Eyes shut but the mind awakens. Breathing slows down but the heart throbs. Music leaves a mystical, magical, almost mysterious blueprint on Dr Suresh K Goel’s conscience. Goel is extending a contemporary dance festival called, Expressions in the coming week.
He speaks to us a day before it commences and shares his desire to, one day, learn and work on classical and jazz. “The arts are to be celebrated. There is so much peace in them,” he says, adding that the organising of this festival has revealed to him his deep interest in music, that he says he’ll pursue once the festival concludes.
This is an effort by Teamwork Arts in partnership with Indian Council for Cultural Relations, of which Goel was the Former Director General.
In its second edition, it promises Indian and international productions that express the multiplicity of different dance versions within the broad gamut of the contemporary genre.
It will allow opportunities for dialogue and collaboration between different artistic disciplines.
Classical dance forms clearly enjoy sovereignty in the cultural domain of today’s time. The roots of this lies in the fact that they were patronised wholeheartedly by the royalty of the 19th and 20th centuries.
“It resulted in erudite audiences for the classical traditions, leading to a huge upsurge in development of rigorous classical art forms, and that continues to determine the soul of the quintessential cultural framework of India, says Goel.
The renaissance in Indian dance was brought by Udai Shankar and Anna Pavlova who gave birth to the contemporary dance in India. Now, all we need are enough platforms to bring large number of contemporary dance groups to enable them to collaborate and develop the art further, believes Goel.
Several artists and art groups will be staging their movement stories as part of Expressions. These include Attakkalari, Compagnie József Trefeli from Switzerland, Dafi Dance Company, and others. “Just watching these allow your senses to drift into the spiritual world where sound, sensations and emotions merge into one fulfilling whole. One may call it God. I call it discovering the self.”
March 27-29, at 7 pm, at Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts, 4, Safdar Hashmi Marg, Mandi House. Entry is free. AS