Attracted to rhythm

Director Laila Haque, on the set of Ekti Din-er Galpo, explaining the shot to the actors and cameraman Samir Kushari

It was back in the '60s when I was six or seven, my mother got me admitted to a nearby music school--Nikkon Lalitakala Academy,' Laila Haque recalls. 'All my brothers and sisters used to learn music and I got admitted too. The principal of the academy was eminent dance guru GA Mannan. He used to give dance lessons in different classrooms. Often I peeped into the classes and was awe-stricken by the movements of the dancers. One day GA Mannan called me to his class and this is how it all began.'

Laila Haque, now a programme manager of BTV, was a renowned dancer in the '80s. She learned to dance under many of the gurus of this country like Gawhar Jamil, who taught her classical dance. After that she was admitted to the Bulbul Lalitakala Academy and later she got her dance lessons from Altamas Ahmed. According to her, 'I got the chance to take my dance lessons from the pioneers of dance in our country and I am proud of it.'

Now full-time in the government service, Laila doesn't perform dance anymore but is very much involved with dance direction. Her first choreography was staged in the '70s when she was a university student. She says, 'Iffat Ara Nargis was with me then and we used to come up with different themes and compose music for the dance programmes and soon after that I started to direct different dance programmes for stage and TV.'

According to Laila her best performance as a dancer was in the '90s. She says, 'It was a dance drama titled Battle of Bangladesh directed by Amanul Haque. I was very excited to perform in the main role in the dance drama. Al Monsur was the producer of that show. It was a time when some of these programmes were telecast live from the BTV auditorium.'

As a dance director, Laila has a dream to establish a dance-based institute for the learners. She has tried all her life to create such a platform to ultimately establish an institution, which for various reasons stopped midway. However now her dream is to direct a dance-based movie based on her own script.

'It was never my plan to be a dancer, nevertheless I feel so blessed to be one. It gives me so much advantage because I can feel what rhythm is.'

Starting in the '90s, Laila Haque has directed about one hundred dramas so far. 'Although I have performed for a long time, now I have dedicated myself to direction. I have found satisfaction in directing many dramas on BTV especially one of them titled Mama Amiron, written by Rabiya Khatun.'

Laila aims at improving the quality of the programmes on BTV. She has plans to telecast a dance drama every month. 'Although it takes much more time and effort to stage dance dramas, if we have a positive approach we can make it,' she asserts.