Keekli Reporter, 27th September, 2013, Shimla
The five day long, 16th Global Female Folk Dance Competition and Carnival held at Gaiety Theatre, Shimla will showcase the rich cultural heritage of our country through folk dances. An event that provides a unique opportunity for the audience to witness colourful, vibrant, authentic folk dances drawn from various parts of India and abroad, which will go a long way in preserving, promoting and disseminating Indian Folk dances as a part of Indian art and culture.
On the inauguration day, few colourful dance performances were presented as a precursor to the main event. The teams that presented welcome dance numbers were Auckland House School, Shimla; Sutluj Public School, Haryana; Paradise Public School, Punjab; DAV College for Women; Yamuna Nagar; team from Mexico, Jaycees Public School, Uttrakhand; Cambarian School/College, Bangladesh; Doon Valley Public School, Nalagarh; team from Uzbakistan and the Tibetian School from Shimla.
Students participating from Doon Valley Public School, Nalagarh are Akshita Sharma, Swati Sharma, Simran Thaur, Aditi Sharma, Kanishka Rangra, Shivani Sharma, Himanshi Thakur, Shivangi Sharma, Shatakshi Sharma and Astha Malik who would be performing a dance choreographed by their teacher Deepika Yadav, and the group is accompanied by Dr Rajeev Pathania. The Nalagarh team seemed very excited and energetic about their performance and hoped to return victorious.
Each performance was as vibrant and vivacious as the other. The synchronization, the rhythmic beats, the hand gestures, facial expressions and the overall persona was just mesmerizing. It was quite amazing to see the young talented students up on the stage full of confidence ensuring their spot in the finals. The judges surely will have a tough decision to make when the competition begins on 28th and final results are announced on 2nd October.
More than 80 Indian and 10 foreign female folk dance teams will participate in the five day folk dance competition coming from all around India as well as countries like Mexico, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Of these, for the first time, 18 dance items would be presented by foreign teams. The winner of this competition will be awarded cash prizes, trophies, medals and participation certificates for all participant, and mementos for all teams. First prize winner will receive a cash prize of Rs 51,000/- in the memory of Nirbhaya.
The event has been organized by the Charu Castle Foundation in association with the Department of Language Art & Culture (HP Government), Northern India Folk Art Society, Doordarshan Shimla, and ONGC (PSU). Chief Organizer, Kapur V Bhan, said, “International Folk Dance event is unique and one of its kind in Asia being organized every year for female students of schools / colleges from India as well as from various other countries”.
On 30th September, a “Save Girl Child Awareness Rally” has been organized, making it the biggest rally of more than 300 folk dancers and female students from Ridge maidan via Mall Road to the DC office and back. The organizers have also planned a musical gala fest by famous Himachali singers to entertain the participants on 1st October, 2013 as no competitions have been scheduled on that day.
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