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 Indian
Scholars and Artists gathered together along with their colleagues
from Greece and thirty different countries in the historical city of
Argos in Peloponnesus near the magnificent ancient theater of
Epidavros that hosts every summer a festival of ancient drama and
forms a living link between the ancient cultural heritage and the
modern artistic intellect of Greece.
The gathering of the
dance scholars and performers took place on the occasion of the 18th
World Congress on Dance Research that took place in the city of Argos
from the 3rd up to the 7th November 2004. This
major academic programme was organised by the Greek Section of the
International Organization of Folk Art (IOFA), The International Dance
Council (CID) of Unesco-Paris, the Greek Dances Theater ‘Dora Stratou’
in Athens and the Municipality of Argos.
The 18th World
Congress’ theme was “The Preservation of Diversity” and its
objective was to exhibit that different forms of art and cultures can
co-exist harmoniously in the present world but also that there is a
great need to preserve certain traditional forms of art which are
facing the danger of extinction.
The nine participants
from India were: Ranjeet Singh who presented Indian dances from
Punjab; Pahul Shah who made a vivid demonstration on Indian
Dances from Baroda; Prarthana Purkayastha who presented a
research report on the parallel movement, Nationalist politics, Tagore
and dance in Bengal; Rajyashree Ramesh who spoke and performed
on Crossing bridges – Meeting points and melting barriers in / through
dance; Menaka Bora who presented a paper on the body and soul
of Sahitya Dance: organic fusion of dance theater, music,
spirituality, gender and identity in eight classical dance traditions
of India, she also made a performance on Sattriya dance; Usha
Narayan who spoke on dance rituals as Indian classical dances;
Anuradha Murali and Shilpa Sejpal who performed two
traditional Bharatha natyam pieces; and Savita Godbole from the
Luknow Gharana Kathak dance, who performed a ‘Diversity’ of Abhinaya
(the Body Expressions) on a Thumari.
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