Punjab Folk Dance Festival reaches AIMC

Staff Report

LAHORE: The Punjab Lok Rahs on Sunday arranged the ‘Punjab Folk Dance Festival’ in collaboration with the Drama Society of the Allama Iqbal Medical College (AIMC), Lahore, at the college auditorium.

The festival was part of the International Mother Language Day to celebrate the diversity of Punjabi language and richness of its cultural heritage.

Students from different educational institutions across Punjab presented folk dances, including bhangra, jhoomer, malwai giddha, ghoomer, dharees, luddi, kikkli, sammi, gatka, dhammal and julli, which received applause from the audience.

Students from the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS), COMSATS, University of Gujrat, University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Forman Christian College (FCC), The University of Punjab, School of International Studies in Sciences and Arts, Bahauddin Zakariya University, The Educators and New Horizon School participated in the dances. Folk dances from other provinces, like Sindhi Jhoomer, Attan and Khatak, were also part of the festival.

Talking to Daily Times, one of the organisers, Adil, said that the dances were produced in a three-month series of workshop organised by the Punjab Lok Rahs. He said that the organisation had engaged many dance teachers and experts from both classical and folk backgrounds in the process, including Beena Jawad, Nighat Chaodhry, Arif Panwar and Zahoor Hussain. “The festival also includes dance performances by traditional dancers of Punjab. The performances include jhoomer of Ravi, jhoomer of Chenab, jhoomer of Jhang and gatka, also called dandia,” he said.

The Punjab Lok Rahs kicked off the event with its first phase on February 21, by rotating the festival at four venues of Lahore; School of International Studies in Sciences and Arts (SISA), National College of Arts (NCA), Bagh-e-Jinnah and Liberty Market.

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