KARACHI – A group of different US-based organisations is in Karachi to select Pakistani dance, music and theatre artistes for Center Stage – a pilot programme sponsored by the United States government to select international performing artists from Haiti, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
“Pakistan has lot of talent and majority of the Pakistani artistes are eager to perform, as out of the total 200 applications that we have received for this exchange programme, 65 were from Pakistan alone,” said Deirdre Valente, vice president of the New York-based Lisa Booth Management, Inc (LBMI).
In an interview with Pakistan Today, she said that during her stay in Karachi, she met more than 100 Pakistani musicians, journalists and people from everyday life. “They shared their experiences and we came to know that beside traditional cultural values and generosity, most of the Pakistanis are well-informed about the US,” said Valente. The visitors include Asia Society’s Director for Cultural Programmes and Performing Arts Rachel Cooper, Inner-city Muslim Action Network (IMAN) Arts and Culture Director Asad Jafri, New England Foundation for the Arts Chief Financial Officer Laura Paul and AMP Concerts Executive Director Neal Copperman.
Valente said that besides promoting extended interaction between various cultures, Centre Stage would also provide opportunity to the artistes of different cultures to communicate with one another and allow hidden talent to be discovered on a global stage. She said that some of these concerts would also stream live on the Internet. Valente is an alumna of Vassar College and she joined LBMI in 1984 and serves as the executive producer and general manager for many LBMI projects.
Her expertise includes non-profit and commercial producing and tour management, fiscal analysis and management, board development and grantsmanship, strategic planning, contextual marketing and promotion, technical production and dramaturgy. A member of Actors’ Equity Association, prior to joining LBMI, she managed Broadway shows and served as company manager for international touring productions in opera and theatre.
Valente said that Center Stage demonstrates America’s respect for other cultures by providing unique opportunities for international performing artistes to engage with diverse communities throughout the US and offers Americans the chance to grow in understanding and appreciation of other nations. US Consulate General Karachi Information Officer Andie De Arment said that likewise the Indian civil society, the American civil society also wants people-to-people contacts with Pakistani citizens.
“The US government has initiated several exchange programmes to let students, journalists and people from different fields of life to go US to share their experiences with the American people and vise versa and there is lot of impact to bridge the gap between both the societies,” she said.
She said that it is hard to exactly measure the impact of these exchange programmes on the participants, but it is a great opportunity to share experiences and also to learn about each other’s society.
“This is not only about performing art, but the participants would also get the opportunity to visit several places and learn about the American society,” she added.
well as such as the pakistani society is going to puloraization and maybe no more cause of Pakistani state is an ideologically theocratic state .as you know that there is no one culture not similar language which is here are using and knowing . the pakistani civil society is multi cultural . that's way society can't be a one nation one culture one sycologically stricture .. but the balochi culture and language and heritage is very rich and different from others in the Pakistani state
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