A festival for the mind and soul

Ahum Arts Festival, with a play, storytelling and workshops will be held between December 1 and 3 in Jakkur

Ahum (art heart u & mind), founded by Bharatanatyam dancer Anuradha Venkataraman, will organise a three-day arts festival, Ahum Arts Festival, in Jakkur.

The aim of Ahum, is to make the arts accessible to the people of North Bengaluru. “We started by organising dance and music shows and baithaks in our school and at Jakkur Lake,” says Anuradha over a call from Swastika School of Dance and Music, Jakkur, founded by her as a branch of Ahum.

Anuradha lived in Delhi most of her life and trained in Bharatanatyam there before moving to Bengaluru in 2009 and starting Ahum. “I wanted to create a community of arts by bringing artistes to Jakkur.“

“The USP of Ahum is that Jakkur is now known for dance and music too rather than just the aerodrome,” says the 44-year-old dancer, who says that the festival will be held in three different locations, featuring varied arts forms, catering to different age groups and in different languages too.

“Jakkur has a migrant population as well as a fair number of people from Karnataka and everyone will have something to look forward to,” says the dancer, who says she started learning dance as a hobby. ”I became a professional dancer as I love the creative side of dance.”

Anuradha has also been organising Kala Kreeda, which is an arts programme for children of government schools in and around Jakkur. “It is an annual camp we have been having for the past six years.” 

The event line up in Jakkur will include: Me and My Trash, a movement and spoken word performance by Preethi Bharadwaj on December 1;  a movement workshop by Preethi Bharadwaj on December 2, Dweepa, a Kannada play, directed by Lakshman KP on December 2, The Tale of Our Black Feathered Friends, storytelling for children by Rency Philip on December 3. These events would be at Swastika School of Dance & Music.