Children's Day in the capital saw a unique celebration of youth and talent this year, with the Sanskar Rang Toli (Theatre in Education Company, T.I.E.) of National School of Drama's biannual festival Bal Sangam. The festival held recently celebrated ‘bal lok kalakaars' (child folk performers) saw 16 groups and 241 participants from all over the country.
Organised at the Crafts Museum, Bhairon Marg, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, the festival featured a colourful and vibrant ensemble of various traditional performing art forms presented by children from different States across India; ranging from the folk dances and martial art forms of the North East to traditional paintings of Rajasthan and Maharashtra in the West, from the sword fighting of Kerala in the South to the traditional dance forms of Jammu & Kashmir in the North.
Throwing light
“Our prime focus is to encourage interaction and dialogue between the artists and the audience, shedding light on the existence of such beautiful and complex folk traditions in the country,” said Dr. Mathur. Functioning as an interactive platform, the festival included children belonging to traditional performing families, guru-paramparas and institutions. This year's Bal Sangam was held with the specific aim of reviving dying cultural art forms of India through performances by children. To encourage a more hands on experience among students from the capital, workshops were held to teach craft and art forms like origami, puppet making, pottery and much more. “(I) tried to attend as many workshops as I could. The teachers were very nice, and it was interesting to be able to actually get my hands on a potter's wheel. It felt great!' said Akanksha Kumar, 13.
The role and background of T.I.E., explained Prof. Kirti Jain, is to participate in the educational system and create a space for dialogue and interaction through the rangmanch (theatre). The Bal Sangam is part of that initiative and stresses primarily on increasing child participation in folk arts. The festival was designed as a fair, with five stages set up and simultaneous performances going on that allowed the crowd to pick and choose what they wanted to watch.
Over 50 entries were submitted for the festival and 16 selected, all from traditional performing insitutions and families. Two of these groups, the Hindustan Kalari Sangam from Kerala and the Huyen Lallon Thang Ta Cultural Association from Manipur, were founded over 60 years ago. Other participating groups included Bhavesh Chhau Natya Kala Kendra from Jharkhand, Hari Saran Cultural Centre, Reasi from J&K, Garh Joypur Saptarshi (Vatdi Chhau Akademi) from West Bengal, Anand Niketan Eklavya Model Residential School from Gujarat and Shri Krishna Lok Sanskritik Vikas Sansthan from Madhya Pradesh.
