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Dhriti Gandhi Ranjan
Dhriti Gandhi Ranjan

NEW DELHI

Indian and international contemporary dance troupes to share stage

kathak Sanjukta Sinha from IceCraft company performs Kathak

Indian and international contemporary dance troupes will share the stage at a three-day festival of contemporary dance, kicking off at Shri Ram Centre in New Delhi from March 27. Titled 'Expressions', the second edition of International Contemporary Dance Festival will create a platform for Indian and foreign contemporary dance groups to come together and witness the similarity, and the divergence, between the two contemporary traditions.

Highlighting the core objective of the festival, Dr Suresh K.Goel, curator, says, “This festival will create a platform where we can use different kinds of traditions from abroad, which are mostly based on jazz, ballet or abstract; and a list of contemporary traditions from India, which are based on classical dance traditions like Kathak, Bharatnatyam or folk traditions. Outside, on a natural level, they look very contemporary and similar to each other. Its basically using the idiom of classical dance form or abstract to create contemporary forms. This tradition is becoming very strong in the West as well as in India.”

Besides, three Indian groups—Attakkalari (Bangalore), Rhythmosic-Sengupta Dance Company (Kolkata) and IceCraft Company (Ahmadabad)— along with contemporary art troupes such as Jinx 103 from Switzerland and Dafi Dance Company from Isreal will also participate. 

“While Attakkalari uses the idiom from Bharatnatyam and Kalarippayattu, Rhythmosic usually uses Kathak at the basis. The dance groups coming from Switzerland and Israel use abstract notions in their choreographies. The idea is really to promote a platform in India which can become the lease for interaction between the Indian contemporary dances and the contemporary dances from abroad,” says Goel. 

This edition is presented and produced by Teamwork Fine Arts Society and supported by ICCR. Through this, Expressions aim to open up opportunities for dialogue and collaboration between the participating countries in the future. 

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