If a city lass can forget hip-hop and swear by chhau, then it's time a village girl practises the folk dance.

Seraikela-based Rajkiya Chhau Nritya Kala Kendra has taken up the initiative to promote and propagate chhau culture in the villages of Kolhan.

Come May, members of Rajkiya Chhau Nritya Kala Kendra will start touring across various villages to propagate the chhau culture and to identify young talents who can be groomed.

The dance centre which is funded by the state government aims to penetrate remote areas and select young boys and girls who can be further trained to practise chhau. Members of the centre have already prepared a schedule to visit villages in Seraikela, Kharsawan, Chandil and Chaibasa next month.

The centre will set up various camps across the villages where local talents will be screened. Members will also visit the villages in East Singhbhum, including Potka and Patamda in June.

"At the recent Chhau Mahotsav, we came across many young artistes from nearby villages who showed an interest in the dance form. So, we decided to visit various villages and give the youths a platform to showcase their talent," said Tapan Patnaik, director of the chhau centre.

The dance centre also plans to organise chhau contests across the villages and the best among the lot will be groomed and get to perform in various state-level cultural festivals.

"There are aspiring dancers who have never performed on stage. We had organised a similar camp in 2010 and hopefully this time we will be able to pick some of the best talents," added Patnaik.

There are around 110 chhau groups in Seraikela-Kharsawan and the centre aims to add to the existing number. The Nimdih block in Seraikela currently has 25 chhau groups, Ichagarh has about five groups while Chandil has got seven.

To select the dancers, members of Chhau Dance Academy would also approach block development officers to get the number and name of panchayats. The organisers will then visit the panchayats and motivate the dancers to take part in the camp.