Organised by Musical Dreams, an art academy, Take the Stage is projected not just as a live dance and music show, but also as a launching pad for promising artistes. This chapter of the event hosted a number of established performers, who have won accolades globally, alongside those who are beginning their life in showbiz.
The motto of Take The Stage is “freedom of creation”, which, the organisers believe, sets the tone for the overall event, whose objective is to instil the spirit of teamwork and mutual support among contemporary Indian artistes.
The performances showcased here often result in generating professional work for the artistes involved. Take The Stage has been an important continuous endeavour of Musical Dreams, which claims that its business objective is to support and promote the stars of tomorrow.
Guardian 20 spoke to Meeta Nagpal, organiser and founder of Musical Dreams, about the future of performing arts in India. “Performing arts have a very bright future in India,” she said, “due to many reality shows coming up on Indian television and reaching every household in every nook and corner of the country. People are getting more aware about the performing arts, be it dance, singing, music or acting. And they are becoming more open and accepting towards the performing arts in general, which means the artistes have a better chance of making it in this scenario.”
Take The Stage provides an opportunity for the audiences to experience and learn more about the performing arts and about new trends in this field.
At the latest show, several renowned artistes were among those who took the stage. Some of them were Alankar Mehtolia (winner of Golden Voice of India, and Asia’s Singing Superstar finalist 2015-16); Vijay Longani (who was a single released by T-Series); Koushal Pradhan (IGT Season 4, India’s Dancing Superstar, Dance Plus Season-1); Shruti Dhasmana (winner of MTV’s new Cafe Cover Singing Challenge); and Stutee Tiwari (from Indian Idol Season 9) among others.
The performances showcased here often result in generating professional work for the artistes involved. Take The Stage has been an important continuous endeavour of Musical Dreams, which claims that its business objective is to support and promote the stars of tomorrow.
“This stage is like home to me. I have been performing on this stage since its season 1. This stage is special because over here all the artistes are given the freedom to express their form of art. It is because of this freedom that I have been able to find more creative side to myself which helps me grow more as an artiste”, she added.
Other performances included contemporary version of kathak by Amit Halder and his team; unplugged singing by Stutee Tiwari and Mridul, Heel Jazz performance by Neha and Bani, a shadow dance that depicted various shades of Delhi was choreographed by musical dreams themselves.
Talking about the shadow dance piece, Nagpal said, “It takes us from early morning Delhi to the dark nights. We have tried our best to keep the love for Delhi going but also to encourage people to respect our city. This performance is straight from the eyes of Delhi itself.”
The concert over the past years has been able to put different art forms including kathak, contemporary, ballet, afro jazz, hip hop, Bollywood , guitar and singing among others to the forefront and has been equally applauded and appreciated by the audience of all age group.
On being asked what makes this edition stand out, Nagpal elaborated, “We have tried to be different in every take the stage that we have done in the previous years and this year was even better we were able to put up a shadow piece based on different aspects of Delhi written and conceptualized by me which was the highlight of our entire show of Take the Stage this year.”
Take The Stage took place on 26 July at Kamani Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi.