Propagating a cultural movement through ‘Shadhona’
Looks like there's no stopping cultural organisation Shadhona. On the brink of 2010, its go-getting general secretary Lubna Mariam spoke to Kavita about Shadhona's successes, obstacles it has had to confront and future directions. Here's what she had to say:
Could you tell us about Shadhona's achievements in the year gone by?
Lubna: 2009 has been a landmark year for Shadhona due to the launching of Shadhona's Cultural Circle -- a membership-based network of music lovers -- on June 26, 2009 and the inaugural of “Nupur Beje Jaye” -- a bi-monthly ticketed dance performance -- both of which, we are certain, will widen the base of audiences who will support the performing arts. One of the most difficult tasks of any art facilitator is sourcing funds. With a yearly contribution of only Taka 1000 per year from each member, we are being able to arrange monthly recitals of dance and music. Ticketed performances, too, help defray expenses. With these funds, Shadhona's main target is to support the artistes, especially the young ones, by giving them a regular platform to perform.
Shadhona has also organised workshops, especially a well-appreciated “Contemporary Dance Workshop” by Dr. Urmimala Sarkar of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi; commissioned productions such as the joint Indo-Bangla production of Simon Zakaria's mono-drama “Sitar Agniporikkha” performed by Delhi-based actor Averee Chaurey, and supported a theatrical production of “Gazi Kalu Chompaboti” by the Department of Theatre of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA).
We are happy to be working with BSA because we believe that government and non-government cooperation in any field has the most lasting and far-reaching impact. Shadhona has also facilitated the participation of indigenous narrative theatre, “Padmar Nachon” of Kushtia, at the Second SAARC Folklore Festival in Chandigarh. Furthermore, we have performed at Durga Puja festivities in Delhi this September, at ICCR (Kolkata), Visva Bharati (Shantiniketan) and at the Uday Shankar Dance Festival organised by the West Bengal Government in Kolkata.
What has Shadhona done to promote young dancers, actors and directors?
Lubna: Bangladesh is a treasure-trove of young and talented performers, both in the urban arts and indigenous theatre. For 2010 we have already commissioned the production of two dance-dramas -- Syed Shamsul Haq's “Chompaboti” by Samina Hussain Prema, and Simon Zakaria's “Bodhi Drum” by Warda Rihab. For “Chompaboti”, based on a folk-narrative, we have made a tremendous effort to strengthen folk dance by organising workshops and for “Bodhi Drum” a Buddhist narrative, we are working with dancers from Nepal. This has brought about a very exciting project on “Charya-Nritya” which links ancient Bangladesh and Nepal.
In the indigenous milieu, we are on the brink of launching a countrywide project to strengthen “Lathikhela”, the Bangladeshi martial art, which includes dance, with the help of AKTEL and Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
How far has the organisation been able to achieve its objectives? What progress has there been on building South Asian cooperation on the cultural front?
Lubna: Besides our work with music and dance, our trustee Sadaf Saaz is about to launch an English theatrical group. We are a bit disappointed that our efforts to organise an annual music festival is just not materialising. The main obstacle is funding and government permissions for international artistes. But we have resolved to overcome all this in 2010.
Shadhona's objective is also to train young art-entrepreneurs to take over this work of facilitating and supporting the arts. We are very hopeful. Some young members of Shadhona Cultural Circle are already taking initiatives: among them Mehedi Hasan Shoibal, Jaan-e Alam, Hena Afrose and Mikhail Islam.
As I have mentioned earlier, we are working with artistes in India and Nepal, but this is project-based. At some point we would like to come up with a few over-arching South Asian projects.
To what extent has Shadhona been able to integrate culturally with countries outside South Asia?
Lubna: We haven't been able to connect with the world of arts beyond South Asia. I think we need to do much more work to strengthen our base before we do that. Personally, I am now the Chair of the World Dance Alliance-Bangladesh, which is part of a global network of dancers. I hope with the help of this organisation Bangladeshi dancers can showcase their dance internationally.
What obstacles have there been along the way?
Lubna: Funding, of course. We remain undyingly grateful to our corporate sponsors such as HSBC, GMG Airlines, AKTEL, Olympic Industries Ltd, Charuta Pvt Ltd, Unilever, Standard Chartered Bank and many more. I wish we had a permanent corpus and did not have to run around for funding on an ad-hoc basis. Too much time and energy is expended on this alone. My personal dream is to start a micro-credit organisation only for the arts and artistes.
What is the present cultural scenario like in Bangladesh?
Lubna: Absolutely vibrant! And the magic is that there is so much happening in spite of the fact that there is no major institutional support. I travel all over rural Bangladesh and find so much theatre, music and dance being supported by the community alone -- lathi khela, Baul songs, narrative theatre and so much more. The quality of dance, music and theatre is extraordinary. We still need to work on improving classical vocal and instrumental skills though.
My own organisation, “Kolpotoru” -- a dance, theatre, fine arts and music school, is organising regular workshops on Indian classical vocal music by Shubhra Guha of Kolkata. We need more such initiatives. We often forget that creation of human resource is the building block of all creative edifices.
It'll happen. I am an optimist. We must have the courage to dream big.
What are Shadhona's goals for 2010?
Lubna: Besides our dreams for more music, dance and theatre, we want to expand our membership-based network, encourage younger audiences to support the arts and put more effort into documentation.
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