Zohra Segal throughout a Poetry recitation at Sangeet Natak Academy competition in New Delhi on August 28, 2005.
| Photograph Credit score: SUDERSHAN V
Zohra Segal (1912-2014) wore many hats with elan, and lived life on her personal phrases. Born Sahibzadi Zohra Begum Mumtaz-ullah Khan into an aristocratic Muslim household in Saharanpur, Zohra broke the glass ceiling at a time when it was unknown for ladies to defy norms and make decisions.
Since her passing, her Odissi dancer-daughter Kiran Segal has been organising an annual tribute occasion devoted to the humanities. “I launched the competition in 2016. Artwork was what outlined her. So the remembrance occasion is devoted to her ardour for appearing and dance,” says Kiran. The Zohra Segal Belief, in collaboration with India Worldwide Centre, supported by the Raza Basis is presenting its annual Zohra Segal Pageant of the Arts this weekend on the IIC in Delhi.
Like within the earlier editions, this 12 months’s line up is uncommon too. The competition begins with Fado, the Portuguese-inspired music that Goans have adopted. It combines music and poetry. Fado was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists in 2011. Which means ‘destiny’ or ‘future’ in Portuguese, Fado has a melancholic really feel and its singers had been historically by no means invited to carry out. On the competition, Shrushti and Swaraa Prabhudessai will probably be accompanied by guitarists Franz Schubert Cotta and Sherwyn Correia.
Kiran with mom Zohra
| Photograph Credit score:
Courtesy: Kiran Segal
The second day options the journey of Lavani, the Maharashtrian people dance, tracing its evolution from the 1800s, and narrated within the conventional storytelling format. This will probably be introduced by Kali Billi Productions, Savitri Medhatul and can characteristic three dancers. Zohra Segal had spent a number of years in Mumbai, as dance director at Prithvi Theatre so the deal with a Maharashtrian dance type is acceptable. Apparently, when she and her husband Kameshwar needed to go away Lahore within the Forties on account of unrest, they moved to Bombay, and Zohra approached Prithvi Theatre for a job, as her sister Uzra Butt labored there. Apparently Prithviraj Kapoor stated that there was no job to go well with her stature within the appearing enviornment however since she was a educated dancer, was instructed to go the dance division. Kiran shared, “in these days they had been known as dance administrators, not choreographers”.
Zohra and Kameshwar – a life in artwork
| Photograph Credit score:
Courtesy: Kiran Segal
Earlier editions of the Zohra Segal Pageant of the Arts have included theatre in numerous languages, qawwali, dastangoi and dance. A efficiency by Bengali ‘dhak’ artistes was well-received.
The curation of the competition displays Zohra’s means to attract consideration in the direction of unknown features of artwork and lend visibility to them. “She herself beloved all the eye she obtained,” laughs Kiran.
Poetry was one other space that Zohra excelled in; her recitation was all the time memorable. Nonetheless, what many don’t find out about Zohra is that she spent greater than 20 years in London, the place she made waves on British tv and movies. When she got here again to India, to Delhi to her daughter Kiran in 1987, she focussed extra on Hindi movies, appearing until her loss of life in 2014.
Based on Kiran, “my mom thought of herself a citizen of the world. She did her education at Queen Mary in Lahore, went to Germany to check below the dance pioneer Mary Wigman, was briefly primarily based in Almora and related to Uday Shankar’s group. After marrying in Lahore, she needed to transfer to Mumbai.
The Zohra Segal Pageant of the Arts is non-ticketed, and supported completely by donations from nicely wishers.
Revealed – September 26, 2024 12:31 pm IST
