GLOBAL DANCE

WHAT: Mayapuris with Indian-style drumming and dancing

WHEN: Friday, 7-9 p.m.

WHERE: Let’s Move Studio, 925 McGill Place

TICKETS: Can be purchased online at www.yogatreebc.com/MAYAPURIS.php

Let’s Move Studio is hosting an Indian-style drum/dance quintet Friday, adding some spirited kick to a revival of its popular Global Dance nights.

Mayapuris, a Florida-based group, has exploded in popularity in the U.S. only in the past year.

Comprised of three male drummers and two female dancers, they have been critically acclaimed as “the young tigers of kirtan.” Kirtan is a 500-year-old Indian path to enlightenment, a call-and-response chanting popularized by Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The group takes its name from Mayapur, the village where kirtan originated.

“They are a world music group — traditional Indian drum and dance performers,” said Elizabeth Beeds, owner/instructor of Let’s Move. The studio hosts yoga and dance, so the Mayapuris are a match made in heaven. “They’re really big in the U.S. but they happen to be coming to Canada.”

To the Saranagati Farm near Ashcroft for its Harvest Festival, to be precise, so Mayapuris’ booking agent contacted Beeds to see if there was any local interest in hosting a performance.

“We’re so excited. I actually went down to L.A. and saw them.”

Global Dance events, all-ages group dancing to world music, are unique, Beeds said. They were held Friday nights for a while but have been in hiatus recently. As many as 50 or 60 people, including families, will fill the studio at Sunmore Spa and move to global rhythms with a panoramic view of the valleys before them.

Dancers don’t have to know yoga to join in, said Beeds, who also publishes Yoga Tree Magazine.

“There’s nothing else like it in Kamloops, where you can go and dance without drugs and alcohol. (Mayapuris) is special because there has always been a DJ.”