Lok Tarang – National Folk Dance Festival will be held from January 24 to 29, 2005. Announcing this, the Minister of Information & Broadcasting and Culture, Shri S. Jaipal Reddy said that the annual cultural festival held on the eve of Republic Day will have approximately 800 folk artists from 27 States and two Union Territories. The President of India will inaugurate the festival. During the festival, which has been formally named as “Lok Tarang” from this year onwards, 44 dance forms will be depicted. Of these, 16 are tribal dance forms. 11 of the folk dances included are those, which had become nearly extinct and have been revived with the efforts of the zonal cultural centres. The Minister said that the inclusion of these dance forms is a part of the commitment to preserve our cultural diversity. The folk dance performances will be organized at 13 places in Delhi, including the main venue viz., Talkatora Stadium where the performance will take place everyday after the event has been inaugurated by the President of India.
The other categories of dances included are those performed exclusively by women, performed by males only, those relating to martial arts, drum dances, mask dances, fire dances and dances where female roles are performed male dancers.
The President will also release a CD of folk songs titled ‘Swaranjali’. This has 14 folk songs selected from all the seven cultural zones (two each). The CD also carries Hindi and English narrations on the folk songs for proper understanding of the content.
RS/AS
(Release ID :6684)