‘No Drama, Acting Institutes In Nagaland’, Laments Arts Awardee - Eastern Mirror
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Nagaland, Kohima

‘No drama, acting institutes in Nagaland’, laments arts awardee

6103
By Our Correspondent Updated: Jan 23, 2020 11:18 pm

Festival, workshop at Ungma duirng January 28-30

Imrongs photo 1
Supongsangla Jamir and her colleagues after the press conference in connection with the ‘Chhau Parva’ festival and workshop, on January 23 in Mokokchung. (EM Images)

Our Correspondent
Mokokchung, Jan. 23 (EMN): 
The Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) at New Delhi in collaboration of  Ungma village in Mokokchung district, will be organising  an event called ‘Chhau Parva  festival’ and a workshop on ‘Chhua’ dances  during January 28-30 in the village.

The SNA is a national academy of music, dance and drama and the first national academy of arts set up by the government of India as an autonomous body of the ministry of Culture.  Since its inception, the Akademi has been functioning as the apex body in the field of arts in the country.

The Akademi coordinates and collaborates with the central government and Arts and Culture department of different states and union territories in order to fulfil its commitment towards the promotion, propagation and preservation of performing arts in India.

This was informed by Supongsangla Jamir, an awardee of the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar of Sangeet Natak Akademi for 2013-2014 in the field of choral music of Nagaland, during a press conference at the Urban Hub Café on Thursday in Dilong ward.

Jamir, founder and conductor of Refiners Choir, explained that ‘Chhau Parva’ is a semi-classical Indian dance. Here in the Northeast states ‘we cannot find the Chhau genre.’ She added that the event is being hosted here because the SNA’s objective in the Northeast is to promote, propagate and preserve Indian arts.

She asserted that the event will be providing an ample opportunity for artists and students to learn the art form and enrich the scope of converting folk drama and folklores into dance forms.

Jamir is currently the advisor and committee member of the SNA’s northeast centre at Guwahati in Assam. She asserted that if students can pick up the art form they can climb the national ladders and ‘achieve fame’ besides promoting and preserving the cultural heritage of the Naga people.

Further, she lamented that the ‘Arju,’ a dormitory for Ao Naga boys, which used to be the learning cradle for folksong, folklore, dance and traditional values and ethos had today become merely symbolic. Further, there are no drama and acting institutes in the state ‘which led to the decline of the rich heritage of the Naga customary practices and tradition.’

 “The stakeholders should ponder upon these issues serious and initiate action to promote and preserve our heritage which is part of our identity that defined us,’ she said.

She said there are programmes under the Sangeet Natak Akademi for documentation of stories and drama which are archived at the Sangeet Natak Documentation Centre in Agartala of Tripura, and even scholarships for students who want to pursue studies in this field.

From January 28 to the 30th from 6:30 pm daily, there will be performances by acclaimed artists from Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal.  The workshop will be conducted on January 29 and the 30th from 11 am daily. The resource persons for the event are Tapan kumar Pattanayak, Jharkhand; and Bharat Sharma, Delhi.

The workshop is open to all. For participants from outside Ungma, the Akademi will provide transportation and refreshment. For further queries, they may contact the number 9862211588.

6103
By Our Correspondent Updated: Jan 23, 2020 11:18:50 pm
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