This lockdown has changed a lot in the daily lives of people. From spending time with friends with no worry and wearing masks compulsorily has changed the way we used to live. Observing the seriousness of the pandemic and risk factors, people have locked themselves up in their homes.
Making it tough for doing daily routine normal activities, it has also come out as a boon to connect people irrespective of the distance. Going with the flow, students of art including Dance, Drama, or Singing have come together and formed a cultural club to connect other students with the same inclination.
The idea hit the mind of two friends Md Rabban and Md Ibran to make live performances and eventually make people see and listen to classical music, dance and plays. This is how the journey of the Rang Pa Cultural Society starts.
Md Ibran is a postgraduate in performing arts from the Central University of Jharkhand and Md Rabban is an alumnus of the University of Hyderabad. They have performed in various plays including ‘Das Din ka Ansan’ , ‘Macbeth’, ‘Court-martial’, ‘Gopal ki Duniya’, ‘Haywadan’, ‘Return Of Eklavya’, ‘Waiting for Godot’, ‘Doosar Adhyay’, ‘King lear’, ‘Chronology samajhiye’, ‘Sabse sasta gost’, and ‘Shakuntala’.
Providing a platform during lockdown
Amidst the prevailing pandemic, it is difficult to stay at home, especially for an artist whose identity is through his performances on stage.
“Being an artist, we are always eager to perform. Amidst the prevailing pandemic, we were not getting any opportunity. I and Rabban came up with a solution: to perform live on Facebook. We contacted a few of our friends and discussed the idea. And that is how in June began the journey of ‘Rang Pa Cultural Society'”, says Md Ibran.
They have come with a number of performances in music, dance, and theatre. The folk songs of various states including Assam, Bihar, UP, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Karnataka were performed in the first week of June by students belonging to different parts of India. They performed on Nagpuri Songs and ‘Ho’ tribal songs too.
Interaction with other prominent personalities
The Rang Pa Cultural Society also makes special guest appearances of professors of Performing Arts from various universities. Other prominent writers and theatre directors share their ideas and guide those interested in theater and art.
When the world is more inclined towards western, the page chose to showcase classical and folk. Ibran says that the idea was to promote the classical forms towards the youngsters through the youngsters. “We want to bring forth traditional folk music, stories, and dance. Most of us don’t know the folk stories and songs of the place we belong to. So, it is just a small try”, he adds.
Organized an online fest during lockdown
The page organized a theatre festival from 24 June to 28 June. The performing groups were from Bihar, Agra, Varanasi and Madhya Pradesh. “‘Nadan dost’, ‘Chambal ek nadi ka naam’, ‘Dhature ka bij’, ‘Amritsar aa gaya’ and ‘Bade Bhai Sahab’ are the plays we performed”, says Rabban.
After the theatre festival, this week, Rang Pa Cultural Society is celebrating the ‘Indian Classical Dance Festival’. It started on July 15 and will continue till 22nd July. “The performances we have are: Kuchipudi, Sattriya Dance, Kathakali, Manipuri, Bharatnatyam, Mohiniyattam, etc”, continues Rabban.
The complete team of Rang Pa Culture Society is happy with their incentives. “We are glad to say that now music students and artists of different places are coming forward to participate and perform”, adds Ibran.
Here’s a link to the page. If the classical forms thrill you, this is definitely for you. To go to their FB page, Click Here
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