As the seasons change, the cultural calendar of the city comes alive. While traditional forms of performance art have a steady stream of patrons, many youngsters are now coming up with innovative performances and out-of-the-box ideas looking for platforms to showcase their talent.
The Contemporary Arts Week, which is in its third edition, has become one such platform that connects performers with the audience.
Spread over eight days with 45 performances in eight locations across the city, The Contemporary Arts Week shall begin in October. The focus of the multi-arts festival, which will showcase the talent of as many as 300 artistes, is to make performing arts accessible to all and showcase changing trends in society.
The festival will open on October 3 with an arts and food carnival at Nehru Park. The event will have three stages, 20 performances, and 200 performers along with a variety of food stalls. The opening weekend will also have a workshop corner and a DIY corner for graffiti and craft.
Shohini Dutta, the founder of Friends of Art who conceptualized the Contemporary Arts Week in 2013, says that this year the attempt was to include events like street dance battles that very few people have seen because they happen underground.
“People are often shocked to hear that events like clowning and puppetry happen in Delhi. We want to bring such shows to the festival so that more people discover them. We even have a line-up for kids over the weekend so that they too can enjoy performing arts.”
The line-up for the event includes performances by Sadhya Dance Company and The Danceworx, a two-day street dance battle being judged by French House Dance Legend Kundu, Hari Sukhmani, puppetry, stand-up comedy and street theatre.
Other events will include performances across genres like Jazz, Hip-hop, Belly dance, B-boy and Chhau by an enthralling mix of performers like Ankit Pahadiya, Aseng Borang, Kritika Thakur, Nanda Kumar, Sandeep Chhabra, Priyanka Valecha, Pratik Aneja and Makkhan.
For theatre buffs, there will be a Short and Sweet Theatre Night. This will include ‘Sheetal from Wayward’, performed and written by Hina Siddiqui from Pune, Dance Diaries, and a Hinglish stand-up comedy-cum-satire called ‘RelationShip or RelationShit?’
Pankaj Bajaj, a serial entrepreneur who is director of the Week, shall bring to the festival the business understanding to scale up the platform as well as build strategies to reach out to a wider audience.
According to Mr. Bajaj, they not only want to give artistes a platform to perform and experiment through the festival, but also curate a show that is audience-friendly. “We booked venues like Nehru Place and combined performing arts with food to create a vibe in which more people come out to enjoy,” he said.
This year the events are being organised at Nehru Park and malls like DLF Promenade, apart from conventional venues like LTG auditorium, Akshara Theatre and Instituto Cervantes. For more details about events and passes, you may visit the Contemporary Arts Week page on Facebook.
