The International Arts and Cultural Foundation has announced the 5th edition of the Transgender Arts Festival, an event dedicated to promoting classical arts and providing an exclusive platform for transgender classical dancers.
This year’s festival, themed “Expression Beyond Gender,” aims to celebrate the talent and creativity of transgender classical dancers. The festival is the brainchild of Srivatsa Shandilya, the founder director of the International Arts and Cultural Foundation.
Srivatsa has been a photographer in the media industry for over 35 years and started this organisation 12 years back to promote classical arts among the transgender community. In 2015 he was the first to organise the Transgender Arts Festival.
Fostering inclusivity
“The festival is motivated by my desire to foster inclusivity and to showcase the diverse expressions of artistry among the trans community,” said Srivasta.
“I always wanted to organise something different from the usual routine of an evening of classical dance. I ended up thinking of focused events and started this exclusive transgender classical dance festival to make it stand out from traditional performing arts festivals by deliberately breaking away from the norm,” he further added.
Srivatsa Shandilya | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Srivasta says that his experiment has resulted in the government recognising transgender dancers. “It was an eye opener when people from the ministry started asking the database of transgender classical dances across India,” he says.
The event will feature Classical dance performances by Vaishnavi, Selvi Santhosam, Rekha, Rose, Omana, and Karthi. All of them are disciples of Shanmuga Sundaram, artistic director of Sarasalaya, a classical dance performance center in Chennai.
Diverse background
“This year we have six transgenders from Chennai, some of them are students while some are working professionals. From IT to HR professionals, more and more people from diverse backgrounds have participated this year,” said Srivasta. After the performances, the artists will engage with the audience, sharing their inspiring stories of resilience and dedication.
The chief guest for the event will be Anu Prabhakar Mukherjee, a noted award-winning Kannada film actor, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, a well-known classical dancer and Indian film actor, and dancer Sathyanarayana Raju.
The event is open to the public with free entry on a first-come, first-served basis. Seating is limited to 200 seats. The event is scheduled to be held on March 31, at Sevasadan Auditorium, 14th Cross Malleshwaram, from 5 p.m. onwards.
