25 city artistes to perform in Russia

A group of 25 dancers and musicians, led by Mangala Bhatt will be performing at the Namaste India tour 2015 in Russia and Georgia from November 15-22.

The seven-month long tour that began in May is organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), New Delhi in association with Bharat Folk Arts Academy, Hyderabad. The city-based academy, founded by Dr Gopal Raj Bhatt in 1952 specialises in Indian folk dances, tribal arts, costume designing, make-up, stage craft and visual arts.

Raghav Raj Bhatt, director, Bharat Folk Arts Academy said that all the artistes have been undergoing rigorous training for the past four months for the tour. “Artistes with a minimum of four years of training have been included for the tour and all minute details are being taken care of,” he added. Mangala Bhatt, Kathak exponent, choreographer and organiser said that it was presently snowing in Russia and extra pairs of costumes are included to make sure that nothing goes wrong.”

The folk dances that will be performed include Lambadi, Dandiya Raas, Ghoomar, Naga, Dappu-duff, Santhal, Koli, Bhangra, Gidda, Harvest, Gond, Dhimsa, Bathukamma, Mathuri, Kolatam and Bonalu.

The artistes who would be performing are S Udaya Sree, B Saujanya, Divya, Naga Swetha Manasa Mopidevi, Suvidha, Anusha Thakur, Nanda Kalavathi Reddy, A Sai Harshitha, Sirisha Polavarapu, Neha Rao Ponugoti, Mohd Shafiuddin, J Dattatrayulu, M Pashome, A Mohan Krishna, A Nikhil, P AMruth Kumar, S Ganesh, B raghunath, T Shiva Kumar, Sridhar Sattala, G Raj Kumar, L C Shekar Reddy and Sreedhar Gopagari.

Madhav Raj Bhatt will be in charge of production.