Dancer Mansiya performs on ‘secular’ stage

Thrissur

: Dancer

Mansiya Shyam Kalyan

, who was denied an opportunity to participate in the dance festival at

Koodalmanikyam

temple, Irinjalakuda, as she was not a Hindu, performed

Bharatanatyam

at a nearby stage on Monday. DYFI organized the programme for her at Irinjalakuda Town Hall, which is less than 2km away from the temple, and hundreds of people flocked to the auditorium braving heavy rains.“I believe we may not have to wait for long to enter into a period when art has no religion. Let more democratic-secular stages be formed for art in the state. Let us wait for the dawn of that era when the voice of the other will be music to one’s ears,” Mansiya told the audience, in her brief address before the programme. Higher education minister

R Bindu

, who inaugurated the cultural get-together arranged prior to the dance programme, said the efforts of all should be to build bridges between the artistic minds and not to erect walls between them.The minister pointed out that the temple managing committees may have the constraints that they have conservative rituals and customs. “But changes and progress should be ushered in the overall society through ideological sensitization initiatives. Those initiatives should in no way lead to any communal tensions,” said Bindu. She suggested that stages where artists from all communities can perform should be set up close to the compound walls of the temples.