Children practise at the Kilkari dance camp. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Nov. 9: Kadambini Baranwal and her friends are jubilant. The dance lovers got a chance to learn the art from its master, Katthak dancer Shikha Khare, a trainer at the National Institute Delhi Katthak Kendra.

Kilkari, a unit of human resource development department, organised a five-day dance training camp from November 6, where Khare trained enthusiasts in Katthak dance for free. The students, selected from Kilkari Bal Bhawans, would take part in a dance competition on Wednesday.

Khare, a student of Pandit Birju Maharaj, said: “Kilkari is very close to my heart. Last year, 18 students participated in the camp. The number has gone up to 42 this time. This shows that people are becoming more conscious about their cultural roots. This time, I have taught the students nrityanatika Vishnu Avatar and in five days they have learnt the steps perfectly.”

Khare said: “There is no shortcut in our traditional shashtriya (classical) forms. A student can only enhance his/her skills with a proper guidance. Everyone has a unique talent, and when one goes to perform on stage, people can easily differentiate him from others.”

Baranwal is satisfied with the quality of training she has received in the past five days. “I will never forget the training that I have received over the past five days. I loved the way Shikha mam taught us the dance form. I am sure, we are going to give a great performance at the competition tomorrow,” she said.

Baranwal, a Class VIII student of Central school, said: “Not only the participants, but also the mentor was excited about the training camp. We have not got much sleep in the past five nights. On a couple of occasions, we went to bed at 3am and woke up at 8am to join the classes.”

Baranwal is not alone. There are many others who have dropped their plans of visiting their homes in far-off places for Chhath Puja.

“We are so excited about the competition that we are not even thinking of going back to our homes for Chhath. I don’t want to miss the show on November 14, more so because the chief minister and the governor are the chief guests,” said 13-year-old Komal Kumari.

For 12-year-old Soumya Shrivastav, it is like “a dream come true”.

“Our mentor doesn’t get annoyed even if we are making the same mistakes. She is always ready to help us. Not only the postures, she also delineates the meanings of the bol so that we plan our dance moves accordingly. We have learnt the Tatkar, Aamad, Tukra and Tihai Namashkar forms really well,” said Subhi, a Class X student of DAV, Khagaul, who received the Bihar Balshree Samman by Nitish Kumar in 2009 in the competition that followed the same training camp.

There are several training camps in the city for Katthak. But only those who are closely interested and have basic training can take part in the once-in-a-year training camp, which started in 2008. The organisers as well as the mentor expressed their satisfaction in the kind of participation that the camp has seen this year.