Cultural bonds bring children together

Kiddies' Corner

The festival was organised Ryan Foundation in collaboration with Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the National Bal Bhavan with the theme ‘The World is my Playground.’

The festival that began with massive pomp at Talkatora Stadium on December 8, encouraged celebration of diversity by bringing global cultures on one field and dropped its curtains with equal excitement.

On the concluding day, Yamin Jhinga, a visitor at the festival, says, “The whole idea of organising such a festival for children is quite imaginative. Be it the folk dance from Lithuania or the Street Patchwork by children from Switzerland, they were full of enthusiasm and energy during their performance.”

Grace Pinto, managing director, Ryan Group of Institutions informs, “The International Children’s Festival of Performing Arts, enabled a medium that is useful for education. It provided a platform for students to be engaged in holistic learning beyond the boundaries of a classroom and nurtured discovery of talent and creative potential.”

The festival involved participation of 80 delegations from 20 countries around the globe to encourage children to become global performers.

Susan Gabella, group head from Switzerland says, “This is the second time I am here with our children and it is amazing to see that they were more open to perform than ever.”

The FreeMovers group from Switzerland performed Steeet Patchwork in different styles of the hip hop. Olivia Mosimann, a group member explains, “We witnessed a plethora of audience and it was a heartfelt experience as everyone clapped for us during our performance.” Her friends secretly revealed their fascination for Indian scarfs which was developed during their shopping spree to Janpath. They admitted that they are taking these back as Christmas gifts for their family.

To produce flawless performances, the dedication and tiring efforts invested in practice sessions were immense. Their choreographer, Nicholas Buchacher says, “We have been practicing for one year for this festival.

It takes time to acclimatise the children as they are to perform in front of an unpredictable audience.” He adds, “We got time to not only perform but also to interact with other groups which broadened our knowledge about what is becoming popular in other countries.”

Sudha Sangh, principal, Ryan International, Greater Noida observes, “This being the11th year of celebration of this festival, we tried to make it very special by adding all art forms and made efforts so as to enable children from all countries to interact with each other as it is essential to know about the cultures, religions and art forms of other countries. It was all about children and culture.”

The theme of ‘The World is my Playground’ was reverberating in the atmosphere as the eight girls’ group from Switzerland, performed on the last day and then with heavy hearts picked up their bags and left the auditorium saying, “Bye and thank you…”