'Sopan 2019' invites young artists to show music and dance talents

A music and dance festival to encourage young and upcoming artists to take up traditional art forms will start here on Friday. Organised by Sahitya Kala Parishad and the Delhi government, in association with New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), 'Sopan 2019' will open with a Kathak performance on a Surdas bhajan by Minu Garu at Central Park, Rajiv Chowk here.

Talking about the cultural festival, Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister, said, "It is good to see young talents putting efforts to promote our traditional art forms like dance, music and instruments." "We are proud of these young upcoming stars and are glad to be associated with such platforms to provide them with an audience base," he added.

The first evening of the event will also witness a 'Shuddh Nritya' in teen taal, followed by a rhythmic performance by Sruti P and Vignesh Jayaraman on Mridangam. The evening will also host a Kathakali Play based on the famous Indian epic, the Mahabharata, by Surya S Nair.

"The festival is organised by the young scholarship holders of Sahitya Kala Parishad, which is an attempts to take forward the traditional Indian art forms. These six day-long festival is an opportunity for upcoming talents from vocals and instruments to dance forms to set an audience base for themselves," the organisers said. On the following evening of the six-day festival, performances of Mohiniattam - a classical dance from Kerala, Jha Champu - an Odiya abhinaya, Thumri, Karnatic Veena, and Bharatnatyam among others will take place.

Young artists such as Odissi dancers Madhur Gupta and Premananda Sahoo, vocalist Shivam Bhardwaj, percussionists Aamir Hussan and Amaan Jamil, and Kathak dancers Mrinalini among others will perform during the musical extravaganza. The festival will come to an end on February 6.

(With inputs from agencies.)