Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 29: The International Dara Shikoh Fellowship, which began on 19 August, has concluded after holding workshops and performances in Jammu city, Samba, and Bhaderwah.
Led by New York-based Columbia University scholar Anish Gawande, the Fellowship focuses on the exchange of art, ideas, and action. It brought UK-based theatre artiste Fabian Hartwell along with India-based Kuchipudi dancer Ranjini Nair to Jammu to engage traditions with global conversations.
“We are committed to thinking beyond boundaries and divisions because conversations around Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh need to happen all over the world – from Cairo to Moscow to New York,” said Anish Gawande, Director for the Dara Shikoh Fellowship.
Fabian Hartwell, in collaboration with Natrang Theatre’s Aarushi Thakur and Balwant Thakur, conducted workshops using Brazilian theatre artiste Augusto Boal’s “theatre of the oppressed” technique to explore masculinity and violence.
Ranjini Nair investigated how the poetry of Lal Ded could be brought to the stage via Kuchipudi, examining the interactions of history with the present and of gender dynamics in both poetry and dance forms.
This is the second year for the Dara Shikoh Fellowship, which is supported by the Dara Shikoh Centre for the Arts. The Centre has been organizing an annual festival in the region under Dr Jyotsna Singh for the past seven years.
The international Fellowship received applications from 7 countries, including USA, UK, Egypt, Colombia, France, Australia, and India. Applicants came from a variety of institutions including Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Cambridge, Sciences Po Paris and SOAS London.
Successful applicants are provided with continuing support to develop their projects and are also given opportunities to display or publish their findings on a regional and international level.
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