Baloch Leva dancers save the day

Despite some glitches, the event attracted people from all over the city.

KARACHI:

At Jashn-e-Faiz, in one hall, a short documentary by Faris Kermani, ‘Poet in Troubled Times’ suffered a technical glitch. As the organisers tried fixing it, the audience amused itself by listening to the beat of the drums outside..

Baloch dancers performed to folk music known as Leva and within seconds, several onlookers joined in. The crowd was quick to learn the simple dance moves and they started following each step.

“These people don’t know what Leva means but they are copying every step,” said Qadir Buksh Lasi, president of the Lasi Cultural Performance Academy. “For the first time, people from different income groups, colour and creed are dancing together and that too to a song they don’t understand but enjoy nonetheless,” he said.

Visitor Mehmood Iqbal admitted that he was there to “enjoy the music and food more than anything else”.

“I would have loved the ‘chattering classes’ to come and see the atmosphere over here,” said Niilofur Farrukh, editor of Nuqta Art and the head organiser of seminars and arts activity at Jashn-e-Faiz.

If one had to sum up the whole event in a few words, she said, it would be “spontaneous, youthful and most importantly, a meeting of cross sections of our society”. “Which was the reason behind organising this festival,” she added.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th,  2011.