Ms. Dace Melbarde performance (14th Feb)

Hon. Ms. Melbarde is a Latvian politician, a member of the National Alliance and had been the Latvian minister of culture. She is also a member of the European Parliament.  During her speech on the first day of the conference, she explained that “singing is a means to express [her] emotions, to manage [her] emotions, to cope psychologically with life's difficulties, to lighten [her] workload and to meditate, to calm down, or sometimes vice versa, to boost [her] energy.” At the conclusion of her presentation, Ms. Melbarde performed a Latvian song - assisted by her musician friend, Egetta, playing on a traditional Latvian instrument. Ms. Melbarde explained that this particular song’s essence translates into English as “I put all my worries under the stone and I step over the burden by singing.” 

Resham performance

Resham Amarnani-Pursani, a professional dancer and choreographer, led the audience in a free-form dance to a "peppy version" of the International Women's Conference's theme song on day one of the event. According to Resham, there were only 2 rules involved: no judgment (especially of one's self), and to be one hundred percent present and committed. And the audience members enthusiastically adhered to their task by enjoying some truly spirited dancing. As Resham says, "Dance and music is the most beautiful form of surrender."

Fashion show evening 

Evgenia Miroshnikova is a Latina and Ballroom dancer from Moscow, Russia. Besides being a dancer, Ms. Miroshnikova is also a yoga Instructor. She has been a practitioner of yoga and breathing techniques for the last 22 years.

Evgenia and her dance partner, Arjun performed two beautiful Latin American ballroom dancing routines for the audience.

An elegant dance performance on “Longing” was performed by Annelies Richmond. Ms. Richmond was a professional ballet dancer for 15 years at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC.  She retired from dancing after she met Gurudev and is now a director of Training at IAHV and Art of Living as well as a founding director of the SKY campus Happiness Program, a national university leadership and wellbeing program. She travels across the U.S. teaching and lecturing at institutions such as Yale University, Purdue University, UPENN, MIT, Northeastern University, Columbia University, the United Nations, and Google.

Fashion show

The models for the fashion show are all Art Of Living volunteers and community leaders. The outfits modeled were generously donated by the leading designers of India! 

When a designer fashions a garment, they do it for others. When the weaver or the craftsman who does the embroidery works carefully with the minute threads to create a masterpiece, they do it for someone else to wear. In a sense, every artist is here for others. Spirituality is about caring for others and sharing what we have. It is about reverence for others, for nature, for life itself; inspiring an attitude of service towards humanity.

Fashion for a cause Auction

The Art of Living Free Schools aims to provide free, holistic, value-based education to underprivileged children in rural, tribal and socio-economically backward places in India. Today, this vision has spread across 22 states in India, with 702+ schools in rural and remote areas providing free value-based, holistic education to over 70000+ students.

They are provided textbooks, uniforms, mid-day meals and in some cases transportation free of cost. The practice of yoga and meditation is integrated into the curriculum of the school and co-curricular activities such as dance, drama, sports, arts and crafts, literary competitions, tree planting campaigns, and educational trips ensure the all-round development of the child.

The contributions from designers will help light a girl child from within. Over the last three decades, The Art of Living has been revolutionizing education in India. Importance has been given to promoting girl child education, reaching out to underprivileged sections of society, and integrating human values into the educational system.

It is only through education that social transformation and economic freedom can be sought. Today, women are leaders who epitomize the human values of caring, sharing and rebuilding societies free of stress and violence.

Fantine Tho

Brazilian singer, songwriter, dancer, and instructor Fantine Rodrigues Thó is a Brazilian singer, songwriter, dancer, and instructor. In 2002, she won the talent show Popstars and joined the Brazilian girl group Rouge until 2005, with which she released four studio albums, selling in all 6 million copies and becoming the most successful girl group of Brazil and one of the twenty that sold more in the world.

Hema Sardesai

Singer, India
Hema Sardesai is an Indian playback singer from Goa. She has sung for several Bollywood films and has released several Indipop albums. She has accomplished her Sangeet Visharad in Indian Classical music, besides nurturing her passion for Western Pop music.

She is the only Indian singer to have won the Grand Prix at the 16th INTERNATIONAL POP SONG FESTIVAL ‘89 held in Germany.