Shafiqul Alam awarded for his contribution to dance. PHOTO: STAR

Shafiqul Alam Dudu has been contributing to the establishment of dance in Kurigram for last 42 years. He has been a dance trainer of the district unit of Bangladesh Shilpakola Academy since 1975 and is an Assistant Teacher of Kurigram Shisu Niketon since 1988. He is the only trained dance-teacher in Kurigram. Shafiqul got involved with dance in 1961. His first teachers in dance were Jakia Ahmed and Utpal Nandi. In 1963, he began to perform on stage.
He left the country for Singapore in the 1980s. Besides his main job, he took training on dance from Banasshree Shen Gupta for five years, from 1980 to 1985. In Singapore, he performed the dance drama 'Chandalika' of Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore in the Singapore Victoria Memorial Auditorium. He participated in various dance programmes in Singapore. After returning to Bangladesh in 1985, he joined Shilpakola Academy as a dance teacher.
Shafiqul directed the dances dramas on 'Kabor' of Bengali poet Jashim Uddin and 'Kono Ayk Gayer Badhu' of Bengali poet Shalil Chawdhury. He took training on 'Producing Drama' in 1992 and 'Drama Art' organised by Bangladesh Shilpakola Academy in Dhaka in 1993. In recognition of his contribution to the art of dance in Bangladesh, he was conferred various awards by many organisations, which include Rangpur Dance Artist Association (2003) and Advocate Nazir Hossen Memorial Parishad (2008). Besides, he also received awards on classical dance, folk dance and normal dance (Loghu Nritta).  
He is the Founder President of the district Dance Artist Association and Vice-president of Dance Artists' Association of Rangpur. According to Shafiqul, he taught more than four hundred students, of them, BTV artists Nahid Ferdous Meghna and Binita Alam are two of the most worthy of mention, he added. He said, "Kurigram is a backward region. Some overly religious people cause resistance for learning and practicing dance. Also, economic incentives are low in this field. Many students want to be performers, but do not want to be artists. They only learn dance as a hobby. There is a great lack of professionalism here".
According to Shafiqul, there is little hope for the torch of dance to be carried by someone after him. “The learning of dance may stop here after me. I am growing old and there is no one to take my place. There is some hope though - my daughter (Binita Alam) is learning to dance from the perspective of becoming a trainer. She can continue in my absence in the future".