The ninth edition of the Delhi International Arts Festival will bring in artistes from the Orient like the Taiwan bamboo orchestra, who scored the music for Mission Impossible series and opera from China. Festival director Pratibha Prahlad tells Shrabasti Mallik that the 17-day festival will be well-rounded
Whirling dervish and traditional dances from Egypt will combine with the multi-classical Indian dance forms of India to kick start the ninth Delhi International Arts Festival. like every year, the grand opening night will accumulate the best of world art and will infuse life in every nook and cranny of the Purana Qila premises.
The beginning day, itself will witness the coming together of the nine Indian classical dance forms in one single piece of performance. Pratibha Prahlad, festival director and a danseuse herself, said, “Vande Mataram ia a multi style classical dance production paying obeisance to the mother and motherland. It coincides beautifully with the onset of Navratri. The dance will portray the nine roop of the mother Goddess through nine different dance forms culminating with the martial art of chaau from Bengal. It will deal with the tantric devis or the swayambhu’s. The performance will end with a rendition of Vande Mataram where I have tried to fuse in regional flavour.”
She explained that we are unified by emotions and share mutual feelings. “The show is conceptually bound,” she added. There will be no theme for the festival. “There never has been. It is too large a festival to confine it within the boundaries of a theme,” clarified the director, “It is our attempt to bring on one stage the traditions and culture of different countries which is not ordinarily available for people to see.”
When we speak of the arts we do not necessarily restricted to dance and music but encompasses theatre, opera, regional music and traditions, and films. These will be held in various places across the city like Epicentre, Gurgaon, Shri Ram Centre, India Habitat Centre, Central Park, lTG Auditorium, National School of Drama and Kamani Auditorium to name a few.
Prahlad, however, gave us the highlights of the festival. The Taiwan Bamboo Orchestra, led by director Wu Shih-Yin had composed the score for the movie Mission Impossible and will be performing on the opening day.
The festival this year, would also have an international segment with a ‘look East’ segment with performances by the Chongqing National Opera from the Sichuan province of China, lovebird Spears, an Opera, Martial arts and Chinese Drums from Taiwan, Taiwanese Bamboo Orchestra, legong and Samatra dance from Indonesia, and a cross-cultural music Band from Singapore.
‘look West’ would include famous bands from USA, Israel, Czech Republic, Poland& Turkey, Flamenco music from Spain, Salsa from Mexico, contemporary dance theatre from Portugal and France and Tap Dance from the United Kingdom. Performances from Central Asia would include music and dance from Kyrgyzstan and Russia. Whereas, Jordan would perform from the prism of West Asian art forms.
“These are all international artistes who are very unlikely to perform in India. The festival would also would also feature ‘Welcome Africa’ and ‘Africa in India’, wherein, many African countries including Egypt, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia, Nigeria, Congo, Uganda and Kenya will perform. The concept has been worked on the lines of India-Africa Forum Summit, 2015, the latter taking place around the same time in Delhi,” the director concluded.