IAAF 2012

Project Description

International Ancient Arts Festival 2012

Theme: The therapeutic benefits of music and dance in restoring individual health and harmony

This was the 3rd edition of the festival .The theme of this year was collaboration – of different cultures. It is about coming together. If you see ancient cultures, the symbols, instruments, languages and customs have so many similarities as they were made by intuitive wisdom developed by contemplation. By bringing them together in an interesting way, we hoped to showcase this commonality.

The festival was inaugurated on May 16by Lt. Governor, H. E Tejendra Khanna. Guests of Honor included Shri Ravindra Singh, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Culture; Shri Anwar Haleem, DG, ICCR; & Shri Manoj Singh, Secretary, UP Tourism. The performance began with a collaborative performance of various Indian traditional dance forms highlighting the spiritual significance of Rabindranath Tagore’s poems led by by Reela Hota

The second performance of the evening was a soul-stirring Sufi music performance by Pakistan’s Ustad Hamid Ali Khan, a Pakistani classical singer. Hamid Ali received the Pride of Performance Award, presented by the government of Pakistan & lifetime achievement award by Government of India. His famous songs include Meeno Teray Jea; Laagi Rey Tou Say Lagi; Yeh Na Thee Hamari.

Highlighting how music, dance and vital therapeutic practices in traditional systems of healing can combine to meet lifestyle challenges of today, the Four-day ongoing International Ancient Arts Festival 2011 went off to a flying start. A spate of stories came, regaling the audience, befittingly starting with the Mrs. Sheila Dixit, Chief Minister of NCR, Delhi.

I had once gone to a village near Gorakhpur, inhabited by only potters. India abounds in such villages where only one community lives, say, of iron-mongers, weavers and so on. This Gorakhpur village, I found, had the potters using mud and earth from a single pond, of great antiquity. Nobody indeed knew how ancient the pond was. Since the potters came out with astonishingly clever designs of images and icons, I asked them how they hit upon their ideas. They all said they imagined and even dreamt of these ideas from roaming near the pond.Sheila DixitChief Minister, NCR-Delhi

The second story came from Prof Eleanor Richards, teaching music therapy in Cambridge, “A mythical king of France once wanted to know how the art of communication was important for children. He segregated two-three tiny babies from all human contacts, but made sure they received the best of nourishment and comfort. After a couple of years, all the babies were found dead. Obviously human connection was vital, which had been missing.”
The opening oeuvre was a performance by Kazak State Akademik Folk and Ethnographical Orchestra. Coming from Kazakstan, the young conductor brought out from the ensemble an amazing blend of rhythms. Explained she, “Named after Otyruz Story, our main aim is the future development and restoration of music, folklore and traditions from Kazakstan. Our members include laureates of reputation and international competence.”