LAHORE: Instrumentalists, dancers and singers from Gilgit-Baltistan entertained a large audience at Alhamra Art Centre, The Mall, on Tuesday.

It was an amusement packed evening studded with renowned artists from Gilgit-Balitistan. They were such a spontaneous entertainers that they easily roped in the common audience on the stage to dance and sing with them.

The Lahore Arts Council (LAC) with the Pakeeza Arts Council and the Cultural Council of Gilgit organised the “Gilgit Cultural show” which presented 25 artists from Gilgit-Baltistan who came up with 15 performances of music, dance and singing.

Retired Capt Atta Muhammad Khan, LAC executive director, welcomed the artists and said that from a dreamland of flowers, mountains and streams these artists had come all the way long from Gilgit to perform at the cultural hub of Punjab – Lahore.

Iqbal Husain Iqbal, president of the Pakeeza Arts Council and the Cultural Council of Gilgit, told Dawn they were performing at Alhamra Art Centre after 10 years.

The artists represent different districts of Gilgit and the folk performances of those districts.

LAC Deputy Director Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi met the Gilgit troupe recently in Lahore and offered them a show at Alhamra. He said Lahori audience was very much enthusiastic about music and dance from mountains.

The evening opened with a performance called ‘Garwal’ means welcome. The musicians on the flute, rubab, shehnai and dholak came up with lovely tunes.

Ghulam Nabi, a known Gilgit singer, sang such a melodious song that many from the audience danced and sang with him.

An interesting aspect of the performances was to stuck the bills of 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 in the cap of the performer by the Lahore-based Gilgati audience during the performance. Many children from the audience also came onto stage and danced with the performers.

Though the language was not familiar to the most of the audience, all enjoyed melody and tune of the music. The audience enjoyed a lot the sword dance, an exclusive feature of the culture belongs to people living on mountains.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2015

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