Dolcy D’Cruz
Lokotsav
is one of the most happening events at Kala Academy, Panjim. The ten-day festival caters to people from
different walks of life who get a glimpse of Indian traditional folk art and handicrafts with daily
performances of folk dances and songs. Held annually in Goa, it is encouraging
for students who get an opportunity to present their performances in front of a
huge audience. Schools from various parts of Goa are approached by the
Directorate of Art and Culture to present a one-hour-long performance in an effort to revive traditional folk art and
performances.
Mandita Naik, Cultural organiser, Directorate of Art and
Culture, Government of Goa,
is handling the participation of the schools from Goa. “This is the second year
that we are organising programs in association with various
schools. This year, we have four schools participating in the performances at
the Open Air Auditorium, Kala Academy. We make announcements at the main stage
of Lokotsav, informing the audience that
the performance is about to begin and the crowd pours in. This year, we had
folk performances from ‘Baul’ dance from Bengal, ‘Lepcha’ song and dance from Darjeeling and ‘Bhawaiya’ song and dance from Alipurduar. For
the school performances, we approach the theatre art teachers who have been
placed in schools by the department to present a folk art performance that will revive it and
create awareness among the children,” says Mandita.
Sanjay Mayenkar from Paliem is a theatre art teacher at
Ideal English School, Pernem and though he had read about Dashavtari, this was
his time to put his theoreticalknowledge
to practical use. “We had students of class 9 an 10 performing this folk
drama. Their first performance was at the social gathering in the school. The
students are fluent in Marathi and it was easy to pick up the lines of the script.
‘Dashavtari Akhyan’ requires the artistes to follow rules and we
brought two artistes
from Maharashtra,
including Deepak Rane,
to teach the students. The play has boys playing the role of women as it was
traditionally done. The entire village is excited about their performance and
we had nearly two buses of audience drive into the city on the day of the
performance,” says Sanjay.
Jayesh Bagkar is the theatre teacher at New Goa Education
Trust, G S Amonkar Vidya Mandir, Mapusa, whose students presented a tiatr. The 16 students staged a mini tiatr within one hour 15
minutes. “The tiatr is based on multimedia and how parents are giving gadgets
in the hands of children instead of spending time with them. The students are
acting in a tiatr for the first time and they are very excited about this
traditional theatre form. The actual tiatrs include many acts and songs but due
to the time limit, we have created a shorter version of the tiatr,” says
Jayesh. The students are from Class 6 and 9.
Priyanka Naik Gayak from Canacona has been teaching theatre
since 2011 and this will be the first time that her students at Shri Nirakar
Vidhyalaya, Loliem, Canacona will be performing at Lokotsav. They will be presenting a folk
dance called ‘Perni
Jagor’, which is
exclusively performed by members of the Perni family. “There will be 40
students from classes 5
to 9 who will be performing a one hour show. ‘Perni Jagor’
is an ancient mask dance, only performed by the Perni family from Poinguinim in
Canacona. They perform this folk art at the ‘Gadya Zatra’that
goes on for a week,
or at ‘Toko’, another festival in
Canacona. We received great help from the Perni family to put up this show as
they showed us how to carry the masks and deliver the dialogues. The performance
includes wearing the masks of Lord Ganesh and Saraswati,” explains Priyanka.
The performance is accompanied by the music of ‘dhol’, ‘tasho’ and ‘jagat’.
She further adds, “There are 8-9 main characters with the
lead character of ‘Matari’ (an old woman). It is really sad to note that this
form has been reduced from hours to just 15 to 30 minutes. We had to research
about the folk dance when we learnt that this ancient dance form will be
extinct if no one continues with it. We are happy that Kavindra Phaldessai took
on the responsibility to write the script for this performance. I have
witnessed the performance of this folk art but for the students, this form is
something completely new and they were very enthusiastic to learn about it.”
Lokotsav
has also featured a Western Music concert with Pilar Music Academy, Agonda,
Sankhasur Kaalo by Mahalaxmi High school, Bicholim and the last performance
will be ‘Perni Jagor’ by Shri Nirakar Vidhyalaya,
Loliem, Canacona on January 20, 2018 at 7pm.
