No one has doubts the popularity of dance in India yesterday, India today and India tomorrow. Invariably, every one dances to celebrate every other occasion and it does call for one occasion to celebrate dance itself by dancing

It is said in the Great Preface of “The Book of Songs,” an anthology of Chinese poems dating from the 10th to the 7th century BC: “The emotions are stirred and take form in words. If words are not enough, we speak in sighs. If sighs are not enough, we sing them. If singing is not enough, then unconsciously our hands dance them and our feet tap them.”

According to Martha Graham acknowledged as the Picasso of Dance, “Great dancers are not great because of their technique; they are great because of their passion.” To quote Friedrich Nietzsche “Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?”

One of the major objectives of the International Theatre Institute – ITI which is an NGO in formal associate relationship with UNESCO is to promote international exchange of knowledge and practice in the domain of the performing arts. In 1982 the International Dance Committee – IDC of the ITI founded International Dance Day – IDD to be celebrated every year on the 29th April, the birth anniversary of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810) acknowledged as the creator of modern ballet.

The main purpose of IDD is to celebrate Dance, to revel in the universality of this art form, to cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers and bring people together with a common language known as Dance.

One of the highlights of the celebrations every year is to circulate across the world a message from an outstanding choreographer or dancer.

The personality is selected by the founding entity of the International Dance Day – the International Dance Committee of the ITI, which collaborates with World Dance Alliance, a Cooperating Member of the ITI.

For the year 2013 which is the 31st International Dance Day, the message author is the top ranking Taiwanese choreographer LIN Hwai-min Founder / Artistic Director, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan.

Sangam University Bhilwara keeping the rich tradition of celebrating days of national and international significance organized a colourful program on April 29 on the occasion of International Dance Day. The Guest of honor for the same was Limca Book of Records National Record Holder Ms Veena Ajmera an alumnus of Sangam ITM who is also a recipient of National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement 2001 award by Govt of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Women & Child Development New Delhi for her outstanding ability in the field of folk dance.

 

Prof BR Natarajan President Sangam University welcomed Ms Veena with a bouquet and introduced her as a dreamer performer and achiever to the audience. Addressing the students, Ms Veena said that she was indeed proud to be an alumnus of Sangam ITM Bhilwara and cheered the students to celebrate the day tapping their feet.

Prof Natarajan addressing the audience gave an overview of the significance of the day and read out to the audience the passion packed message of the IDD Personality of the year LIN Hwai-min which goes as follows: “Dance is a powerful expression. It speaks to earth and heaven.

It speaks of our joy, our fear and our wishes. Dance speaks of the intangible, yet reveals the state of mind of a person and the temperaments and characters of a people. In this digital age, images of movements take millions of forms. They are fascinating. But, they can never replace dance because images do not breathe. Dance is a celebration of life. Come, turn off your television, switch off your computer, and come to dance.  Express yourself through that divine and dignified instrument, which is our body.

Come to dance and join people in the waves of pulses. Seize that precious and fleeting moment. Come to celebrate life with dance.”

The students had a gala time dancing to a variety of Bollywood hits, Punjabi songs, Rajasthani songs.