Dance without frontiers

Cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, t

Agreat deal has been written and discussed about preserving intangible cultural heritage, though not nearly enough.

Unesco defined it in their 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage as follows: Intangible Cultural Heritage means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills — as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces associated therewith — that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.

The recently-concluded annual IIC Experience Festival of the Arts presented by India International Centre, New Delhi, was again a superb contribution to sharing and celebrating aspects of both strong and fragile cultural heritage ranging from film to food, classical and folk visual and performing arts. A hallmark of current IIC director Air Marshal (Retd) Naresh Verma’s focus has been amplifying the international component.

An understanding of the intangible cultural heritage of different communities helps with intercultural dialogue, and encourages mutual respect for other ways of life. This Unesco premise was definitely fostered through the Italian embassy’s film festival journeying through its cities, the food festival covering Asia from Israel to Thailand stopping over in Bihar.

Justin McCarthy’s new ensemble works in Bharatanatyam were a highlight that I unfortunately missed because of my own performance commitment in Bengaluru. Pierrot’s Troupe bravely performed Mohan Se Mahatma to mark the Champaran Satyagraha with director M. Syeed Alam stepping in to replace a mahatma of theatre, our dearly beloved and toosoon-departed Tom Alter.

Without doubt, celebrating cultural heritage “is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalisation”, but what prompted me to reflect on the indomitable spirit of intangible culture was the engaging folk dance and music performance from Cambodia.

It is impossible to think of Cambodian dance without reflecting on the devastation of their population, along with their culture, in the not so distant past. In my early years in India in the 1970’s, I was friends with a fellow foreign dance student from Cambodia. The difference was that, after arriving in India to add classical Indian dance to his Khmer classical court dance foundation, he found himself with no home to return to and no way to know if any of his family were surviving the

The Cambodian dancers’ performances included a charming group composition with coconut shells used like manjiras, a Komeng Provence choreography performed annually to a cave spirit with the boys dancing while playing mouth organs, an umbrella dance and...