September 8, 2013
The Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance regrets to inform that the Aadukalam 2013 Global Tamil Dance Competition was stopped due to unforeseen circumstances.
Aadukalam was a competition created to unite youth across the globe and provide them with a platform to showcase Tamil identity through dance. For centuries, dance has been the medium used to tell stories and remember the history. Aadukalam served as a global stage to unite our diaspora youth and for our stories to be told.
This year’s theme for Aadukalam was Tamil Language. As part of the dance criteria, youth were also to include elements depicting the freedom struggle in Tamileelam. The youth participants spent countless hours and resources putting together dance routines that exhibited their Tamil identity, pride and language in an attractive way.
Thivakar Arunthavarajah, a participant from Canada, expressed how Aadukalam served to unite Tamils, “When you look at last year’s dance pieces, you see strong unification of Tamil youth, parents, families in one gathering, all supporting Tamileelam. It’s great to watch how we unite.”
“CTYA is not happy with the decision that Aadukalam was stopped this year,” commented Jenit Jeyakanthan, President of CTYA. “Many youth were eager to show their identity and pride through this competition, but they were denied an opportunity to do so. We as an organization will take strong measures to ensure such incidents do not happen again.”
“We would like to thank the participants from Team Canada for all their perseverance, dedication and hard work. We would also like to thank TYO-Swiss for their continued hospitality in accommodating the participants that arrived in Swiss,” Jeyakanthan further expressed.
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