywood style. We also get book reviews from Nancy Pearl.

At 2:05 p.m. – Peter Pereira's 'October Journal'

It's late October, and everywhere we look, we see signs of a changing season. In his poem "October Journal," Peter Pereira chronicles the shift as it plays out in a Pacific Northwest garden, and considers how the season mirrors the life of a couple in middle age. The poem is part of his collection "What's Written On The Body," one of three finalists for the 2008 Washington State Book award in poetry. Pereira is a family physician in Seattle and a founding editor of Floating Bridge Press. He is also the author of "Saying The World" and a chapbook, "The Lost Twin."

At 2:20 p.m. – Prashanthi Chitre – Fairy Tales, Bollywood Style

The musical numbers you see in Indian film, or Bollywood film, are telling a story. They do that with a mishmash of traditional Hindi, Latin American, and MTV dancing. But for many Westerners, that kind of storytelling is still tough to understand. Local choreographer Prashanthi Chitre grew up in India, and she loved Bollywood style dancing. Her lifelong dream has been to translate the joy and excitement she found in that dancing for everyone, especially non–Indians. But it wasn't until she saw her first Western ballet here in Seattle that she realized how she could do it. She tells Jeannie Yandel the story.

At 2:40 p.m. – The Confessional

The ritual of confession is as old as The Catholic church. Traditionally, the person confessing sits in a dark booth separated by a partition, and a priest sits and listens on the other side. But the priest usually doesn't respond with his own confessions. Jason Puccinelli is not a priest. Still, he's found a surprising emotional release by appropriating confession booths in public spaces. He and his Seattle art collective, PDL, have set up confession booths in a bar, at Bumbershoot and at an artist colony in Arlington, Washington. They've also been invited to bring the booths to places like weddings, museums, and college campuses. Jason never expected his experiment to get this far. Today, he tells Jeremy Richards how it all started just as a way for Jason to vent his feelings to strangers.

At 2:50 p.m. – Nancy Pearl Book Reviews

Our weekly visit with Public Radio librarian and author of "More Book Lust," Nancy Pearl.