Melange of moods and music

This year, the Festival (established in 2007) played host to nearly 2,000 artistes in 27 venues spread over 10 days.

“I want to place this Festival as a platform for cultural diplomacy and international tourism,” says Prathibha Prahlad, celebrated dancer and Festival director.

The accent was clearly on ‘global’ as about 60 per cent of the Festival programmes were from abroad. Cutting edge and out-of-the-box performances brought in fresh and varied cultural influences into the capital city hitherto unexposed to butoh (from Spain), multi-media literature (from Denmark), etc. An electronic, multi-media Edgelogue Festival saw participants from New York, Japan and Europe in closed-door sessions, discussing the future of electronic creativity.

Interesting too was the concept of the ‘World Tea Party’ at the Russian Cultural Centre, which showcased tea presentation rituals from all over the world. The clincher was blending the art of drinking tea with visual art, dance, music and folklore associated with traditional tea ceremonies.

“Large festivals can take the risk of showcasing programmes that are not familiar,” says Prathibha Prahlad.

Though DIAF had the usual events, some of which one witnesses several times during the Festival season, there were some outstanding programmes too. From the lively tunes of Belarusians, who brought their local customs, folktales and colourful costumes to the Siri Fort stage and engaged the audience to join them in the dancing and singing, I moved to the haunting music of the Columbian Andes. Armed with traditional string instruments, the trio from El Barbero Del Socorro spun out beautiful indigenous music called Bambuco. The piece by the Columbian group was preceded by some remarkable music from the South American continent. Pianist Paulo Zereu presented classical pieces from Brazilian legends, which were exceptional.

Between these two performances came a crisp sitar performance by Shubendra Rao. And all of this at the magnificent environs of the Bahai Lotus Temple.

It was local arts, redolent with fragrant folkloric flavours, that ruled the roost at DIAF 2010. Audiences flocked the venues, intrigued by the little-known cultures of cities that were mere pointers on the map. One of the most incredible performances came from an ensemble from Japan. This group of 20 artists performed the traditional Ryukyuan music. Unusual instruments like sanshin, a banjo look-alike, a 13-stringed zither or koto, and a 3-stringed bowed lute called kokyo, were played.

One of the most interesting performances was the Nomadic Orchestra of the World, an Indo-Italian Fusion music show. Rajasthani bin players rocked with their counterparts from Italy while a packed Kamani Auditorium cheered for them.

“It is such an honour to perform at such a prestigious Festival,” gushed Andrea, one of the five members of the Italian Gypsy Rock Band group.

Mandolin U Srinivas with Shri from UK created the expected buzz and one saw long queues outside Kamani.

Really smooth and silky was the performance of the Prasiddha Dance Repertory, performing with Shivanova, a UK-based fusion music group. “It is the work of a genius,” summed up Dr Imre lazar of the Hungarian Embassy, after watching the performance.
While Delhi celebrated DIAF 2010, the Sangeet Natak Akademi, Indian Council For Cultural Relations, Doordarshan and several hundred collaborators of Prasiddha Foundation that put up the show should be complemented for their extraordinary co-ordination.