The Indian Cultural Center (ICC) Bali will organize an Indian art and cultural festival to promote inter-social and cultural dialogue between India and Bali. The festival is being organized by the Embassy of India and supported by The Indian Council for Cultural Relations and the Indian government's cultural and tourism departments. In Bali, it will be held in Denpasar, Ubud and Singapadu in Gianyar, Karangasem and Klungkung, from November 1 through December 11, 2009. The festival aims to promote relationships between the people of India and Bali, in particular.
Bhuvneshwar Sharma, Deputy Director - ICC Bali, said that the event, Festival of India, would be accompanied by similar events in Jakarta, Bandung, Medan, Pekanbaru, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, and Mataram in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, with the tagline of 'friendship through culture'. He mentioned that the performance could be seen free of charge and tickets would be available at Indian Cultural Center in Denpasar and Ashram Gandhi in Karangasem. Niveditha Parthasarathy, a dance teacher, will perform dance movements taken from 'Pusphanjali', a South Indian dance form at the time of announcements.
Some 90 professional dancers from India will perform at 12 places across Bali, starting at Puri (Palace) Saraswati in Ubud on November 3. The performances will include two Indian classical dances, Manganiars and Kathak. The famous Bharathanatyam dance will be performed at Denpasar Art Center on November 3. The festival will continue at Ashram Gandhi at Puri Klungkung, Puri Gede and Ashram Ratu Bagus in Karangasem regency, and Bali Spirit in Ubud. It is an interesting thing to mention that Bali too has a dance form, having the name Pushpanjali, which is performed to welcome the guests.
