BENGALURU: This Sunday, Bengalureans will tap their happy feet together at the city’s day-long inclusive dance festival.The third edition of Tandav, titled ‘Rudra Tandav’, will see participation of disabled people, orphans and volunteers from the city.The participants of this dance fest, started by two brothers, has doubled each year and this year will witness participation from the members of LGBTQIA community.
12 Dance Forms
Attam, a dance group of 13 persons with disability, that City Express had written about earlier will be performing for one hour. A Bharatnatyam peformance by two visually impaired girls will be follwed by a skit, narrating a true story about a person with polio from Uttar Pradesh who comes to the city and becomes a teacher for the disabled.
The event from 8 am to 6 pm will witness 12 kinds of dance forms. Three workshops will be held to teach the choreographed dance till 2 pm and then a flash mob will perform with all the participants.
Newton Singh Luthra, who has been choreographing the bhangra for Attam, said that he never expected them to complete one song in a day, but with a final week of practice, the team successfully learnt all the steps. Bhangra will be performed by the visually impaired.
Pratap Ram, one of the “kick-ass” dancers of Attam, will perform a solo Michael Jackson dance. Being cerebral palsy does not beat his moon walk and the tip-toe crotch-grabbing “Ow”.
It’s Magic
This year’s co-coordinator of the event is Mobin Daniel, who has been volunteering with the group for over a year.
“The theme is magic. We have a magician who is coming to perform, we have a target of inviting 600 children from different orphanages in and around Bengaluru. We have 200 disabled who will be a part of the event and some 180 volunteers,” said Mobin.
Founder Brothers
Vishnu Soman, a 29-year -old Bengalurean, started volunteering at a very young age. While working with EnAble India, he founded an NGO called Smileys five years ago along with his younger brother, Vishal.
Tandav, as the festival was named in 2014, has retained the theme of ‘divine dance’. It was named Ananda Tandav last year and this year it is called Rudra Tandav. These are the different versions of Shiva’s dance on creation and destruction.
“The idea is to create a Tomorrowland for the disabled,” said Vishal Soman. “We definitely have come a long way. From crowdfunding the first Tandav to now getting media partners and sponsors, it has been a great journey.”
Inclusive Festival
“This is the first time that Tandav is witnessing an inclusion from the LGBTQIA community. When the disabled participated in the Pride Walk, we invited them for our event and they readily agreed. For inclusion to take place, minorities should come together and I hope that LGBTQIA community will be a part of all the inclusive events and not just Tandav,” said Vishnu Soman.
Vishnu further said that the stage will be opened for LGBTQIA to perform. Alex Matthew, a cross dresser and a member of LGBTQIA community, hopes that he will make it despite of his tight schedule on the weekend. “I am yet to confirm my performance or if I can make it. But I think the initiative is great as sexuality and disabilty should not overshadow us as human beings,” he said.
Madhumitha Venkataraman, who works for diversity and inclusion, and has an orthopoedic condtion called left hemiparesis, believes that intersectionality within inclusion is an important concept to understand. She introduced this year’s Pride Walk to the disabled and is now introducing Tandav to the LGBTQ community.