A spectacular classical dance and lecture demonstration workshop and discussion were organized by the West Bengal Dance Academy at Kolkata on March 14/2023 on a lecture demonstration of the eight classical dances of India. The program was elegantly presented for the audience to demonstrate different dance forms such as Bharat Natyam, Mohini Attam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, Odissi, Manipuri, Kathak, and Sattiriya.
One of the two speakers was Professor Amita Dutt, a distinguished academic and the Uday Shankar Professor of Dance at the Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. She presented an erudite lecture on various Indian classical dance forms with live demonstrations by highly recognized classical dancers on different Indian classical dance forms. Prof Dutt highlighted on the origin of the name and history of different classical dance styles, their social and cultural backgrounds, geographical distribution as well as the stylistic differences and similarities from a scholastic as well as artistic perspective.
The other speaker was the legendary dancer, choreographer, artist and National Award-winning actress honourable Ms. Mamata Shankar, who elucidated with vibrant live performance of his dance troupe in explaining the intricate details of the Uday Shankar dance style. Late Uday Shankar, the Father of Indian modern dancing and who has successfully established Indian dance forms at the international platform; is the father of Ms Mamata Shankar. She has been instrumental in keeping the Uday Shankar dance forms alive and active to this date and has been instrumental in choreographing numerous critically appreciated natural dance styles based on the legacy of her legendary father Late Uday Shankar) and her mother (Late Amala Shankar). Such initiatives are necessary in making classical dance forms available to the people for better understanding and appreciation.
Such a hugely successful program should provide us the boost to organize much bigger platform. In future major classical dance workshop or training program needs to be held at mega venues like the Indian Museum or the Victoria Memorial or the Jora Sanko Place of the Tagores, or Shobhabazar Royal Palace or Marble Palace in Kolkata. The venues are all heritage sites and historically important places in a Kolkata. A major cultural program supported by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India will certainly drag a huge crowd.
On this platform, we could advocate for classical dance status of Chau Dance from Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa. It will increase the cultural spectrum of Bengal and with Central Government support, we could organize a mega event of 1 and/or 2 days that will also include Chau dance by various groups; impromptu poem competitions, indigenous theatre or puppetry, etc as various indigenous and traditional art form of Bengal displayed on a major socio-cultural and socio-political platform. Culture is the life-blood of the people of West Bengal, through such initiative, we could take our precious culture to the people and make a great bonding with them.