Ashish Khokar’s Attendance: The Dance Annual of India 2003-04

Shanta Serbjeet Singh, senior arts columnist and critic, author and cultural activist is the elected Chairperson of Appan (The Asia-Pecific Performing Arts Network, set up under the aegis of UNESCO in Seoul in 2000). She received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Sangeet natak Akademi, the premier Government cultural institution of India in 2000 and the same from Delhi Govt.'s Sahitya Kala Parishad in 2003 for her contribution to the field of culture. She is on the Central Audition Board of Doordarshan, the highest body for grading performing artistes, as well as on the Selection committees of several prestigious Govt. of India bodies involved in culture such as The Indian Council for cultural Relations. she was a member of the Tenth Five Year Plan Committee for Cultural Policy and of the First national Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture set up by the Hon'ble Minister, shri Jagmohan in 2003, and of the Khajuraho Festival Committee, 2001 and 2002. She has been the dance critic for The Hindustan Times since 1972, a contributor to most of the major publications of India and was the arts columnist for The Economic Times for twenty-five years (from 1970 to 1995). As a writer on films, maker of documentaries like The Devadasi Parampara and Culture of Ladakh as well as music composer of several films and television serials of her husband, Serbjeet Singh, she has also served on a number of Selection Committees and national juries of the International Film Festivals of India and has been invited regularly to attend the Cannes and Berlin International Film Festivals and write about them in the Indian media. A well-known author of several book, such as the Fiftieth Milestone; A Feminine Critique, Nanak, The Guru and America and You, her latest book Indian Dance; The Ultimate Metaphor was released by the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee in early 2000. In April 2002 she was the only Indian to be invited for the Ist China Dance Festival to be organized by the Govt. of China since fifty years. In May 2002 she chaired the 4th International conference of Appan in Seoul, South Korea where a program called "The Role of Healing in the Arts of Asia" was presented over three days of seminars and performances. In January end, 2003 she organized the 5th Appan Festival Symposium on the theme of the Role of the Male and the Female in the Performance Arts of Asia. This event, held on the banks of the Ganges, near Rishikesh, drew widescale media attention and had 70 participants, among them 26 from 9 countries of the Asia and Pacific region. In October, 2003 she was the only journalist from India to be invited for a major media focus by the Government of France for the proposed UNESCO convention on Cultural Diversity, held in Paris and for which journalists from 9 countries were given access to the French Govt.'s point of view at the highest, ministerial level. On behalf of Appan she has curated and organized a major Workshop/Festival on Masks and Puppets to be presented in Hue, Vietnam from June 5-9, 2004. She has been appointed the sole consultant from India on the board of World Cultural Allaince Forum, Sao Paulo. Shanta Serbjeet Singh is an M.a. in International Relations from the University of Berkeley, California and earlier did her A.B. from Western College for Women, Oxford, Ohio in Political Science and English Hons. from Calcutta University. She is married to Serbjeet Singh, the well known Himalaya expert, film maker and painter and lives in Delhi.