Nine reasons to dance till the wee hours
ANJANA RAJAN
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Bijon Mukherji of Impresario India talks about the Festival of New Choreography, which starts tonight.
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NOT THE USUAL Choreography by Geeta Chandran.
This weekend's cultural buzz is caused in no small measure by Impresario India's Ninth Festival of New Choreographies, set to start this Friday evening at the India Habitat Centre. Concentrating on new choreography in classical dance, the annual festival has become a big draw through the years. Classical dancers, though, are always busy creating new "choreography". Take Bharatanatyam. Every solo dancer adds to the repertoire, or margam, with new varnams, jatiswarams, padams and the like, at every programme. What then is `new' about this festival?
Says Bijon Mukherji, Impresario India's powerhouse, the very spirit of the festival is that it provides a platform for dancers to do something beyond the usual repertoire. "There should be something new thematically, a new philosophy." Besides, he points out, six choreographers get to meet and exchange ideas. "Also," says Mukherji, "we insist that it should be group choreography, so that it is not just the established dancers who get a chance to go on stage, but their young students too."
This time the festival opens with a choreographic work by noted dancer Geeta Chandran. "Geeta Chandran performed in our first festival in 1999. Today she is one of our national dancers. This too is a credit for Impresario India," says Mukherji, who takes his role of promotion seriously. "We have two Padma Shri dancers this time," he adds. The other is Ananda Shankar Jayant, and she too was selected to participate in the festival five years ago. Her presentation, based on the Panchatantra, was staged in Delhi not long ago. "Yes it was staged in Delhi, but not at our festival, and anyway, does a good work not deserve to be seen? We feel this work is unique. It has a message for the masses."
Range of artistes
The choreographers too, are a mixture of old and young, he points out, and the aim is to cover different parts of India. The range is not just in reaching artistes, but audiences too. "People come from all over India to see the festival," he says, explaining his organisation's tie-up with the Aurobindo Ashram, which organises workshops for teachers from across the country. "More than 150 teachers will be coming to see our festival." At other times, he ties up with old age homes and institutions for the disabled. This time he has limited the number of such agreements, since he says, this festival is important for artistes too, and always draws a crowd, and the limitations of space must be taken into account.
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