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Message of harmony through rhythms of dance
Rtv online desk
29 Jan 2018, 00:00
The internationally-acclaimed New York City based dance troupe Battery Dance Company presented its Dhaka debut titled ‘Dancing for Peace and Tolerance’ at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the capital on Saturday evening.
‘Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind’- Mahatma Ghandi’s desire to secure a culture of peace, tolerance and nonviolence reflected through the performance.
The event was supported by the US Embassy Dhaka, the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and by the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
Through the 90-minute performance, the audience witnessed a celebration of peace between dancers of different cultures and colors, backgrounds and beliefs – emblematic of harmony through diversity.
The evening began with a performance titled ‘Shakti’ under the artistic direction of Jonathan Hollander and it was performed by the artistes of Battery Dance Company, namely Robin Cantrell, Mira Cook, Clement Mensah, Bethany Mitchell, Sean Scantelbury and Unnath Hassan Rathnaraju (guest dancer).
Battery Dance Company’s other performance included ‘Observatory’, ‘Terra and Astra’ and ‘People Get Ready’.
To make the program a bilateral between USA and Bangladesh, Shadhona Cultural Circle, one of the most prominent cultural organizations in Bangladesh as well in the sub-continent, was included in the event. Artistes of Shadhona Dance Company, under the artistic direction of Lubna Marium, presented a performance titled ‘Ultraviolet’.
The program concluded with the performance titled ‘People Get Ready’ performed by the artistes of Battery Dance Company-- Robin Cantrell & Sean Scantlebury. It was choreographed by Jonathan Hollander.
Young talented singer Shwapnil Shojib from Bangladesh joined the troupe as a guest appearance who sang the impression ‘People get ready, There's a train a-coming’, originally sung by American singer-songwriter and guitarist Curtis Mayfield.
Attending the program, US Ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Bernicat delivered speech before the dance troupe took the stage.
Battery Dance’s Executive Director Jonathan Hollander, who is also the founder of the troupe, said about performing in Dhaka, ‘Battery Dance is honored to join with the people of Bangladesh in dancing to promote peace and tolerance. Dance creates the relationship between the people. We don’t have any cover on the stage. If it’s possible to remove this cover in the field of relationship in between the countries, then there will be no complexity and conflict. We want to spread this message through the rhythms of dance.’
To note, Battery Dance Company from New York City connects the world through dance. For the past 42 years Battery Dance Company has performed on world tours while simultaneously collaborating with local artists teaching master classes, engaging in lectures and technical training and conducting its signature arts education program Dancing to Connect in over 62 countries worldwide.
Battery Dance’s history of reaching diverse international audiences has earned the organization a reputation of being a leader in cultural diplomacy.
Source: The Independent.
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Chandigarh to host its first international film festival
An experiential cinema exhibition to celebrate the centenary of Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand is being set up in the Rose Garden Underpass in collaboration with National Film Archives (NFDC) and students of Chandigarh College of Architecture.
For five days, films from across the world and the country will absorb Chandigarh’s film lovers, as Cinevesture International Film Festival (CIFF), the first international film festival, is all set to open here from March 27 to March 31.
The festival will showcase 24 award-winning international features in the World Cinema section, 17 Indie gems in the India Unveiled, 27 shorts in Brief Encounters, a curated section of children’s films and timeless classics.
Nina Lath, founder and CEO of Cinevesture, says, “The festival is envisaged as a platform for audiences and producers. Its various verticals have been designed keeping the same in mind.”
Chandigarh first international film festivalThe opening film of the festival is Cannes Award-winning French film ‘The Taste of Things’ starring Juliette Binoche.
For five days, films from across the world and the country will absorb Chandigarh’s film lovers, as Cinevesture International Film Festival (CIFF), the first international film festival, is all set to open here from March 27 to March 31.
The festival will showcase 24 award-winning international features in the World Cinema section, 17 Indie gems in the India Unveiled, 27 shorts in Brief Encounters, a curated section of children’s films and timeless classics.
Nina Lath, founder and CEO of Cinevesture, says, “The festival is envisaged as a platform for audiences and producers. Its various verticals have been designed keeping the same in mind.”
VS Kundu, a retired civil servant and former head of the National Films Division of India, has come aboard as the director of the film festival and industry veteran Bina Paul is the artistic director of CIFF. According to V S Kundu, the festival is the first global-scale cinema event to ever happen in Chandigarh.
An experiential cinema exhibition to celebrate the centenary of Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand is being set up in the Rose Garden Underpass in collaboration with National Film Archives (NFDC) and students of Chandigarh College of Architecture. A screening of Children’s films is open to all children from the ages of 10-17 years at 9 am each day from March 27-31 at Cinepolis Jagat.
The opening film of the festival is Cannes Award-winning French film ‘The Taste of Things’ starring Juliette Binoche. The closing film is South Korea’s highest grossing film of 2024 to date — the Horror-Mystery-Thriller Exhuma (Pamyo) which premiered at 2024 Berlinale.
Programming highlights include internationally acclaimed films like The Zone of Interest, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster, 2023 Academy Award-winner, The Whale, Seven Winters in Tehran, Breaking Ice, Paradise, and the animation feature Sultana’s Dreams among others.
Award-winning Indian features and docs such as Marathi film Sthal, Venice Film Festival film Stolen, Rima Das’ Assamese film Tora’s Husband, Deepa Mehta’s TIFF film, I am Sirat, auteur filmmaker Gurvinder Singh’s Punjabi feature Adh Chanani Raat, Harjit Singh’s documentary on the late Punjabi painter and writer Imroz-A Walk Down The Memory Lane, Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Malayalam film Malaikottai Vaaliban, Sreemoyee Singh’s documentary, And, Towards Happy Alleys, will be screened.
Source: Indian Express
BLACKPINK joins Taylor Swift and BTS in Spotify's Billions Club
BLACKPINK has made history by joining Spotify's Billions Club alongside famous pop icons like Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake. The famous K-pop girl group reached the milestone after their 2020 hit single 'How You Like That' garnered more than one billion streams this week. The four-member group is the first and only K-pop girl group to have achieved this feat to date.
The group consists of four K-pop idols- Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa. Thanks to their popularity on a global level, BLACKPINK is regarded as the “biggest girl group in the world.” Their new Spotify record makes 'How You Like That' the first song by a female K-pop group and the first Korean song without collaboration by a K-pop act to have 1 billion streams on the platform.
With their 2020 hit, the group has joined another K-pop and global sensation, BTS, who have two tracks, Dynamite and Butter, listed in the Billions Club. While this is the first time that BLACKPINK has made it to the prestigious list, the group member, Lisa, has individually broken the record with her solo track Money. Moreover, Jennie has also received over a billion views on YouTube for the music video of her track, Solo.
Source: Hindustan Times
Nora Fatehi says she ‘developed a thicker skin’ to survive in Bollywood
Nora Fatehi acts in films, judges dance reality shows, produces music videos and has a vibrant social media persona. The actor, who’ll be seen in Kunal Kemmu‘s Madgaon Express, has opened up about how she’s had to develop a thick skin to survive in the industry and on social media.
In this interview with indianexpress.com, Nora spoke about how the industry can typecast people but she doesn’t blame anyone, and continues to work on herself and on several projects all at once to not let the pressure get to her. She explains how she has seen her actor friends going through depression if their films didn’t work at the box office or if they cannot find work regularly.
When asked how she’s navigating the industry and whether the industry doesn’t take her seriously because she is a dancer, she says she doesn’t have “one-dimensional” answer to it.
Nora says to not be typecast and to find work, one needs to work on themselves. She said, “It is hard to say. It is not a one-dimensional answer because you can’t blame them, that’s all they know. It’s to typecast people and that’s it. It’s also like people don’t have time to discover you and explore you. People are too busy trying to make their next big hit, trying to mingle with the big stars, trying to do things. So, I don’t blame anybody but it is on me. It is my job to prove to people time and time again that ‘hey, I am multifaceted, I can do this, I can do that, give me the chance’ so, that’s my problem and I took that head on. For that you have to work on yourself also, because no actor, no artiste is perfect.”
Nora judges dance reality shows, makes music videos and acts in films. Explaining why she does several things all at once, she says, “I consider myself an artiste because I do a lot of things — I dance, I sing, I produce, I judge — I am a personality, a public figure. I don’t expect people to wake up one morning and go like, ‘haan, Nora can do it all’. I have to show it to them. For that, I need to have my eggs in different baskets, not in just one basket. This has helped me avoid the zone of depression, darkness and negativity, specially if work is not happening. These phases happen to actors, I see my actor friends go through that.”
Opening up further how she has seen her actor friends going through depression when things don’t work out for them, she says, “For example if the box office doesn’t happen, one bad Friday, they break down; if for six to eight months they don’t have another project, like a cycle of back-to-back projects, they break down. When I used to see some of my actor friends go through that, they are big stars by the way, I never want to be that person. This life is too short, you have to have an aura about you, you have to have positivity about you. I can’t allow the industry to break me like that, so I developed thicker skin because social media can kill you. I decided that, hey I want to act, yes, I love cinema that’s why I came here, however I like to do other things too. That’s what allowed me to be this positive person in the industry and be kind of relevant. Through that journey, you get people who go, ‘oh, she can do that, let me try her for this film, let me call her for this.’ It takes time, you have to be resilient, you have to be patient.”
Talking about Madgaon Express, an out-and-out comedy, Nora says, “I always wanted to do comedy. Inherently I’m a funny person, or at least that’s what I would like to think. I did a lot of funny skits and content on social media before I became relevant in the industry. It’s something I really enjoyed and I got to connect with people a lot through that. People got to see that I have a certain personality. I really enjoyed doing that. To be able to do that, come back into the comedy space, it felt so good. I am not only challenging myself as a performer, but also enjoying myself. The whole environment, the situation, the whole vibe is just so funny.”
Source: Indian Express
Puja Cherry’s mother passes away
Film actress Puja Cherry's mother Jharna Roy passes away. She breathed her last at his home in Mirpur on Sunday (24 March) at around 11 am.
According to some sources, Jharna Roy was suffering from illness. Abdul Aziz, the chief executive officer of Jaaz Multimedia, confirmed the news of the death of the actress's mother.
Abdul Aziz said that Jharna Roy had been suffering from illness for a long time from various medical conditions. She was a diabetic patient and her diabetes level had increased as well. A few weeks ago, her physical condition started deteriorating. As a result, she was taken to a hospital in Mirpur. There she underwent treatment for 15 days with seven days in an ICU. When she recovered, she was taken home when her condition improved.
However, Pooja made her debut in film as a child artist in the movie 'Bhalobashar Rong'. Later in 2018, she made her debut as a heroine on the big screen with 'Noor Jahan'.
What's behind South Korea's K-pop crisis?
The biggest names in K-pop have sought out new markets overseas. But they've left a hole in their home market that no other acts have been able to fill yet.
South Korea's hugely popular K-pop and the broader "hallyu" or "Korean Wave" genre of popular culture are experiencing something of a crisis, with domestic sales declining, new bands failing to whip up the same frenzy as their predecessors, and shares in the top K-pop agencies plummeting, suggesting that investors are jittery that the bubble may be about to burst.
The domestic slump coincides with those same performers — BlackPink, BTS, and the irascible Psy, who unleashed "Gangnam Style" on an unsuspecting world back in 2012 — growing in popularity on the international music scene.
The suggestion is that by attempting to broaden its appeal to a global audience — performing in foreign languages, topping the music charts in key markets around the world and being hyped on the chat shows — those bands have forgotten their roots and are in danger of alienating the very people who launched their careers.
Hallyu has, of course, undergone ups and downs in its popularity in the past but has always found a way to reinvent itself or evolve, analysts point out.
The challenge, they suggest, is for the industry to pull off that same trick to keep the home-grown fans coming back, buying the music and attending concerts.
Domestic versus international popularity
"I would suggest there are absolutely no signs of K-pop declining in popularity abroad and that it is difficult to directly correlate the stock market value of K-pop agencies with the popularity of their bands," said Park Saing-in, an economist at Seoul National University.
"But we can say that stock prices reflect the market's future expectations and while hit bands like BTS and BlackPink are still performing, it is fair to ask where their successors are," Park told DW.
In recent months, new band Baby Monster has failed to make a significant dent in the Melon Top 100, the South Korean ranking for music sales, while ITZY and NMIXX saw their latest releases sink dramatically in their second week, The Korean Times reported earlier this month.
Similarly, sales of the latest mini-album released by girl-group Le Sserafim shrank 20% in the second week of its release.
Uncertainty over the bankability of performers at home has hurt the four biggest management agencies, with stocks in YG Entertainment down by 15% in mid-March from the turn of the year. HYBE was down 19%, while industry giant SM Entertainment fell 22% and JYP Entertainment lost a worrying 33% of its share value in the same period, according to the ChosunIlbo newspaper.
In response to the slump in sales, which account for a major slice of total revenue, agencies are attempting to launch an array of new artistes, with YG Entertainment unveiling the boy-band Treasure, HYBE introducing TWS and Katseye and SM Entertainment pushing NCT Wish.
But it is not at all clear if any of these bands, plus others that are in the pipeline, have what it takes to take over the mantle of super-groups such as BTS.
Scandal and disruption
Other problems have also dogged the industry, with the members of BTS presently carrying out their national service, forcing the band into a year-long hiatus, while other stars have been struck down by scandal.
Karina, a 24-year-old singer with girl-group Aespa, provoked a storm of protest from fans after it was revealed in late February that she was in a relationship with actor Lee Jae-wook.
Agencies encourage their performers not to have boyfriends or girlfriends as that destroys the daydream that they like to promote among fans that these idols are single, and therefore potentially available as a romantic partner, however fanciful that notion might be.
There is a sub-set of fanatical followers who turn up at concerts waving signs that read "my husband" or "my wife" – and revelations that the target of their affections is actually involved in a real relationship is a betrayal that too often leads to anger and accusations on social media.
Whatever the cause of consumers' anguish, that is being reflected in falling popularity at home.
"A lot of hallyu culture reached its peak during the COVID pandemic," said David Tizzard, an assistant professor of education at Seoul Women's University and a columnist for a Korean daily focusing on social affairs. Hallyu is a Chinese term that translates to “Korean Wave” and refers to Korean popular culture, everything from music to movies, food and gaming.
"With people stuck indoors or isolated from others, they turned to the high production values of South Korean music and dramas to get them through it," he said.
"Hallyu is also more than just content, there's a surrounding community and culture which draws people in. They can do more than just watch a drama, they can learn about the actors, read fan fiction, communicate on Twitter and Tik-Tok," he told DW.
Post-pandemic shift
When the pandemic ended, some people "moved on," Tizzard said.
"It served a purpose. It was a genuine culture, with visible high points of the movie 'Parasite' at the Oscars and Black Pink and BTS achieving great success, but now that culture has shifted and people are looking for something new."
Tizzard believes that while hallyu culture may not be as wide as it was a couple of years ago, it remains deep and "the fans who engage in it are still as passionate as they always were."
But Park is not convinced that will be enough.
"In the past, South Korea produced a lot of hit television dramas that were hugely popular here and around the world," he pointed out. "But that is no longer the case and the television sector has lost its momentum. The same thing can happen with Korean movies or music," Park added.
"I would say that K-pop appears to be structurally sound at the moment, but the future remains uncertain."
AI model earning up to €10,000 a month
Aitana, 25, a pink-haired woman from Barcelona, receives weekly private messages from celebrities asking her out. But this model is not real.
Aitana, the first model created by artificial intelligence (AI) in Spain, was born in the middle of a difficult period.
Rubén Cruz, her designer and founder of the agency The Clueless, was going through a rough patch because he didn't have many clients.
"We started analysing how we were working and realised that many projects were being put on hold or cancelled due to problems beyond our control. Often it was the fault of the influencer or model and not due to design issues," Cruz told Euronews.
So, they decided to create their own influencer to use as a model for the brands that approached them.
They created Aitana, an exuberant 25-year-old pink-haired woman from Barcelona whose physical appearance is close to perfection.
The virtual model can earn up to €10,000 a month, according to her creators, but the average is usually around €3,000.
"We did it so that we could make a better living and not be dependent on other people who have egos, who have manias, or who just want to make a lot of money by posing," said Cruz.
Aitana's income is quite varied.
She earns just over €1,000 per advert, and has recently become the face of Big, a sports supplement company, and as if that weren't enough, she uploads photos of herself in lingerie to Fanvue, a platform similar to OnlyFans.
In just a few months, she has managed to gain more than 121,000 followers on Instagram and her photos get thousands of views and reactions. She even receives private messages from celebrities who are unaware that she is not an actual person.
"One day, a well-known Latin American actor texted to ask her out. This actor has about 5 million followers and some of our team watched his TV series when they were kids," said Cruz.
"He had no idea Aitana didn't exist," he added.
Source: Eeuro News
'Mission Impossible 8': Tom Cruise goes on the run in London
Tom Cruise is back on set as Ethan Hunt and if first pictures from the set are any indication, there will be action plus a little bit of blood.
Tom Cruise has started the shoot for the next installment of the Mission Impossible franchise. A fan page of the actor on X shared a bunch of pictures and a video of Tom sprinting through the streets of London, with production underway.
Tom Cruise shoots for Mission Impossible
In the first picture, Tom is seen running in order to shoot a chase scene on the Westminster Bridge. He was dressed in a white shirt paired with a black coat. There was blood all over his shirt as he ran through the street. A second picture showed Tom smiling and talking with some of the crew in between the shots. Another still indicated a heavy military presence at the location with several armed forces standing by the iconic landmark in London.
Meanwhile, the only video from shoot had Tom getting ready for the shot. With the clap, he is seen running fast towards the other side of the road. The film releases in 2025 now, as the release date was pushed for a year owing to the delay with the SAG-AFTRA strike.
More details
In what marks the eighth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Tom will be seen as Senior Field Agent Ethan Hunt. Part One was directed by Christopher McQuarrie and produced by Paramount Pictures. It also starred Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby and Simon Pegg among others.
Part One released in July last year and faced stiff competition from Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig's Barbie. Still, it managed to cross the $500 million mark at the global box office.
An excerpt from the Hindustan Times review of the film added, “Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One could very possibly be the best offering of the season with its insane action and a beating heart. Not only does this seventh film in the hit franchise perfectly fit the Hollywood blockbuster template but also improves on it, gilds it to almost undeniable perfection.”
Source: Hindustan Times
