MUMBAI: The 11th Goa arts and literary festival at the International Centre in Goa featured the multi talented singer/actor/dancer/film maker Devika Bhise on the 20th of December.
All of 20 years, New York based Devika has already come a long way acting in a Hollywood Uma Thurman and Colin Firth-starrer ‘The Accidental Husband’ besides performing in musicals like Les Miserables, Little Shop of Horrors and T.S. Eliot’s The Cocktail Party at places like Lincoln Center and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is a trained Indian classical singer and dancer and has been studying piano and jazz vocals in New York. Devika is a regular visitor to Goa and lives in a Charles Correa designed sea-front home that could easily be one of the best addresses in Dona Paula. A home that’s built to be an ideal abode for an artist, small wonder since she comes from a lineage of accomplished Indian classical dancers and is the daughter of the world renowned Bharat Natyam dancer Swati Bhise.
Devika’s interest in jazz arose early in life being brought up in the big apple where a walk on the street takes one through a series of amazing jazz performances on the street itself. Her background in Indian classical music helped her pick up the nuances of jazz improvisation with ease and her acting and dancing experience makes her a natural onstage. Devika took the stage with Goa’s premier jazz band ‘Jazz Junction’ made up of Xavier Peres on keyboards, Colin D’Cruz on bass and Lester Godinho on drums with visiting virtuoso Ilia Matveev on saxophone. Needless to say the concert was one that could easily have taken place anywhere in the world with the high performance standard. Devika delivered with an act that thrilled and excited the audience ending with huge calls for encores that she obliged three times over.
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