Dancers from around the country gives grand performance as part of Vande Bharatam Nritya Utsav

|HT|

Showcasing a canvas of colours, song and dance, spreading across the stretch of Rajpath, dancers selected from around the country on Wednesday gave a grand performance as part of the Vande Bharatam Nritya Utsav, jointly organised by the Union ministries of defence and culture, at the Republic Day parade in Delhi. A total of 480 dancers were selected through a nationwide competition to showcase their talent during the parade at the refurbished Rajpath.

The performers, in vibrant colours, were trained by the four renowned choreographers, the ministry of culture informed. These include Kathak Dancer Rani Khanam, along with Maiyetree Pahari, Tejaswini Sathe, and Santosh Nair who trained 36 teams of dancers from different states, the ministry noted.

They were selected through a nationwide competition called ‘Vande Bharatam’, held at the district level with the participation of nearly 3,870 dancers in 323 groups progressed to state and zonal levels over a period of two months in November and December.

This is the first time such a competition took place for Republic Day performance at Rajpath through an All India dance competition, with an aim to enhance Jan Bhagidari. In their performance, all the groups merged as a whole, yet retaining the identity of individual dance forms, in the true spirit of Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat.

The music represented India's unity and diversity in its most colourful spirit and energy where traditional meets modern, folk meets contemporary, popular meets unexplored in melting pot of styles and rhythms.

The artists performed four segments of dance – Classical, Folk/Tribal, Contemporary and the ‘Grand Finale’ performance. Huge props, masks, puppets and fabric added to the splendour of the symphony.

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