Dance director and choreographer Kamrul Hasan Ferdous said that the development of dance theatre in the country was struggling due to a lack of patronage and quality venues.
鈥榃e have to invest a lot of time and money in a dance theatre production because a new production requires its own music, expensive costumes and others. In our country, it is difficult to find sponsors for performing arts. Therefore, dance troupes are finding it difficult to further dance theatre in the country due to a lack of patronage,鈥� said Kamrul Hasan Ferdous, who has been pursuing dance since 1988.
鈥榃e also do not have good venues for staging dance theatre productions. As a result, not many dance theatre productions are made in the country. We also cannot get our money back by staging a lot of shows,鈥� he added.
Ferdous is currently teaching dance at Shanto-Mariam University of Creative Technology. He said that dance theatre productions comprise movement, acting, music and dialogues.
鈥業n dance theatre, we tell a story with movement, acting, music and dialogues. However, dance dramas lack acting due to a lack of characterisation,鈥� said Ferdous, who founded the dance theatre troupe named Bahor in 2020. It has brought to the stage three dance theatre productions titled 鈥楰ajol Rekha鈥�, 鈥楻omeo-Juliet鈥� and 鈥楴idan e Karbarala鈥�.
鈥業 adapted and directed the famous Shakespearean tragedy Romeo-Juliet as our second dance theatre production. It is set in the context of Bangladesh in the 1990鈥檚. Besides, I have directed a dance theatre production titled Romeo-Juliet for an Indian dance troupe Angikam recently,鈥� added Ferdous.
He has recently directed a production titled 鈥楴idan e Karbala鈥� based on Mir Mosarraf Hussain鈥檚 famous novel titled Bishad Shindhu.
鈥業 have tried to bring to light the essence of Karbala depicted by Mir Mosharraf Hossain in his famous novel titled Bishad Shindhu. I researched the Battle of Karbala, spoke to Shia Muslims and attempted to depict the story impartially in my production,鈥� mentioned Ferdous.
鈥楢s there are not many good venues in the country, we were only able to stage 20 shows of our three productions till date,鈥� he said.
Ferdous is currently working on his forthcoming dance theatre production titled 鈥楻ang Mala鈥� based on a story of the Noakhali district.
鈥業 am currently researching Choudhorir Lorai which is well known in the Noakhali district. I am researching our folk dance style because we have to work to preserve our folk dance,鈥� said Ferdous, who thinks that educational institutions should not discarnate against men when hiring dance teachers.
鈥楳any educational institutions do not want to hire men as dance teachers. If the situation does not change, the number of male dancers will decrease in the country,鈥� he ended.
