The Prayatna Film & Dance Festival was first started in 2009 by Hrishikesh Pawar of Hrishikesh’s Centre of Contemporary Dance, Pune. The idea was to have a festival warming up to the International Dance Day that falls on April 29 every year.This year, on the occasion of completing a decade, the company brings to the city an interesting mix of events and workshops.

Hrishikesh, festival director, shares, “This year what we are doing is bringing dance in context to the series. The idea is to inspire people to relook at dance through movements. We have brought in artistes who will collaborate with their specialities to present movement.”

Talking about his journey, the dancer shares that when they started out they were one of the first few groups who would arrange events around International Dance Day. Over the years they have managed to present an opportunity to performers and artistes to engage in a critical conversation and exchange with local artistes and amateurs. “I have seen the change in approach and most importantly in numbers. We have parents walk in with children, as they would like to know what more can be done in the field. I am glad we have been able to inspire the younger generation,” he adds.

Hrishikesh and his troupe will present a performance titled, My Story/ My Song on Thursday. He says, “The history of dance has proved the efficiency of the form and its healing effect across communities. The performance showcases the collaborations with the Deep Griha Society and Dance for Parkinson Disease. It will show ageing right from 10 to 87.”

April 25: Festival director Hrishikesh Pawar and his troupe will present My Story/ My Song

April 26: Master craftsman and national award-winning puppeteer, S Chidambara Rao and his troupe tell the story of Ramayan using the traditional shadow puppet art from Andhra Pradesh

April 27: Anurupa Roy, founder of Katkatha, brings alive the story of Mahabharata in her puppetry performance. The performance explores the inner dilemma and back stories of 14 mythological characters in the play

April 28: Dadi Pudumjee and his Ishaara Puppet group will present Simple Dreams, a production without dialogues. The group will use props, physical movement and dance to create scenes from the natural world

Where: Sakal Lalit Kalaghar, Gultekdi

When: April 25-28, 7pm onward

First Published: Apr 24, 2019 19:00 IST