Celebrating their varied talents

India is a land of diverse arts and cultures. Various art societies have been working together, to keep the traditions alive. Recently, a month-long world dance photography exhibition, ‘Spandan’-A celebration of dance, concluded at India Habitat Centre.

Organised by the Ramakrishnan Sreenivasan, the exhibition marked the world dance month and ended with dance performances including Odissi, Mohiniattam, Kuchipudi, Haryanvi lok nritya, Garba, Dhol-cholom, by various artistes hailing from across the country.

The cultural dance event started with Odissi performance Mangalacharan, dedicated to Goddess Saraswathi by a young dancer Vrinda.

With her dramatic rasas and mudras, she left the audience spellbound.

This was followed by Mohiniattam, a traditional dance form from Kerala, which was performed by a group of four girls who danced on mesmerising Indian  Carnatic music.

Kuchipudi dancer, Reddy Lakshmi came in next, winning the audience with her love story of Radha-Krishna and Draupadi’s cheer haran. The audience enjoyed her remarkable performance of tarangam plate and pot dance.

After a quick glimpse of south, Sreenivasan came up with surprises from northern region, with the Haryanvi Lok Nritya by Delhi University’s Jhankar group. The dancers portrayed the feelings of a newly-wed woman waiting for her husband. This was followed by the Garba dance from Gujarat. The young and old together performed the Garba and Dhandiya in modern style which prevails in the state.

The last performance of the evening, the Dhol-cholam from Manipur was the most exciting of all the performances. The boys entered the stage with drums in their hands with loud music of dholak and chimbals, taking numerous rounds in the air with fluorescent dhotis. The martial artiste Bobon Singh amazed the audience with his balancing techniques, balancing the wooden stick with two rods without dropping it.

“This platform is for young and potential talents,” Sreenivasan, the organiser of Spandan told Metrolife.

Student photograghper, Sakshi Malik who witnessed the photography exhibition and dance event shared her views with Metrolife, “The captured photographs here tell a story and shows the excitment of the dancers which is really appreciable.”

The month-long event included the dance photography exhibition by 30 photographers around the world.