Chau dance brings change to lives of anti-socials

A joint initiative by the East Singhbhum district police and a cultural organisation here has brought positive change in the lives of drug addicts, petty criminals and street ruffians by schooling them in the art of Chau dance and acting.
There are 35 of them, all slum dwellers of Sonari locality here and aged below 18 years, who are learning the dance and acting from the teachers of "Kala Dham", the cultural organisation based here in the Steel City.
Deputy Superintendent of Police of East Singhbhum district Jagdish Prasad said the initiative was aimed at bringing the misguided youths back to the mainstream.

Prasad said such initiatives would be taken in other areas of the district too.
The teachers are president of Kala Dham Gautam Gope, who is an accomplished theatre actor, Mahavir Mahato, a Chau dance teacher of Manbhum style, and Kuldev Mahato, another Chau dance teacher of Seraikela style.
Gope said, "Some of them used to inhale 'dendrite', an adhesive substance, regularly and indulged in petty crime like theft which led to frequent disturbances in the locality."

Some of them had served three months' imprisonment in the remand home here after a violent clash with youths residing in an adjoining slum, he said.

Gope said the type of Chau dance they were teaching was based on martial art and required physical skill, like somersault, and strength.
His team, Gope said, therefore chose the Domuhani riverbed where plenty of sand was available to train them. Gope takes pride in the fact that the learners, who included some girls, progressed very quickly.