‘Culture route to build bridge between Bali and India’

Siliguri: Association for Conservation and Tourism (ACT) and Kalpodip, a cultural organisation, are exploring ties between Bali, Indonesia and the Bengal Himalayan Region through dance as a medium.

They have organised the 9th edition of Kalpodip cultural Utsav in Siliguri where eminent artistes from Bali will participate and perform Balinese dance forms which is the first of its kind in Bengal.

The two-day festival, organised at Dinabandhu Manch in Siliguri was flagged off on Sunday. “This is the first time in West Bengal that a performance will take place with a combination of our cultural Balinese Classical dance and Indian Classical dance. We are happy to visit different areas of North East India. It will help us to know each other’s culture,” said Dr. I Wayan Dibia, Balinese Classical Dance Guru.

Raj Basu the convenor of ACT is hopeful that this step will help in building a bridge between Bali and Bengal Himalayan Region.

“People living in Indonesia do not know about our region. Therefore, we have organized the festival and invited Dr. Dibia, to create awareness. We have organized various other programmes also. We are hopeful that this will contribute in promoting tourism of this region,”

Basu added. Dr. I Wayan Dibia and his team arrived in India on January 30. On January 31 he was a guest at the Kalimpong Winter Festival, on February 1 to February 3, he taught Balinese Classical Dance to the interested candidates in Siliguri. Currently, six members of his team are in Siliguri.

The Dance which will be presented on February 5 will be the first of its kind of collaborative presentation between Balinese Classical Dance and Indian Classical Dance (Odissi).