CHENNAI: The Indian Dance Festival was inaugurated by Tourism Minister Vellamandi N Natarajan and Rural Industries Minister P Benjamin at Mahabalipuram near here on Sunday. This year’s festival will feature over 60 dance forms over the next month, according to a release from the Tourism department.
Originally called Mamallapuram Dance Festival when it was first introduced in 1992, it was later rechristened as Indian Dance Festival and is conducted during December-January every year by the Tamil Nadu Tourism department with the support of the Union Ministry of Tourism. This prestigious national festival brings the important folk dance forms such as karagam, kavadi, thappattam, and oyilattam and classical dance forms such as Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi and Kathak under one roof and allows veterans to pass on their artistic intricacies to amateurs.
This festival coincides with the influx of tourists to Mahabalipuram which received around 559 lakh tourists between 2014 and 2017. “The tourists are evincing keen interest in our dance forms and rich cultural heritage and they have become the repeat visitors,” said the release. Tamil Tourism Development Corporation MD Palanikumar and Kancheepuram Collector P Ponnaiah also took part in the event.