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Breathtakingly beautiful girls reeled in and gay (as in the original meaning) guys cart-wheeled on to the stage, filling the air with festivity. A befitting beginning indeed to the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the India Council for Cultural Relations.
The event was not very different from our own rural melas. When Himachal Som from ICCR talked about it being a global village, he was not far from the truth. And like organizer Lesley Jacob said, we hear about such things, but it is always good to see them.
The Kazaki Kubani from Russia was a veritable encyclopedia of their folk tradition. Crafted by master choreogreapher Anatoli Alifef, the song and dance numbers were lively. The group was at once coy, classic, comic and creative. The men wooed and won, and the girls pirouetted (one was reminded of the Kathak chaakars) and tap-danced their way into their hearts, all of this exhibited with extraordinary skill.
The singers glorified the river Kazaki Kubani in mercurially modulated voices, using various instruments like the flute, tambourine, accordion, and
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