The Music and Me Dance Festival

Three-day dance festival provides a platform for young exponents of classical music and dance,    inviting them to showcase their skills before an   audience.                                                              

Mumbai: A three-day dance festival, Music & Me, organised by the Music & Me group, is a first of its kind initiative that invites amateurs learning various forms of classical dance and music to showcase their skills in front of an audience. To be held from December 1-4, 2011 at the

Ravindra Natya Mandir, Mumbai, the festival aims to inculcate an appreciation of the classical forms of dance and music.

Aditi Yadav, Artistic Director of Music & Me and the driving force behind the festival, believes that such platforms go a long way in encouraging children to keep learning classical dance in an age where TV reality shows tend to take the focus away from the classical forms.

"Being from the field of classical dance, I realised that we never had a chance to perform for our parents, friends and family till we had spent nearly 10-15 years perfecting the art. This makes it difficult for kids to continue and stick to classical art forms," says Yadav, who is a trained Kathak dancer and a recipient of the Central Government's National Scholarship for Kathak, 2009.

The format of the festival is such that students of different institutions will also get to interact with trained classical dancers. The third day of the festival will be open to classical musicians and instrumentalists. Almost 10 classical dance institutes and 150 performers are expected to showcase their art, in forms ranging from Bharatanatyam, Kathak Yoga, Kathak and Odissi.

To make the festival more interactive, fusion pieces (combining a western style of dance with a classical style), will also be performed on the last day.

The registrations for the event closes on November 29, 2011.

Interested artistes can register through the website http://www.musicandmegroup.com/ or 

call Music & Me at 09819941134.

The festival is organised by the Music & Me Group which is a platform for dance and music lovers to share their experiences and talent with the rest of the world through an online portal http://www.musicandmegroup.com/