Festival ‘unites societies through performing arts’

SHILLONG: The International Performing Arts Festival (IPAF) was organised in Shillong on Tuesday to encourage art forms and holistic traditions through performing arts across societies.
“It (IPAF) is an initiative aimed at uniting societies and cultures with the fusion of performing arts globally. IPAF also supports differently-abled and upcoming artistes,” said R.C Laloo, the chief guest at the function, while talking about cultural and societal fusion.
Earlier, the Chief Minister was slated to attend the programme as chief guest.
The event, however, drew less people at U Soso Tham auditorium. Nevertheless they were charmed by the elegant performance of Kathak exponent Vidha Lal, who is the disciple of Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Geetanjali Lal of Jaipur gharana. Lal has entered the Guinness book of world records for her 103 Kathak spins in a minute.
Other performances of the evening included local band 4th Element and traditional dances of the three tribes – Khasi, Jaintia and Garo.
IPAF, which was launched in July 2015 in Ahmedabad, is developed by Essencia Entertainment Pvt Ltd that is represented by its director Shyam Pandey, who addressed the media earlier in the day.
“IPAF was organised in different cities like Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Guwahati, Nagpur, Lucknow and Varanasi. It will be organised in 20 state capitals of the country and five world capitals with its launch in Dubai in January 2017,” said Pandey.