INTERFACE dance festival concludes with healthy exchange of varied art forms

The popular festival wrapped up on Sunday evening, after opening in Delhi and then continuing in Kolkata for three days. INTERFACE, a festival of alternative and contemporary expression, is the first-ever international arts festival of eastern India.

Paramita Saha, co-director of the group, Sapphire, organisers of the festival, said: “This year’s festival marked the 8th edition and was also the beginning of the year-long celebration of Sapphire’s 25th anniversary year. With artists from the USA, Malaysia and India, the festival told the story of arts, artists, people and cultures through contemporary dance in avant garde forms”. The festival had its inaugural edition in 2002.

In Kolkata, there were performances by noted dance exponent Geeta Chandran, Khambatta Dance Company (USA), DPAC Dance Company (Malaysia) and Sapphire Creations Dance Company. “The festival marked an interesting event in the cultural calendar of Kolkata covering the disciplines of dance, music, installations, painting, fashion, theatre and cinema.

“A variety of events are constantly being added to the festival on the lines of free events, lane 

events, seminars and workshops”, added Saha.

The festival offers a common yet non-mainstream platform, where the artscan interact and bring to 

audiences expressions of another kind. Every two years, Sapphire throws open to art lovers of eastern India and Kolkata in particular, this movement to bring home the experimentation that 

recreates every human experience in artistic forms all over the world.

As they do each year, the arts came alive to a frenzied process of exchange, learning and interaction between forms, genres, people and cultures even on the last day.