Abu Dhabi: 400 students to take part in ISC-UAE Open Youth Festival

Competitions to be held in different forms of Indian classical and semi-classical dances

Ashwani Kumar

Published: Wed 18 Jan 2023, 5:53 PM

Last updated: Wed 18 Jan 2023, 7:21 PM

Around 400 students are expected to participate in the three-day ISC-UAE Open Youth Festival to be held in Abu Dhabi from Friday.

India Social and Cultural Centre (ISC), Abu Dhabi, is organising the event after a gap of three years, noted its president D. Natarajan.

“This is a festival, which helps to showcase the artistic abilities of students residing across the UAE,” he said during a press conference.

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General secretary P. Sathyababu said competitions will be simultaneously held at five different venues of the centre.

“We expect the participation of around 400 students from various schools and educational institutions.”

The competitions will be held in different Indian dance forms, including Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam, Kuchipudi, Odissi, folkdance, semi-classical, and various forms of music like Carnatic, Hindustani, light music, mono act, fancy dress, drawing, painting and so on.

Treasurer Limson K. Jacob said that the competitions will be held in five age categories.

“There will be five categories: kids (3 to 6 years), sub-junior (7 to 9 years), junior (10 to 12 years), senior (13 to 15 years) and super-senior (16 to 18 years).”

Apart from prizes for first three winners, the best emerging winners will be honoured with titles ‘ISC Prathibha 2023’ and ‘ISC Thilak 2023’. Also, there is an award for the ‘Best Indian Art and Cultural School’, which will be based on the total points gained by the participants from the individual school.

Literary secretary Deepak Kumar Dash is expecting a good turnout of community members to watch and encourage students.

“This is a festival of competitions for students, and it aims to represent diverse cultures of various states of India.”

Sooraj Ramachandran, vice-chairman, Private international English School, underlined that the event was an “important one” for students, especially being held after the pandemic.

Dr Naveen Hood Ali, director, operations, Medeor and LLH Hospital, and Hariprasad Karichery, business development manager, Ahalia Hospitals, were also present during the press conference. Private international English School, Medeor Hospital and Ahalia Hospital are among the supporters of the festival, which will be held from Friday till Sunday.