Ludhiana, April 11
Learning Punjabi, Haryanvi or Rajasthani dances from local trainers has been common for schoolchildren but it was an altogether different experience for the students of Ryan International School, Chandigarh road, who are learning traditional dance forms of Poland, Kazakhstan and Russia from the choreographers of these countries.
Ms Yoanna Ponikiewska from Poland and Ms Gulnar Kazbekova from Kazakhstan have been in school since Monday and have been training the students of Classes IV to VIII for the first annual function of the school to be held on Saturday at Guru Nanak Dev Bhavan. Ms Yoanna is teaching dance Krakowiak, a traditional folk dance of Poland. Seven boys and an equal number of girls have been chosen for this dance involving lot of jumping and running around.
Besides preparing them for the dance, Ms Yoanna has also designed dresses for them which include a knee-length kurta with a pair of trousers for the boys, and a white full-sleeve blouse, along with an apron, for the girls. Besides, the Polish artist is preparing red square-shaped headgears, adorned with peacock feather, for boys and white and yellow garlands made of paper to be worn by the girls around their head.
Ms Gulnar is training the girls for a traditional Kazakh folk dance called Atatolgay on a modern composition prepared by her. The dance will involve various poses with movements of hands, she said. About the dresses, she said the participating girls would be wearing long-flared frocks in red and black. With black round caps beautified with red colour sippis, traditional Kazakh ornaments and suitable make-up, the appearance of the girls would be changed altogether, said the Kazakh choreographer.
Since an artist from Russia failed to turn up, Ms Gulnar would also be teaching them Russian dance, Kostoroma, to be presented in an item called Ivankupala. The girls would use colourful handkerchiefs as props for the traditional dance in which the girls would be imparted a rural look.
With just a day to go, the students are very excited about their final performance to be held on Saturday. Priya, a class VI student participating in Polish dance, said it was an excellent opportunity for her to learn dance from the foreign artist. “Besides learning dance steps, we have learnt a lot about the culture and traditions of Poland from her,” she said.
Both Ms Yoanna and Ms Gulnar said they were visiting India for the third time to train school students for various dance performances. The invitations, they said, reached them through the Indian embassies there. They said the students of the school were very cooperative and fast in picking up the steps and now they were looking forward to the final extravaganza.
Ms Ravinder Kaur, Headmistress, said the students would be tomorrow taken to Guru Nanak Dev Bhavan for the last rehearsal. She said, a counselling session would be held at the same venue on Saturday for the new parents which would be presided over by Mr George Judan, a professor of management from Pune. Later, in the evening a graduation ceremony would also be for the passing out kids of Ryan Montessori in which they would wear gowns and would be awarded certificates.
