Dancing to impress

A three-day event will see underprivileged students performing various folk dance forms

Culminating a yearlong training in different dance forms, underprivileged kids from six schools are all set to wear their dance shoes to set the stage on fire at Nrityaparichay. The program, which is a part of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA)’s initiative, imparts folk dance training to the children through well-known experts and also teaches them about the rich tradition and origin of the dance forms.

Talking about their initiative, the NCPA Dance head Swapnokalpa Dasgupta says, “Dance plays an important part of the Indian culture and tradition and thus, Nrityaparichay was an attempt by the NCPA to create awareness about the classical and folk dances of our country to the children.”

The event will be held on three different days – March 5, 13 and 18. On the first day, students of National Sarvodaya High School will be performing three styles of dances, Manipuri, Thang-ta, Bengali folk dance, and Kathak. Thang-ta (‘The Art of the Sword and Spear’) is the traditional martial art of Manipur in Northeast India. It integrates various external weapons – swords, spears, daggers, etc. – with the internal practice of physical control through soft movements coordinated with the rhythms of breathing. It is part of the great heroic tradition of Manipur.

The second day will see students from Dharmaveer Sambhaji Vidyalaya, Dnyandeep Seva Mandal High School, and Bal Jeevan Trust showcasing folk dance form of the fisherfolk (Koli) of Maharashtra, yoga postures with dance, Bidayi from Madhya Pradesh, Sambalpuri from Odisha among others.

And lastly, the third day will see students from Green Lawns English High School concluding the event with Manjiranartan, which is a dance with cymbals in the tradition of devotional singing and dancing in praise of Radha and Krishna. Additionally, they will also perform Thang-ta, Pung Cholom – a unique classical dance of Manipur, and Kajri folk dance from U.P. and Ganesh stuti in classical form.

“Our goal is to promote the significance of art and culture and keep our heritage intact by educating the students and look forward to that time when each of these schools would have dance teachers trained under this program spreading the joy of movement to many more,” concludes Dasgupta.