Growing Popularity Of Dance Needs Showcasing: Minu Haque

On the eve of International Dance Day on April 29, Ekushey Padak recipient dancer and choreographer Minu Haque urged the media to showcase dance as a prominent performing art of Bangladesh.

Talking to Dhaka Courier at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Minu Haque, also the president of Bangladesh Dance Artists Association (BDAA), said that dance has come a long way since it was first popularised back in the East Pakistan days, with more and more budding dancers opting for classical and contemporary dance forms.

This, she added, needs greater exposure in order to lend credibility to dance as a major performing art in Bangladesh.

An executive member of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) Bangladesh chapter, she discovered her true calling at the tender age of six. Thereafter she trained under a diverse group of different dance masters throughout the years, which helped to enrich her own technique and understanding of the essence of dance.

Haque, who went to become one of the country’s foremost exponents of the Odissi dance form, first trained under Dulal Talukder, who later went on to teach dance at Harvard.