Kozhikode youth sign up to shake a leg

KOZHIKODE: Kozhikode has in the last few years been tuned to the love of dance with city folks, organizing a series of events to celebrate World Dance Day on April 29.

Last year noted choreographer Giridhar Krishna had enacted a dance-drama Isadora, on revolutionary dancer Isadora Duncan, hailed as the Mother of Modern Dance.  

This year Giridhar Krishna is not limiting the celebrations to just one programme. He has organized a series of events to mark the day including a free ‘dance or movement’ therapy workshop as well as an exhibition of photographs of various dance forms at Giridhar’s Dance Studio at Eranhipalam.

“Dance is an emotion, which is believed to boost the emotional, cognitive, and corporeal amalgamation of a person”, Giridhar opined. In the last few years, he says, city folks have really understood the importance of dance, which has resulted in the increasing numbers signing up to learn various dance forms including foreign forms.  

Talking about the importance of dance in an individual’s life, Jobin George, a noted choreographer in the city said, “Dance plays an important role in society as it fulfills a number of different functions, be it religious, military or social. Every culture has its own unique style— be it ballet, Indian classical dance or contemporary, salsa, hip-hop, jazz, etc to the whirling dervishes. They all create a bond between the dance, dancer and the viewer”.

He says that On World Dance Day, several events are being conducted with the purpose of providing more visibility and to establish larger communication between different streams and genres of dance, while retaining their original essence.  

Since 1982, International Dance Day or World Dance Day, in memory of French Ballet artiste Jean Georges Noverre, is celebrated.