Art for all

Padmini Ravi and Nandini Alva have been organising Bengaluru Habba for four years now. The dancers turned culture curators talk about the challenges and the satisfaction in making the arts accessible to everyone

Art for all

Woman of action: Padmini Ravi
This year's Habba has a spectrum of events, from plays to virtuoso performances by veteran artistes as well as amateur groups. What does it take to organise a festival of such magnitude?

Padmini: We designed the Bengaluru Habba on the lines of the Singapore festival. It is for the city and for the people of the city. The only difference is that at the Singapore festival, people have to buy tickets for every performance whereas here all live performances are free. Our festival is for young people, especially techies, who hardly have the time to experience and explore culture.

Every year, we put our heart and soul into this festival. We find the sponsors. We finaliseu00a0 venues for events spanning three weeks of the Habba. Last year, we had plans for a Sufi programme and a little Bollywood fun, which was a request from a few corporate organisations. We had put in 8 months of dedicated work. The postponement of the Habba was not only sad, but it also very inconvenient as it meant reworking schedules of busy artistes. But the support from the artistes and the response from people have kept us going. This time, we have 50 performances over 9 days at 15 venues across Bangalore. There are musicians, theatre artists, classical dancers and folk artistes. There is a photography exhibition too.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

Pleased as punch: Nandini Alva
Did dance bring the two of you together?
Padmini: We had known of each other as dancers. I met Nandini at a dance performance in 1980 and we hit it off.
Nandini: Yes, dance brought us together and forged a deep friendship between us.u00a0

How the idea of AFFA originate?u00a0
Padmini: All artistes need a sabbatical. Just like the proverbial writer's block, artistes too come to a point when they question themselves and their work. Nandini and I had reached a point where we wanted to look beyond ourselves. As dancers and performers, we had been there, done that. We wanted to focus on audience development. We didn't want to sit around and grumble about the pathetic state of art and artistes. We wanted to do something concrete for artistes. In 1999, we started the Artistes Foundation for the Arts (AFFA). We travelled to US, Canada, Australia and Europe, conducting workshops and interacting with audiences.
Without sounding pretentious, I must say our efforts are helping to make the arts accessible to everyone.
Nandini: We want to focus on the development of the performing arts. We conduct training programmes in schools and colleges. We have conducted short courses in companies like ITC, ING Vysya and others. Since both of us consider Bangalore our home, we thought it would be a good idea to have a national festival here, where local artistes and music/dance aficionados get to interact with artistes from across India. We wanted to create euphoria with live performances.u00a0u00a0

You said you studied similar festivals in the West. What lessons did you learn?
Padmini: Abroad, for a festival like the Habba, you have to book your tickets months in advance. Live performances are respected. Many governments offer grants for such festivals.

How has dance made a difference in your life?
Padmini: Art has taught me to be non-judgmental. Apart from giving me a sense of fulfillment, dance has taught me to look beyond myself. Speaking for both of us, I think our work will be the legacy we leave behind for future artistes.u00a0u00a0

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