Childrens festival

Updated on: Monday, November 14, 2011

The National School of Drama's theatre-in-company , Sanskar Rang Toli, organised a week-long festival (November 8-14) for children, Bal Sangam, on the occasion of Children's Day. Around 200 children from different parts of India participated in the festival.

One of the groups that participated was the Huyen Lallong Manipur Thang Ta Cultural Association from Manipur . The group performed the Thang Ta - a martial art that uses swords and spears, which is usually performed in the months of June and July. The group comprised 13 children ranging from the age of 11-15 years. Their guru N Jadumani Singh accompanied them.

"For people who perform the Thang Ta, the sword is like a part of their body. People are afraid of the sword but when they look at the sword as an extension of their body, they don't feel scared. People perform this dance at a holy place in the community and everyone participates and dances together. This is done to please God and to ward off evil. The form was tweaked for the Bal Sangam and that required the group to practise a lot," says Singh.

On preparing the children for Bal Sangam, Singh says that though it is a part of the daily routine for children to practise, they had to perform it within a time-limit given by the organisers. "All children in this group know martial arts. I had to be at their level to understand them and teach them. They had to juggle both school and their practise sessions. They would exercise one hour in the morning , before school started and two hours after school," he adds.

Talking about the future plans, Singh says, "We want to perform in festivals, to different audiences from children to grown-ups . When children are together, they teach and learn from each other without any bias. We want to sensitise children to learn about their traditions and to help keep them alive."

Times of India

Childrens festival

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