State CBSE Youth Festival: Modern themes in group dance

ADIMALI: Breaking the customary mould, a few teams came out with modern themes in the group dance. They depicted the theme of friendship and the dangers involved in forging them in the modern world, nature conservation, women’s rights and the war against corruption. In all 72 teams participated in two categories in group dance. For most of the teams Radha and Krishna and their love was the favourite theme as had been the wont in youth festivals, Taking a leaf from the puranas, some others depicted the story of Lord Ayyappa, Lord Siva-Parvathy, Lord Muruga while one depicted the love story of Shajahan  and Mumtaz and of course Taj Mahal.

One of the team which depicted the theme of friendship, the Baker Vidyapeeth Kottayam, however, could not rock the stage the way the traditional themes rocked. However, Sangeeth S Pillai, their trainer who runs a dance school at Pathanamthitta said that this was because he understood the stipulations of the state syllabus youth festival are applied here. “There it is stipulated that dance should dominate and imageries should be minimum. My focus was on instilling in girls who portrayed the dance and also in the audience how insecure the modern world has become for girl children and how they should care about forging friendships especially with the advent of social media,” Mr Sangeeth said.

The dance forcefully conveyed that a time has come when looking up to even judiciary may not give desired results citing Soumya incident and it also depicted Jisha case. “I was shocked by the incident involving three Konni school students who were found dead on the railway track in Palakkad which prompted me to embark on this theme,” he said. The students brought three mirrors on the stage to convey the old message that “If you have a good friend you don’t need a mirror.” Costly costumes were used by many groups and unlike many other venues, Stage 2 where the event was held was in full attendance throughout. Stage one and three on the flanks hosted Mohiniyttom and Thiruvathira respectively from morning.