Thane's dance troupe to perform in Korea

Thane will soon enlighten Korea about the rich art and culture and varied traditions of India. A team of 23 dancers from Thane led by Kathak danseuse Mukta Joshi are gearing up to participate in the Andong Mask Dance Festival to be held in Korea at the end of this month.

The dance troupe from Nrityadhara dance institute, Thane, helmed by Joshi for the last 25 years, will leave for Korea on September 27. The annual dance festival is held in Andong city from September 30 to October 9. In these 11 days Joshi plans to present the cultural variety of India to Korea and the 12 other countries participating in it.

The mask dance festival is held every year to celebrate China and Korea's rich tradition of masks which contribute to both the nations' cultural identity. In the festival, Korea and China present various dance forms using masks while other countries are welcome to present their own dance forms. "But this year they have kept a slot of 5 minutes for each country to use masks in some way in their dance forms," said Joshi.

Joshi who has been an active kathak dancer trained under Padmashri Dr Roshan Kumar, will present various avatars of Devi (goddess) using masks. "We will do a Devi Tandav where her various incarnations will be shown using masks," she said. In another performance they will put up a dance act with Rajasthani puppets, where women dancers will wear puppet masks and perform. "We are also performing a ganpati stuti using a mask," she said. "Since we have so many dance and art forms we will use a variety of costumes to represent as many possible," she added.