Be it contemporary, freestyle, or classical, dance has always been a universal language that has managed to transcend all boundaries, even those built by a pandemic. While COVID may have been a major daunting factor to humankind, it was dance that brought and held people together. For some it became a stressbuster but for many youngsters it emerged as a hidden talent within them.
Attempting to share this joy with children who had limited access to the art, The National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai (NCPA) kickstarted an interactive and informative dance lec-dem series – Vistaar
Aimed at increasing exposure towards different dance forms, Vistaar is a virtual dance outreach program that also depicts the varied and rich cultural heritage of our nation. With specially curated hourly sessions that cover the various nitty-gritties related to Indian folk and classical dance, the initiative continues to provide young children across India a platform to peak into the vibrant world of dance ever since the pandemic emerged.
This year the virtual workshops were conducted across cities like Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata, Assam and Mumbai and were hosted by several established artistes like, Uma Satyanarayan, Bhumeshwar Singh, Kavita Dwivedi, Dheerendra Tiwari, Anwesha Mahanta, Gauri Diwakar, and Vishal Krishna and to name a few.
Each session conducted so far was nothing less than a gratifying journey for artists and children alike. While on one hand, Singapore based Odissi dancer Soumee De and Kolkata based Doctor and Odissi dancer – Dr Aditi Bandopadhyay conducted a session with the Autistic children of Mann Foundation, on the other hearing-impaired artiste Ankur Ballal and Mardala artiste Rohan Dahale also put up an exhilarating and enlightening workshop for the hearing-impaired children of EAR. As the program continues to flourish, the upcoming month will see many more workshops conducted by other veteran names associated with this initiative.
Speaking about the program and, Ms Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, Head of Dance, NCPA said, “During the two years of this pandemic, we realized that it is the young children who have been most vulnerable to the impact of the lockdown. With ample amount of time available to them, there were fewer activities to keep them engrossed. Considering dance as one such activity that connects well with children across age groups, we decided to introduce Vistaar. Through these sessions we intend to showcase the rich cultural heritage of our country to the next generation and make them aware of the elements that make our Indian continent so unique. We are confident that these virtual dance workshop series will help children not only learn steps of an Indian dance form but also learn the culture and tradition attached to it.”
