Merging Classical dance forms

This dance festival is being co-hosted by CD Foundation, a dancers collective, with Devika Dance Theatre, England and will have expositions of five dancing styles – Kathak, Bharat Natyam, Kuchipudi, Yakshagana and Mayurbhanj Chhau.

The Devika Dance Troupe has an ensemble of artists drawn from different countries. Devika Rao, the director and choreographer is herself a dancer of international repute who teaches dance at University of Leeds and literally scouts for dancing prodigies all over the world. Besides nurturing and honing their skills to perfection, she makes adequate arrangements for giving them ample exposure on different dancing platforms. The group was training at Chitaranjan Bhawan in South Delhi before its gala performance at the Lotus Temple. 

For Wan Chu, the young danseuse from Taiwan, Kathak has been a dream come true.  Although she started off with Flamingo, Kathak has captivated her right from her childhood. She was blessed to have an Indian teacher as her guru who opened her eyes to the myriad treasurers of Indian dance forms. Since then, there has been no looking back for her. A stickler to the purity of dance form, she is so enchanted with Indian dance that she has settled down in this country so that she can attain the acme of success in her chosen field.

Yana Koushykava of Belarus has taken to Bharat Natyam like a fish takes to water.  She is effusive in her praise about Indian culture and wants to propagate it back home.  Zabelina Valeriya from Uzbekistan, a designer and puppeteer by profession has been attracted to Kathak ever since she first witnessed a stage performance.

Manuela Benini from Brazil is a senior dancer in the troupe, having performed extensively all over the globe during the last decade.  She is equally adept in Western dance forms.  According to her, a dancer has to constantly improvise and innovate to cater to the varied needs of the diverse audience groups. This readiness to imbibe different dance forms has given her the much needed versatility.  As she says on her own “Adaptability is the key to success for a dancer in order to eke out a living”.  

Fan Yuen Ching from Hong Kong learnt her initial dancing steps from Oxana Panshikova, the renowned Russian dancer and took a fascination for Bharat Natyam. She has come to India on an ICCR student fellowship in order to master the traditional art form and like Yana, wants to be the goodwill ambassador of Indian dance back home in Hong Kong.

Tanushree Roy, from Delhi, who was initiated into Kathak by her mother was initially not enamoured of it. However, over time and through sheer perseverance, she has developed an infinite passion for this dance form. 

Kuleshwar Kumar Thakur from Ranchi and Nikhil Lal from Jaipur are the Mayurbhanj Chhau exponents in this group.  For Mohit Shridhar from Delhi, Kathak has been a family tradition, which has been passed on for seven generations. Some of these dancing prodigies have already got an entry into Bollywood and have even featured in some popular flicks. Annabeth Robinson from Leeds provides the necessary digital animation support to this dancing endeavour.  An adept storyteller and a master in stage craft, she firmly believes that language is no barrier for creative arts.

As Sumitra Das, Chairman, CD Foundation succinctly puts it, “Through our dancing endeavour, we are focusing on starting educational and skill development courses for Katyayani Balika Ashram, a girls orphanage in Delhi and building its necessary infrastructure”.