State government to organise workshops to revive traditional dance forms

The state government has decided to organise workshops to revive different forms of folk dances which are on the verge of getting extinct. It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister had taken many initiatives for revival of different traditional dance forms in the past five years.

Dance forms like Chandi Dance, Bhandi Dance, Rabankata Dance, Gajan Dance and Samsan Dance will be the part of the workshop scheduled to be held on June 25 at Lalan Mancha in Chitkalikapur.

The Information and Cultural Affairs Department will organise the workshop in which around 70 

artists will be participating from different parts of the state.

Teams of Chandi Dance from Bhetaguri and Dinhata in Cooch Behar, Bhandi Dance from Mathabhanga in Cooch Behar, Rabankata from Bishnupur in Bankura, Gajan Dance from Sudpur in Burdwan and Samsan Dance Shiblun in Burdwan will be present in the workshop.

It may be mentioned that all the dance forms are traditionally important. Thus the steps were essential to revive the dance forms.

The artists will be interacting with the folk dance experts during the workshop. There will also be dress designers and experts in the workshop where they will work along with the artists to develop new ideas maintaining the tradition of the dance forms.

Folk dance researchers will also be present in the workshop and they will speak to the artists about their respective dance forms. The artists will be immensely benefitted as they will get an opportunity to work with the people who are experts in the field. The artists will also be provided with dress, musical instruments and other equipments including masks after the workshop ends.

It may be mentioned that for the first time in the country’s history, the state government had organised Loko Sangaskriti Utsav on a floating boat in Laldighi opposite Writers’ Buildings in December 2015 in which more than 5,000 folk artists from different parts of the state had taken part in the programme. 

Folk artists including baul, maruni, lepcha, sherpa, mech, rava, kirtan, chhau and tribal dance will perform. Moreover, the state government had prepared a data containing names of more than 50,000 fold artists and they are getting a financial assistance of around Rs 1,000 per month. 

Each of the artists is also getting four programmes every month and they get Rs 1,000 to perform in each programme.