Contemporary Dance Festival 2018 held at BSA

A housefull audience observed a wonderful performance by 12 talented young choreographers of the country during the Contemporary Dance Festival 2018 at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) on November 27 and 28.  The festival was jointly organised by Goethe-Institut Bangladesh and BSA.

The event resulted as a continuation of the Young Choreographers' Platform project initiated by Goethe-Institut Bangladesh aiming to provide a stage to the talented Bangladeshi young contemporary dance choreographers and dancers to transmit their thoughts of present-day Bangladesh through contemporary dance forms and styles. After a monthlong workshop under the mentorship of Tomas Bünger, the crew put on an outstanding show at the festival.

“Contemporary means the everyday experience we go through. The young dancers will express their experience and thoughts through dance,” said Goethe-Institute Director Kirsten Hackenbroch.

Subjects such as trust, rape, struggling identity, freedom, male abuse, bonding of siblings were displayed through the beautiful dances at the event. 

“I tried to develop contemporary dance forms in Bangladesh based on the folk and classical form of dance in the country. We just tried to give wings to the roots”, said Tomas Bünger,  Artistic Director of the Young Choreographer's Platform.

The participating choreographers of the festival were, Mehraj Haque Tushar, Parvin Sultana Kolly, Ariful Islam Arnab, Moumita Roy Joya, Anandita Khan, Tahnun Ahmedy, Sudeshna Swayamprabha, Md Farhad Ahmed, Bristi Bepari, Md Eashin Arafat and Snata Shahrin.