International Dance Day

Sharmila portraying the Odissi dance form

It is usual too for the Dance Committee of ITI to send out a message every year. This year's message has been penned by Stephen Page, an Artistic Director and choreographer from Australia. The message, from the South-East Queensland dancer descended from the Nunkul people of Stradbroke Island, highlights the universality of the language of dance used equally among communities far apart and varied. It goes as follows:

Dance is the original most ancient form of human expression. Through the body and physical language, dance has a powerful connection with the emotional and spiritual worlds.

In traditional Aboriginal culture, dance is the core, like a kind of sacred medicine. Dance is grounded, connected to the spirit of Mother Earth. Unless you surrender to the dance you can't hunt quietly. It is an integral part of human existence.

When I create a new dance work I ask the dancers to swallow and digest the traditional seed, to sense the innate code within so that we can transform the traditional essence to the contemporary world.

Dance is the universal language. It represents human identity and a celebration of the human spirit. Dance is the artistic heart of kinship. It is a sacred universal remedy.

- Stephen Page

In Bangladesh today, undoubtedly, dance has come a long way. Learning to sing and dance is part and parcel of the life of most urban children. In recent years dedicated researchers have identified a few rudimentary folk forms and efforts are being made to at least document them. A number of young dancers who have studied the classical forms of India are presently running popular dance institutions and have successfully tutored a number of students who are poised to take up the responsibility of performing and teaching dance to another generation of students. Unfortunately though, patronisation of dance has reached an amazing low. Efforts made by our dancers get very little recognition from the media, in particular, which tends to promote glamorous 'models' as dancers rather than the large number of boys and girls who have dedicated a number of years to the serious practice of dance under the able guidance of teachers. When it comes to recognition through awards, few organisations designate dance as a specialized category and mostly ignore the work done by dancers. Heartbreaking too is the fact that BTV too has recently striked out one of its two weekly dance programs dedicated to classical dance forms.

In spite of the above set backs, it is to the credit of dancers of Bangladesh that this art form continue to grow and our dancers are receiving recognition in the competitive arena of dance in our neighboring country too. The Bangladesh Nritto Shilpi Shongstha and other organisations have taken dance to the corners of Bangladesh through dance workshops and performances.

So, this Dance day the dancers of Bangladesh have much to celebrate though there is still a lot of work to be done.