GOVERNMENT BACKS MISSION TO
BRINGING INDIAN CULTURE TO SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT THE UK
A Bollywood craze swept through Britain during the Summer of 2002. Honey Kalaria, who is affectionately known as ?the UK?s Bollywood Ambassador?, now has backing from Tessa Blackstone, Minister of State for the Arts, in making Indian culture and dance truly accessible to our nation?s children. Honey is touring 20 schools throughout the UK giving them the chance to introduce some Bollywood glamour to their classrooms!
?It is very exciting to see a dynamic young artist like Honey bringing popular Indian culture and dance into schools. Such experiences help children to develop their own creative skills and appreciation, but are also valuable in raising self esteem and improving children?s engagement within school across the whole range of subjects. This project will provide an energetic and fun introduction to Bollywood for school children and I very much hope that it will stimulate their enthusiasm and encourage them to learn more about Indian dance".
Baroness Blackstone, Minister of State for the Arts
Honey Kalaria is widely recognized as one of the country?s leading Indian dance experts (she is also a film star, model, singer and presenter). Her Dance Academy has gained an extraordinary reputation, to the extent that it is frequently approached by Bollywood and Hollywood film Directors looking for dancers to perform Indian dancing, both classical and modern, in movies and pop videos.
Honey will introduce pupils not only to dance, but all aspects of Indian history and culture. After being introduced to the history of India and the colour and glamour of Bollywood through film extracts, pupils will have the opportunity to feel like film stars themselves when they get the opportunity to dress up in traditional costumes ... payal (ankle bells), tika (hair jewellery), saris and bindis provided by India Again** for the girls, jabo and lenga and mojri for the boys. Honey will then encourage pupils to join in energetic sessions of Bollywood and Bhangra dancing.
Honey has produced ?Learn Bollywood and Bhangra? videos for use in educational establishments. The videos take children through the dance moves step by step.
?We already use these videos to teach children how to do traditional Bollywood and Bhangra dance moves during their dance sessions. We involve children from all cultures, and I think that it?s a great point for exploring Indian culture?.
Teacher Bev Porter, Tipton
For further information contact Kate 020 8939 9000
Visuals of Honey teaching in schools, visuals of bindis available
Honey Kalaria available for interview
** IndiaAgain.com is a website offering the best of Indian products to the World audience. It was started in 1999 by entrepreneurs from Bombay, India. Its fancy bindi art is extremely popular in United Kingdom. Not only do women use bindis to adore their forehead, it is also used as a stick-on tattoo or as a body art for belly dance. They are traditionally used by Indian Women for applying to their forehead, between the eyebrows - a place where the third eye of God Shiva is located. It is believed that wearing a bindi is very fortunate for the family. Bindis are a must with saris / sarees, salwar kameez or other Indian dresses (all available from IndiaAgain.com).They make fascinating body art jewelry because they give an illusion of raised glittering tattoos, with no piercing of the skin required.
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