Monday 24 April 2017

Kumudini Lakhia on crisis in Kathak - Footloose and fancy free with Dr. Sunil Kothari


Raza Foundation presented Guru Kumudini Lakhia’s lecture on ‘Kathak in our times’ at Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Introducing the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Memorial Lecture, Ashok Vajpeyi, the Managing Trustee of Raza Foundation, spoke about paucity of performing dancers who are thinkers and can articulate the issues of the art form they are engaged in. The first lecture organized under this series was by Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam. And after few years interval now the Foundation has invited Kumudini Lakhia. She has earned a reputation as a thinker, engaged in the art form, raising the bar of the traditional form of Kathak and contemporizing it with innovations.

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4 comments:

  1. "To liberate Kathak from its feudal moorings was a daunting task."

    Unfortunately Kumudini's Lakhia's latest productions take us back to the feudal moorings. Her latest pack of students and choreographies thrive on "show off" element of kathak.
    In the the recent show of "atah kim" , the meaning"now what" got the most hilarious meaning ....with sanjukta sinha being synonymous to kumudiniji's style ....it is not only a sad state of kathak but even Kumudiniji could not save herself from the crass consumerism which rules in the society today which is the benchmark of sanjukta's style.

    So i guess the title should have been "Kumudini Lakhia in crisis on Kathak" .....

    therefore

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  2. if you choose to be anonymous it makes you even more hilarious to be hide under the garb of being a dance observer. It is evident you are ashamed of yourself. At least Kumudini has given her name to her work and is open to criticisms,you,i might add,are a creation of your inferiority complexes and shame.regards shishir hattangadi

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  3. What a looser Miss/Mr Anonymous...I can imagine what your state of mind would be to write something like this... I hope some day you can prove your worth so at least one knows your name and who you are...Heights of insecurity! God bless you.

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  4. Enjoyed your take on Kumiben's talk and the issues it raised. readers might like to see more of what she addressed in my Asian Age column www.asianage.com/life/art/180417/keeping-tradition-and-innovation-together.html

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