Nritya Nandan's Norwegian experience
Sudheshna dances at a school, with musicians at the background.
Nritya Nandan, a reputed dance institution led by eminent dancer Sharmila Banerjee, represented Bangladesh in Norway, in a collaborative programme between the two countries recently.
Organised by Rikskonsertene (Concerts Norway), along with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, over a 20 day trip, Nritya Nandan participated in a series of school concerts in collaboration with a famous local band of Norway “Trio Natthergal (Nightingale)”, in the towns of Lillehamer, Oyer and Gausdal.
The team included a combination of talented young Bangladeshi artistes Sudeshna Swayamprabha (dance) and Nilmoni Singha (percussion). Participants from Norway were Ingeborg Christopherson on the flute, Erik Skanke Hosoien on the guitar and Karolina Radziej on the violin.
The 35-minute production which the team staged in schools was directed and produced by Sharmila Banerjee from Bangladesh and Hallgeir Frydenlund from Norway. The well-received production was the outcome of a mere three days of rehearsals, with excellent coordination between the producers, musicians and dancers.
Based on the theme “Garden”, the performance included a variety of
European music pieces, accompanied by Manipuri pung and dhol, and traditional Bangladeshi, classical and contemporary dance composed to the music. While the Bangladeshi artistes performed with their music, the Norwegian musicians also sang and played to the popular song of Tagore's church-choir inspired song “Phule Phule Dhole Dhole”.
At the very end of the performance, Sharmila Banerjee choreographed a piece with music, in which Sudeshna went up to each section of the audience and demonstrated through mudras, a bird, fish, deer, flower and bee. Sudeshna says it was an exceptional experience for her to interact with children who did not have English in their curriculum, and to communicate with them through dance, rhythm and beats. They in turn were engaged in the performance, and clapped with the rhythms, till the very end of the show.
Rikskonseretene has previously worked in collaboration with Nritya
Nandan; in 2012, Norwegian folk dancers Ulf Arne Johanessen and Margit Myhr, came to Bangladesh to conduct a four-day workshop for Bangladeshi dancers that concluded in a very successful stage demonstration. Sharmila, Sudeshna and Nilmoni later visited Norway, where they conducted workshops on Bangladeshi folk dance at Folk High Schools in Voss, Al and Follo. In March 2013, again on the Invitation of Rikskonsertene, Sharmila and Sudeshna visited Sri Lanka to attend Jaffna Music Festival where they again did a collaborative work with the local Sri Lankan group, Aru Sree Theatre and Norwegian music band Hat trick and Fiddle.
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