Rome (Fides Service) - This year's International campaign to eliminate leprosy promoted by the AIFO Italian Association of the Friends of Raoul Follereau opens today in Bologna with a performance by a team of blind Dancers of the Light from the Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy from India. The dance team will make a tour of nine Italian cities beginning on 15 January with Bologna and ending in Rome on 1 February, The scourge of leprosy is still present in many parts of the world and the AIFO aims to increase awareness among the public as well as to assist sufferers, The international anti-leprosy campaign will reach its peak on 26 January 2003, the 50th World Day of Solidarity for Leprosy Sufferers, Fides Service spoke with Choreographer and Ballet Master Kuypadi Narajan who has trained the dancers for the past seven years.
When was the Academy opened?
The Academy was established in 1969 as a school for children with visual handicaps, I myself began to dance when I was a child, even before I could read and write. Working with blind children at the Academy I realised that dance is a marvellous means of communications. As it is their only means of communicating I experimented with a sensorial teaching, touch and feel. I have been working with these dancers for seven years now.
What is your aim?
We want to prove that people with sight defects are perfectly able to take part in cultural spectacles.
How many dancers are in the team?
Six altogether and we train for four hours every day. However on this trip there are only five dancers because one was unable to come because he is under age. I will take his place this evening in the ballet which tells the life of Jesus Christ, The dance includes ancient Indian customs of complex movements and the use of candles and flowers. Among the different dances we do Tarangam in honour of the god Krishna, in which the dancers perform with a bowl of water in their head; Bhangra, a Punjab folk dance for male dancers only; Tillana, which is accompanied by rapid movements of eyes, eyebrows and neck. AP (Fides Service 16/1/2003)