Students in practise at the dance workshop. — Snigdha Zaman

The second phase of the workshop on the South Indian martial art called kalaripayattu will begin today at the Chittagong Shilpakala Academy. 
Earlier, a four-day workshop continued from Saturday to Tuesday at the rehearsal room of the Music and Dance Centre of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
Cultural organisation Nrtiyajog, which is the Bangladesh chapter of World Dance Alliance-Asia Pacific, has organised the workshop in Dhaka and in Chittagong with the aim to improve the physical skill of the local dancers.
Indian Kalaripayattu artiste Kajol Hajra is conducting the workshop. 
Forty students from different dance organisations participated at the workshop in two shifts in Dhaka. They learnt various methods of exercises and different martial art postures at the workshop.
Falguni, a manipuri dance practioner of Nrityanandan, told New Age that she found the workshop really helpful for the development of her energy and flexibility.
Anther participant Farhad, a katthak student of BAFA, said, ‘Practice of kalaripayattu has helped his body balance. Even I can add some postures of Kalaripayattu in my regular dance forms.’
The workshop instructor Hajra, claimed that kalaripayattu is the oldest from of martial art in the world, which is very helpful for improving physical condition of an artiste.
Nrtiyajog president Sharmila Bandyopadhyay said that the workshop had been successful in Dhaka and hoped it would be well accepted in Chittagong. ‘Kalaripayattu is much used in contemporary dance. It will definitely improve the body language of the dancers,’ she said.