Gandharva Male Dancers festival has been organised in Kolkata on Sunday 9th February, jointly organised by Niharika Centre for Performing Arts(Kolkata) and Shivoham Institute of Performing Arts(Mumbai) at Children’s Little Theatre Aban Mahal. Dhakuria, Kolkata. The performances will commence at 6 pm and will feature six accomplished male dancers in different styles.
One of the leading male Bharatanatyam dancers of Mumbai, Nilesh Singha, who heads the Shivoham Institute of Performing Arts says “As you know there are not many male dancers, compared to the female counterpart and hence there are hardly any festivals organised exclusively for male dancers. With the support from Arkadev Bhattacharya who heads the Niharika Centre for Performings Arts in Kolkata, we decided to organise this festival in order to attract the attention of everyone and prove the point that there are wonderful male dancers as well and they need to be encouraged at all levels”.
The dancers to be featured in the festival are Arkadev Bhattacharya and Nilesh Singha for Bharatanatyam, Prolay Sarkar for Kathakali, Manju Elangbam for Manipuri, Krishnendu Saha for Odissi and Souvik Chakraborty for Kathak.
This is also an initiative to encourage male dancers to become professionals, many are reluctant to take it up professionally as initially it is not lucrative and one has to invest a lot of money which is not possible for dancers who hail from middle-class or lower-middle-class families. The Government should come forward to encourage youngsters, particularly male dancers. Finance is very important for the rise of any dancer for that matter.
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