<span id="m_3401048092292687129gmail-docs-internal-guid-8ab4a87f-7fff-1403-7ac1-af1f3d63352f" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">The three day long National Dance Festival was inaugurated on Thursday at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSKA) auditorium in Dhaka. The festival was inaugurated by the State Minister for Culture K M Khalid as the Chief guest.<br />''<br />''The National Dance Festival will feature original dance compositions by 75 troupes drawn from across the country. Each troupe has a minimum of 10 dancers while some troupes have 25-30 dancers and choreographers. A few of the performances will be organised at the respective district headquarters also.<br />''<br />''The Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy has provided financial assistance of Tk 1 lakh to 50 troupes and Tk. 80,000 each to 25 troupes totalling 70 lakh taka. The assistance will benefit close to 1000 artists in the country. <br />''<br />''Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy has been working with the artists to create these original dance compositions for a long time. At a time of the COVID pandemic, the artist community has also suffered and the academy has organised the programme under the name of 'Dance against Corona' to celebrate brotherhood, said the press release issued by the BSKA. <br />''</span><br />''</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000;">Earlier, on Wednesday at a press conference, the Director General of BSKA Liaquat Ali Lucky had said that the festival will provide opportunity for the promising young dance directors to showcase their talent along with renowned dance directors.</span><br />