The importance of documenting tribal dance and music and conserving the art forms so as to disseminate them to posterity has been underlined by experts.
Speakers at a seminar held here on Wednesday to mark the Tribal Dance Festival as part of International Day of Indigenous People, said that though such efforts were taking place in a sporadic and random manner, it called for institutional documentation to preserve these forms for future generations.
V. Nagesh Bettakote, Vice-Chancellor, Karnataka State Dr.Gangubai Hangal Music and Performing Arts University, said that India’s fine art forms including dance and music were rooted in tribal traditions.
In a bid to conserve tribal music and dance, the music varsity would take up the documentation and also prepare notations for different forms of tribal music and dance in their pure form and make the script or the notations available to those interested in their studies.
Prof. Bettakote said to start with the music varsity would identify four forms of tribal dance and music and prepare the notations so that it lends itself to be taught in educational institutions to students who are interested in it. The NEP also provides such an opportunity and the music university will collaborate with related institutions for the purpose. The work on documenting and preparing the notations for tribal music will commence from this year, he added.
The Vice-Chancellor also announced that the music varsity would introduce diploma and certificate courses in tribal dance and music from the current academic year.
Rajesh G. Gowda, Director, Karnataka Tribal Research Institute, also underscored the importance of documenting tribal culture and said the Institute was prepared to collaborate with music and folk universities to take the project forward.
He said a national-level tribal music and dance festival will be conducted in Ballari during September to give an impetus to tribal cultural forms. The objective of such festivals was to preservetribal music and dance for posterity and create greater awareness about them among the public.
He said out of nearly 50 notified tribes in Karnataka, about 17 were forest-based tribes and the lifestyle and their culture was being studied in a random manner. It needs institutional documentation for which the Institute will network with other similar organisations, he added.
Nirmal Vaidya, President, All India Folk and Tribal Art Parishat, Hassan Raghu, General Secretary of the Parishat, and Vasanth Kumar, chief coordinator of the Mysuru unit of the Parishat, were among those present.
