TIRUCHY: The city-based Tiruchi Tirukkural Peravai hosted a rare ‘Bharatanatyam’ dance competition choreographed on Tirukkural couplets here on Saturday, which evoked tremendous response from lovers of ‘Thirukural’, the Tamil classical masterpiece collection of couplets penned by saint-poet Thiruvalluvar, as well as dance school students.
According to N. Srinivasan, president of the Peravai, this is the first time that a dance competition on ‘Tirukkural’ is being organised here with the objective of motivating youth towards imbibing the values of the Tamil classic and providing an opportunity to bring out their talents in the fine arts.
He said that students from about 12 dance schools in and around Tiruchy participated in the contest and each performed for 30 minutes at the show.
Peravai treasuer P .V. Devaraj said that the contest would be an annual feature, preferably coinciding with Teacher’s Day. They also plan to have two more competitions this year. “Guess the Kural’ contest and a quiz programme would be held in course of time.
In ‘Guess the Kural’ contest, pictorial depictions based on ethics codified in the ‘Kural’ would be displayed and visitors should relate the ‘kura’l to the picture, he added.
Students of Salangai Academy won the first prize, while the second and third prizes went to Sri Priyalaya Arts Academy and Mayuri Natyalaya.
S.N.M. Ubaidullah, former minister, gave away the cash awards to winners of the competition.
