Young India! - TRENDING by Ashish Mohan Khokar

Dealing with exaggerated egos and frail talents of our grown -ups, I’m forever joyous seeing and dealing with young dancers under 13 or 15! They dance for joy, not mere show and they dance from within, not merely on stage, for stardom. They smile, cry, emote innocently with characters they portray, their own personality hardly coming in way of the depiction.
Grown-ups can be self conscious, full of themselves and rather predictable. I like the naivety, naturalness and neatness of young talents who are just happy to dance, whatever the stage. In fact, 20th anniversary issue of ATTENDANCE, I’m planning just on child talents of Indian dance under 13. Or to be generous to more, under 18.
Of course, one pitfall is that often parents think their wards are maha gifted and superstars already after one show. They also chase organizers (pester is the word!) and bombard them with emails that "my daughter danced here, there, everywhere, so why not at your festival or forum?" Swaraj is my birthright has an altogether new meaning.

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