How Weird Street Faire

This year’s theme is Bollyweird: The Cosmic Dance. In a spirit of cross-cultural appreciation, we will feature music and art from India and beyond. The faire’s centerpiece will be a Temple to Shiva and the Cosmic Dance. The faire will end with our version of the “Cosmic Dance,” attempting to break the world’s record for the Largest Bollywood Dance.

A special peace remix of the Bollywood song “Jai Ho” has been created by local artists who have played at the faire. It was produced by Outersect, with vocals by Irina Mikhailova, and additional production by Neal Stewart.

The Bollyweird song for the Cosmic Dance:
Jai Ho Shanti Remix

“Jai Ho” was chosen because it is one of the most popular and recognizable Bollywood songs in the world. The original song has appealed to people from diverse cultures and backgrounds, as well as it’s prominent role at the end of “Slumdog Millionaire.” Bollywood has become the largest film genre in the world, representing the globalization of communication technologies.

The JAI HO SHANTI REMIX will be played at the conclusion of the How Weird Street Faire on all ten stages simultaneously.

The Cosmic Dance is a concept from India that represents the movement of the universe, from the galaxies and planets, to all life, to subatomic particles. Dancing is the only art in which the artist and the art created are one and the same.

According to Hindi mythology, Lord Shiva is the Cosmic Dancer who performs his divine movement which perpetuates the process of creation. The Cosmic Dance of Shiva is called Ananda Tandava, meaning the “Dance of Bliss,” and symbolizes the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, as well as the daily rhythm of night and day.

According to Fritzof Capra, “the Dance of Shiva symbolizes the basis of all existence. At the same time, Shiva reminds us that the manifold forms in the world are not fundamental, but illusory and ever-changing. Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is not only manifest in the turn of the seasons and in the birth and death of all living creatures, but is also the very essence of inorganic matter. According to quantum field theory, the dance of creation and destruction is the basis of the very existence of matter. Modern physics has thus revealed that every subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction. For the modern physicists then, Shiva’s dance is the dance of subatomic matter, the basis of all existence and of all natural phenomena.”