If you are an artist(e), you don’t have to go very far for healing: It lurks in the lilts of your melody, in the hues of your strokes, in the tilts and twirls of your steps. A festival that celebrates arts’ therapeutic value and spiritual quotient opened at Kamani Auditorium in New Delhi on Wednesday. The third edition of the International Ancient Arts Festival/Symposium brings together artistes from various parts of the globe.
The festival, an attempt to showcase the integration of arts, blends the aesthetics of ancient performing arts with science and spirituality, with a focus on individual health and harmony. It was conceived by Odissi danseuse and spiritualist Reela Hota, who is also the festival director and founder member of Rays of Wisdom Society which presents the festival with the support of the ICCR, ministry of culture, Delhi Tourism and UP Tourism. According to Hota, the festival is an endeavour to showcase the “commonality” of ancient cultures, languages and customs. Hota said in a written statement, “Sound vibration, with which we were all created, is a powerful tool for restoring the harmony and perfection within us and beyond-a fact understood by ancient cultures around the world, especially in India, China, Africa, America, Egypt and Africa. Each developed its own system of sound manipulation, integrated them and presented them as dance and music. The festival aims at highlighting how music, dance and vital therapeutic practices in traditional systems of healing can combine to meet lifestyle challenges today.”
Vidha Lal, an eminent Kathak exponent who will present a recital based on Tagore’s Khachar pakhi chhilo sonar, along with Naresh Kumar, says arts have inherent healing powers. “You have a lot to gain from the meditation of arts,” says Lal, who believes music and dance are the best ways though which you could hope to reach God. Lal, a disciple of Guru Geetanjali Lal of Jaipur gharana, is all praise for the festival. “There are performers from countries like Pakistan, China and Iran. There are a few things you never get to see at other festivals,” says the Guinness Book of World Record holder in dance.
Prem Manipur Cultural Association, a troupe anchored by Premjit Singh which hit the limelight with Boogie Woogie and India’s Got Talent, add razzmatazz to the festival with a fusion of Pung Cholom and Ras Leela, the classical forms of Manipuri dance. A beaming Prem, 30, says that while it’s hard work putting the show (and the team) together, it’s worth every bit. The troupe is all set to perform in Singapore in June along with a clutch of Bollywood singers. Johar Ali, a multiple recording artiste of the illustrious Patiala gharana performs at the festival, blending the notes of his violin with Wang Fei’s geqin and Bahman Panahi’s tar/setar. A cousin of Shafqat Amanat Ali, Johar is the embodiment of his name which means skill in Urdu. He has represented India at a function celebrating the 60 years of Unesco in Paris. “Music knows no borders. It belongs to the entire world,” says Johar, talking about the universality of the “musical experience”. Johar says that while he has stuck to his classical roots (his grandfather Ustad Ali Baksh was the founder of the Patiala gharana), he has kept pace with the changing times by “changing the rooms, and not the roots”. Johar, who has also started a band called Sangam, has cut albums like Voice of my Violin and Beyond the Fire. At the symposium, Cambridge’s Dr Vivien Marcow Speiser, a dance therapist will deliver a talk on “the body as a sacred instrument” and Dr Phillipe Speiser, director of Arts Therapy at Whittier Street Health Centre, will speak about the healing sounds for children with disabilities.
At the International Ancient Arts Festival, healing and harmony, triggered by movements and music, go hand in hand.