BY PRATIMA ACHREKAR | NT NETWORK
Indiawill be celebrating the 150thbirth centenary of Rabindranath Tagore in 2011. To commemorate the occasion, the students of Hamara School, a school for underprivileged children will be presenting ‘Surya’-a Music and Dance concert on September 26 at Goa Museum Hall, Patto Plaza, Panaji at 5:30 p.m.
This concert is a tribute to the great legend. The concert is being held in association with the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust and Directorate of Arts and Culture.
Most of Tagore’s works are in Bengali language. It is very important to know the language before you work on any music or dance show. Despite the language barrier, the students picked up the dances quite well. “Our children were so enthusiastic about participate in this show that they learnt the steps in a very short period. The meaning of the songs was explained to them,” says Ms Subhra Mukherjee, teacher and member of the school.
The dance is set on the song ‘Aay taube shohochori hate hate dodi dodi’ (Let us unite and dance),” informs Ms Mukherjee. “Our main motive to organise the concert is to bring to fore talents of these underprivileged children. This event also helps them to boost their confidence and overcome stage fright. This idea came about after my colleague Ms Namrata Kamat and we discussed the possibility of holding such a concert.”
The event will see vocal performances by artistes from Goa and Kolkatta. Pandit Nihar Ranjan Banerjee (Kolkatta), Sarthak Mukharjee (Goa), Pravin Gaonkar (Goa), Devanand Malwankar, Pallavi Patil and Akanksha Kamat will be some of the performers at the concert.
“The special attraction will be the performance of Pandit Nihar Ranjan Banerjee from Kolkatta who is the former dean of the Rabindra Bharati University,” elucidates Ms Mukhrjee.
The Hamara School is also planning to take their students outside Goa for stage performance. The Directorate of Art and Culture is supporting us to organise such events, says Ms Mukhrjee. The children are in the age group of 4 to 15 years. Ms Tinku Sanayal and Ms Tuli Muhrjee are the teachers who have trained these children.
