'Khajuraho Dance Festival- 2019, Part-1' - by K J S Chatrath

I was lucky to see some of the performances at the Khajuraho Dance Festival 2019. The arrangements and compering were excellent and for this Madhya Pradesh Tourism authorities need to be complimented.

I may, however, point out four issues which I think need to be taken note of:

 (1) Firstly, while the performances were free for the public to come and witness on first come first served basis, the seats were arranged in a level ground. The result being that except those in the very first row, the other spectators could see only a part of the performances as the heads of those sitting in earlier rows blocked vision. As a layman I can think of two possible solutions for future (i) giving a slant to the ground, and/or (ii) making the stage higher by a foot or so.

 (2) The audio was kept quite a few notches higher than what it should have been, and

 (3) Without naming any artist, one may say that every dance artist has to retire some day giving way to younger talent. It was clear that some of the dance artists who performed, though excellent, were well past their prime and should think of retiring in favour of younger talented artists, and

(4) Christening it as 'International' Dance Festival is a misnomer as all the dance forms on display as well as the artists were Indian.