Dance festival opens at Tagore Theatre
SD Sharma
Chandigarh, July 13
The Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi (CSNA) folk dance festival ‘Aaya Saavan Jhoom Ke’ got off to a majestic start as 70 accomplished folk dancers from five states brought alive the magnificence, verve and vitality of pristine folk traditions of their respective regions.
The two-day festival with social and festive significance had been organised by the CSNA in collaboration with the North Zone Cultural Centre (NZCC) and Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Akademi. With a view to celebrate the grace of art and the artiste, akademi chairman Kamal Arora in a rare gesture invited the dancers from each of five participating groups to inaugurate the festival by lighting the traditional lamp amidst applause from the audience.
The dazzling dancers from Jammu and Kashmir led by Urja Singh opened up the programme with a Pahadi Dogri nrit ‘chittey chann di chanani’ besides a popular dance ‘rauf’. They later on presented another dance ‘malal’. Then came the dancers from another hilly state of Himachal Pardesh led by Kamla Bisht who gave a brilliant performance of Shimla naati besides the famous thoda dance followed by Deepak nritya, raas nrit, and more, all weaved in spiritual and romantic strains.
Six dancers from Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Akademi presented terahtali dance. The boisterous gidha by Punjabi girls led by Amanpreet Kaur under the direction of Hardeep Singh regaled the audience before the Rajasthani dancers, maintaining the tempo appeared again to give sterling performance of bhavai dance. With the amazing dancing skills and body balancing act, the dancer holding seven pitchers on head danced straight to the hearts of the audience as they reciprocated with huge applause. A befitting grand finale was provided by ace choreographer Barkha Singh and her 15 dancers who brought alive the divine love of Lord Krishna and consort Radha only to win standing ovation.
