2. The National Folk Dance Festival-2009 will commence on 23rd January, 2008. H.E. the President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, has kindly consented to inaugurate the Festival at Sirifort Auditorium on 23rd January, 2009 at 6:00 PM. Smt. Ambika Soni, Hon'ble Minister of Tourism & Culture will preside over the function. The inaugural show will begin with the lighting of a lamp to invoke the Agni (Fire), the most essential of the five basic elements of life known as ‘Panch Mahabhoots’. Thereafter, folk dance troupes will put up performance in Sirifort Auditorium and other places in Delhi as per the schedule given at ANNEXURE-I. Forty three (43) Folk dances selected from twenty eight (28) States and two (2) Union Territories with about seven hundred (700) folk artists are participating in this event as per details given at ANNEXURE-II.
3. As folk dances are borne out of the traditional needs of the people, these are strongly influenced by their religious and social beliefs. Each folk dance during the event is connected in a unique way to the people of the concerned region. The themes relate to celebration of good harvest season, worshipping gods, traditional rituals on the occasion of birth and marriage, agricultural practices, celebrating different festivals and seasons, tribute to nature etc,. These folk dances, thus, underline the spirit of unity in the cultural diversity of our country and also generate cultural consciousness among the masses towards their rich cultural heritage they can feel proud of.
4. Some of the salient features with regard to folk dances participating in this event this year are as follows;-
(a) Folk dances that had become extinct and have been revived with the efforts of the Zonal Cultural Centers (under the scheme of Guru Shishya Parampara) and brought to national capital for performances (07-Nos.)
(1) Raibenshe-West Bengal (2) Saraikela Chhau-Jharkhand (3) Ghoomra-Orissa (4) Pai Danda-Uttar Pradesh (5) Jabro-Jammu & Kashmir (6) Kud-Jammu & Kashmir and (7) Gorwara Kunitha-Karnataka.
(b) Folk dances coming for the first time (6-Nos.)
(1) Ghoomra-Orissa (2) Saila-Madhya Pradesh (3) Erap-Arunachal Pradesh (4) Roina-Nagaland (5) Badhai Nritya-Madhya Pradesh and (6) Kalashi Fugadi-Goa.
(c) Folk dances restricted to women folk only (6-Nos.)
(1) Dhedia-Uttar Pradesh (2) Jhijhia-Bihar (3) Karagam-Tamil Nadu (4) Chakri-Rajasthan (5) Banjara-Maharashtra and (6) Kalashi Fugadi-Goa.
(d) Folk dances performed by males only (14-Nos.)
(1) Raibenshe-West Bengal (2) Dhol Cholom-Manipur (3) Paika-Jharkhand (4) Pai Danda-Uttar Pradesh (5) Erap-Arunachal Pradesh (6) Bhangra-Punjab (7) Kud-Jammu & Kashmir (8) Gorwara Kunitha-Karnataka (9) Songi Mukhawate-Maharashtra (10) Chhattisgarhi Karma-Chhattisgarh (11) Dappulu-Andhra Pradesh (12) Garadi- Pondicherry (13) Theyyam-Kerala and (14) Mer Raas-Gujarat.
(e) Folk dances relating to martial arts (05-Nos.)
(1) Raibenshe-West Bengal (2) Paika-Jharkhand (3) Pai Danda-Uttar Pradesh (4) Erap-Arunachal Pradesh and (5) Mer Raas- Gujarat.
(f) Tribal dances (14-Nos.)
(1) Paika-Jharkhand (2) Ghoomra-Orissa (3) Saila-Madhya Pradesh (4) Erap- Arunachal Pradesh (5) Lai Haraoba-Manipur (6) Wangala-Meghalaya (7) Cheraw-Mizoram (8) Roina-Nagaland (9) Tamang Selo-Sikkim (10) Sangria Mog-Tripura (11) Jabro-Jammu & Kashmir (12) Nicobarese-Andaman & Nicobar Islands (13) Mewasi-Gujarat and (14) Banjara-Maharashtra.
(g) Drum dances (07-Nos.)
(1) Dhol Cholom-Manipur (2) Saila-Madhya Pradesh (3) Wangala-Meghalaya (4) Cheraw-Mizoram (5) Roina-Nagaland (6) Kaksar-Chhattisgarh and (7) Dappulu-Andhra Pradesh.
(h) Mask dances (02-Nos.)
(1) Saraikela Chhau-Jharkhand and (2) Songi Mukhawate-Maharashtra.
(i) Fire dance (01-No.)
(1) Dhedia-Uttar Pradesh.
5. During the Republic Day Parade, a children contingent will be presenting Barat dance-a tribal dance of Tiwa community of Assam sponsored by North East Zone Cultural Centre (NEZCC), Dimapur on Rajpath on 26th January, 2009.
6. The seven Zonal Cultural Centres functioning as autonomous bodies under the Ministry of Culture, were set up during the years 1985 and 1986 with the objective to preserve, promote, innovate and disseminate various arts of the Zones falling under the broad disciplines of Sangeet, Natak, Lalit Kala and Sahitya so as to develop and promote the rich diversity and uniqueness of various arts of the zone and to upgrade and enrich consciousness of the people about their cultural heritage. Special focus was to be given towards encouraging folk, tribal and vanishing art forms.
7. ZCCs have been instrumental in providing a very strong infrastructure to the artists and more so to the folk artists to showcase their talents in the direction of preservation, promotion and dissemination of Indian art and culture in its entire spectrum. There are regular theatre shows, art exhibitions, handicraft fairs, performances of dance and music being organised by ZCCs along with documentation and publication works. These centres have enormous data base of folk art forms and are also rendering important service in the implementation of various schemes of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India while working as field agency of the Ministry of Culture.