By Rashi Wadhera
We personally think it's awesome every time something new and exciting comes to town. And this new, two week long performing arts festival definitely qualifies. The Delhi International Arts Festival {you might find it under the popular moniker DIAF} edition one was in December of 2007, incepted to represent the multi-dimensional facets of artistic practice, and to represent different cultures and countries. Think of DIAF as more of an umbrella festival, showcasing different genres of art, ranging from the most traditional styles, to the more contemporary renditions of dance, theatre, puppetry, poetry, visual arts, and film. You can expect classical dance and music, ghazals, Qawwali, homegrown and international bands, world music, jazz & blues, and classical music. The festival itself is held across different venues, with various events running simultaneously across genres and performing art types. There are up to seven to eight events on any given day.
Like most art festivals, DIAF believes in the exchange of ideas, creative expression, and transfer of art and ideas across countries and cultures. Lucky for us, all we have to do is kick back and watch. We have to say though, there is some sort of magic is watching a traditional Indian musician jam with a blues specialist. Although the festival opened on the 28th of this month, lucky for you, there's so much happening, you can still catch a great show; the festival is on up until the 11th of November. We'll leave you to go through their massive line up for yourself, but we won't leave without a few recommendations. For theatre enthusiasts, definitely try and catch the NSD productions, and dancer extraordinaire Mehneer Sudan's dance drama piece; dancers, check out the Dani Pannullo Dance Theatre Company from Spain, joining forces with Israel's Shai Ben Tsur, Sildance from the US; for traditional loyalists, there's Jyotsna Shourie's Bharatanatyam. We would love to go on, but with music, dance and theatre from Chile, Spain, Russia, Israel, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Iran, and Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Orissa, and Jammu and Kashmir, we're afraid 'word limit' might come to mean nothing.
We'll leave you to it then, Delhi.
Notes in our Little Black Book |
The 8th edition of the Delhi International Arts Festival is a platform for all types of dance, theatre, music, poetry and puppetry, spread over two weeks, across venues. Showcasing every genre under the sun, with artists from around the world, we recommend you bookmark at least one DIAF event this November.
Where: Multiple Venues
Dates: Until 11th November
For a full list of events, schedules, venues and tickets, click here.
