Three-day Modhera Dance Festival 2009 from January 16th

Annual Modhera Dance Festival, year 2009 will be held on January 16th, 17th, 18th at Modhera Sun temple campus in Gujarat.

The festival ‘Uttaradh Mahotsav’ has been organized jointly by Udaipur West Zone Cultural Centre, Sports, Youth Affairs and Cultural activities department of Gujarat and Dhudhsagar Dairy.

Bangalore based dancer Vaijyanti will perform Kuchipudi dance on the first day of the festival. On second day, Padmashree Kumidini Lakhia will perform Kathak dance, Vadodara’s Parul Shah will perform Bharat Natyam on the same day. On the last day of the Uttaradh Mahotsav, Padma Vibhushan Sonal Mansingh and her group will perform music and dances while Ahmedabad based Ilakshiben Thakore will perform Bharat Natyam.

Promote local, says people

Meanwhile local people from Modhera and surrounding villages have demanded to organize local dances in Modhera Dance Festival. Local people say that they never understand classical dances like Bharat Natyam, Odisi, Kuchipudi and Kathak. Not many visitors take interest in this festival due to difficult to understand and completely out of the state, over the head kinda dances. Gujarat government spends lakhs of rupees in this festival but never take interest to add some Gujarat flavor to this dance festival.