Children take part in the solo dance competition at Rabindra Parishad in Patna on Wednesday. Pictures by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, May 18: Schoolchildren performed to a number of immortal numbers of Rabindranath Tagore, like Aamar khola haowa and Momo chitte niti nitte, at the solo dance competition organised by Rabindra Parishad today to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of the Nobel laureate.

Arunima Chatterjee, a participant at the competition, said dancing to Tagore’s tunes is a unique experience.

“I really love dancing to Tagore’s tunes,” said the Class V student of Mount Carmel School. “It is an inexplicable experience — when you dance to Tagore’s music, you forget everything around you and the lyrics of the song become all important.”

More than a hundred students from different city-based schools, like St Karen’s High School, St Joseph’s Convent High School, Mount Carmel High School, Notre Dame Academy, St Paul’s High School, KPS Memorial High School and DAV Public School, took part in the competition. The participants were divided into five categories — the juniormost, for classes II to V, and the seniormost, for everyone above 18.

Parents, too, joined the children in the performance at times, much to the delight of the audience.

Arunima’s mother Pihu, a teacher at St Joseph’s Convent High School, said: “This celebration is important for my daughter and me. Initially, I did not want to take part in the competition. But my students forced me to. Now, I am glad that I danced today.

“I have been dancing to Rabindrasangeet since childhood. When I was Arunima’s age, my mother used to bring me here. I, too, have performed on the stage of Rabindra Parishad as a child,” said the former student of the parishad.

Each participant was given five minutes to perform to a Tagore song — either in its Bangla or Hindi version. They were judged by Calcutta-based Bharatnatyam dancer Sangeeta Aich Bhowmick and Patna-based Kathak dancer Ruma Aikat.

“The facial expressions and the body language of a dancer are as important for me as the sense of rhythm and beats. I’ll judge the participants on these parameters,” said Aikat.

She added that the celebrations really moved her. “I am glad that a celebration of this nature has been organised in a non-Bengali state. We know how important Tagore is for the Bengalis. However, Tagore is a representative of not only one part of India but the whole country,” said Aikat.

Bhowmick said: “The programme organised by Rabindra Parishad is larger than many of the programmes in Bengal. I learnt of this last year and was very excited to be a part of this.”

Provas Roy, general secretary, Rabindra Parishad, said: “Tagore is God for us. We are just paying tribute to him.”

The results of the competition will be declared in August, after the competitions in the other districts are over.

The yearlong celebrations, which began on May 9 — Tagore’s birthday, will have shows of films based on Tagore’s stories and a painting competition as well.