Legacy of Tagore to be preserved in the UK

London. July 13, 2008. The dance form of first Asian Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, will be the subject of a major study and preservation in the UK. "The project entitled Legacy, supported by Britain's Heritage Lottery Fund, a body set up by the UK's Parliament, will research and document the history of Manipuri and Tagore dance forms in the UK," announced Nrityakala The Rhythm, a London-based organisation, entrusted with the work of implementing the project, Sunday, July 13, 2008.

Tagore became an admirer of the Manipuri dance in the early 19th century. As he wrote poetry and plays, and composed music, he evolved a unique form of dance, a combination of Manipuri, Bharatnatyam, Kathak and Kathakali, that later came to be known as Tagore dance. Tagore visited England on several occasions and also studied in Brighton and London for a brief period.

"It's an honour and recognition to get support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. For the next 18 months we plan to organise workshops and performances in some of the big cities of the UK, followed by a grand finale in London that will comprise performances and screenings of two new films on the subject," said Bithika Raha 'Basu', the director of the Legacy project. She is also the founding director of Nrityakala The Rhythm.

Nrityakala The Rhythm: School of Dance and Institute of Indian Culture, founded by Bithika Raha 'Basu' in 1986, is one of the foremost proponents of Classical, Folk & Contemporary Indian dance, music, art and culture in the UK. Nrityakala The Rhythm has produced and promoted many performances of national and international acclaim, with artists of the very highest calibre, from the Indian sub continent and from the UK.

Mrs Raha has created dance theatre based on the works of Tagore in English, Hindi and Bengali for the benefit of the Asian youth in the U.K as well as non-Asians.

Nrityakala recently produced 'At Home in London', a 50-minute documentary film in English, as part of a project “A glimpse of Bengal”. The film charts the lives of first generation British Bengalis and reveals how they came to be living in London.

The film is being offered to secondary schools across the capital in a bid to help the next generation of Londoners understand what makes their city tick. Directed by Tapash Sen Gupta and produced by Bithika Raha 'Basu', the film is made up of interviews with Indian and Bangladeshi Bengalis from all walks of life that came to Britain from the 1950s to the 1980s. They have been recorded talking about their memories and personal experiences as the film explores their language and cultural background.

After the success of 'At Home in London' followed a much talked about album 'In Many Moods,' consisting of two audio CDs, based on the writings of Tagore in English, produced and released by Nrityakala The Rhythm in 2006. The CDs contain acclaimed stories such as 'The Hungry Stones' and  'Karna-Kunti', and some memorable poems from 'Gitanjali'.
www.nrityakala.org