This Republic Day celebrations in the national capital will be a big day in life of Deepak Kumar (31), a Bharatanatyam instructor from Kilkari Bihar Bal Bhawan, Saidpur (Patna), an institution run by the education department of Bihar Government, where children are trained in different art forms, sports and other extracurricular activities.
A team of 14 young dancers led by Kumar will be performing Bihar folk dance form—‘Sama Chakeva’-- on Rajpath along with 466 odd artistes as part of a special performance planned by the ministry of culture under its Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav initiative. For the first time, such a dance recital will be part of the Republic Day parade.
All these 480 performers have been chosen by the ministry through a four level competition-- Vande Bharatam-Nritya Utsav--held across the states.
“Our performance is based on the folk dance form of the Mithilanchal region--Sama Chakeva. This is a popular style in Bihar named after a festival, which is celebrated after Chhath. The members of the group are students, who will be performing for the first time in a national level function of such magnitude. However, I was part of a 150-member team of dancers—children from different branches of Kilkari in Gaya, Bhagalpur, Purnia and Darbhanga—which had come to participate in the 2019 Republic Day parade. Certainly, it is a great day for our students and also for me,” said Kumar.
January 26 will also be a special day for Synchrony, a 10-member group from Surat, which will be performing a mix of Kathak and contemporary dance. Reshma Nagar (37), who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Kathak, is the leader of the group.
“I have been teaching Kathak for 10 years and have won several competitions including at the National Youth Festival. However, I will be performing for the first time on Republic Day. All participants are my students,” Nagar said.
According to the officials, the teams also comprise a significant number of young budding dancers from humble ground who are taught nuances of different dance forms free of cost by their trainers.
The special performance will be 10-minutes long for which a musical composition has been prepared by noted composers from Kolkata and Bangaluru. A team of experts- renowned dancers and choreographers including Rani Khanam, Maiyetree Pahari, Tejaswini Sathe, and Santosh Nair are giving training to 36 teams who have come from different states.