Navadisha 2016 dance conference was a unique event, the like of which has not been organized in UK in recent times. The last Navadisha event was organized by Piali Ray, Director of Sampad, in 2000. After an interval of 15 years, once again thanks to the dynamic Anita Srivastava, Director of New Dimension Arts Management and the producer of this event with co-producer Piali Ray, and Chitra Sundaram, moderator, art consultant and Bharatanatyam dancer, brain stormed for past two years and worked out this mind boggling conference enlisting support of many funding organizations and sponsors and various dance institutions across UK. They invited dancers, scholars, organizers, academicians, not only of Indian Diaspora but also as equal partners in the creative industry of dance, the British organizers, British South Asian dancers, choreographers, event managers and a host of UK based dancers.
From Canada, Lata Pada of Sampradaya, Hari Krishnan (dancer, academician, InDance), Nova Bhattacharya (Bharatanatyam and contemporary dancer, President of the Toronto Arts Council’s Board of Directors); from Johannesburg in South Africa, Jayesperi Moopen (Bharatanatyam dancer, artistic director of Tribangi Dance Theatre); from Singapore, Aravinth Kumarasamy (creative and managing director of Apsara Arts); from Dubai, Pali Chandra (Kathak dancer, director of Gurukul –Dubai); from Kolkata Tanusree Shankar (contemporary dancer), Vikram Iyengar (Kathak / contemporary dancer); from Chennai, Anita Ratnam (contemporary dancer, writer, managing editor of e-portal Narthaki.com and director of Arangham Trust); from Hyderabad, dancer/bureaucrat Ananda Shankar Jayant; from Delhi, dance critic Sunil Kothari; from Mumbai, Gauri Sharma Tripathi (Kathak dancer, also resident artist South Bank Centre, London); and from Ahmedabad, Chirag Mehta (Producer, Ice Craft Creations Pvt Ltd.).
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Thank you Dr Sunil Kothari for honouring Navadisha 2016 with your presence, and for all the visa trouble and tribulation you had to undergo to ensure you could be here in time! Thank you also for this write-up, in which you have provided not just observations but also contexts around Navadisha participants and points of views presented -- including pointers to what else may need to be looked at as well e.g. press and media coverage, the absence of which I made a point of noting during the conference. At the final plenary session, as conference moderator, I shared with delegates a summary of conference proceedings and a set of actions/ recommendations taking on board and synthesizing points made in presentations and remarks during the conference and in sidebar conversations. (These will be posted on the Navdadisha 2016 website.) On behalf of Anita Srivastava, Producer, Navadisha 2016 and Piali Ray, Co-producer/Artistic Director, Navadisha 2016 and the rest of the Navadisha 2016 team, I thank Dr Sunil Kothari, and narthaki.com. Kind regards, Chitra Sundaram, Navadisha 2016 Conference Moderator.
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