Bengaluru event to provide a platform for classical dancers from trans community
The Hindu
This year’s festival, themed “Expression Beyond Gender,” aims to celebrate the talent and creativity of transgender classical dancers. The festival is the brainchild of Srivatsa Shandilya, the founder director of the International Arts and Cultural Foundation.
The International Arts and Cultural Foundation has announced the 5th edition of the Transgender Arts Festival, an event dedicated to promoting classical arts and providing an exclusive platform for transgender classical dancers.
This year’s festival, themed “Expression Beyond Gender,” aims to celebrate the talent and creativity of transgender classical dancers. The festival is the brainchild of Srivatsa Shandilya, the founder director of the International Arts and Cultural Foundation.
Srivatsa has been a photographer in the media industry for over 35 years and started this organisation 12 years back to promote classical arts among the transgender community. In 2015 he was the first to organise the Transgender Arts Festival.
“The festival is motivated by my desire to foster inclusivity and to showcase the diverse expressions of artistry among the trans community,” said Srivasta.
“I always wanted to organise something different from the usual routine of an evening of classical dance. I ended up thinking of focused events and started this exclusive transgender classical dance festival to make it stand out from traditional performing arts festivals by deliberately breaking away from the norm,” he further added.
Srivasta says that his experiment has resulted in the government recognising transgender dancers. “It was an eye opener when people from the ministry started asking the database of transgender classical dances across India,” he says.
The event will feature Classical dance performances by Vaishnavi, Selvi Santhosam, Rekha, Rose, Omana, and Karthi. All of them are disciples of Shanmuga Sundaram, artistic director of Sarasalaya, a classical dance performance center in Chennai.
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