25 years of Kala NADAM Festival 2024 - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

Murali Mohan Kalvakalva is a rather foolish man. His partner in crime, Nandini Mehta, is more foolish. Between the two of them, they have shared and given much of their worldly wealth (time too and health) in promoting all shades of artistes - dancers, photographers, gurus, musicians, teachers and more. Youngsters. Wannabes and have beens. Could have been and never should have been (on stage!). They do this for their love of the art of dance. They also mount two of Bangalore's most popular and professional festivals: one in end-November every year and one for kids in August called Chinna NADAM. Lots of new, upcoming talents get a chance to dance. 

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Profile - Greatest dancers of our times - Vazhuvoor Saravanan

In the entire history of classical dance 'Sadir' later rechristened as 'Bharatanatyam', Maduranthakam Jagadambal Ammal (1873 - 1943), Thiruvazhaputhur Kalyani Ammal (1873 - 1938) and Thanjavur Veenabashini Ammal (1877 - 1962) were revered as the greatest and most accomplished classical dancers on record. All three were born in the late 19th century in Tamilnadu.

Maduranthakam Jagadambal Ammal learnt this divine art from Vazhuvoor Samu Nattuvanar (Grandfather of Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai), Thiruvazhaputhur Kalyani Ammal from Pandanallur Meenakshisundaram Pillai and Thanjavur Veenabashini Ammal from Thanjavur Kannuswamy Nattuvanar. They enthralled the audience with their scintillating performances and showcased the glory of ancient Vazhuvoor, Pandanallur and Thanjavur baani of classical dance respectively. 

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Brilliant metaphoric interplay of life and kite flying in Pagrav Dance Company's Kattam Katti - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

"If Winter comes can Spring be far behind?" said poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Signifying this new life energy associated with the oncoming of Spring, is the festival of Uttarayan in Gujarat, when people shedding social and religious inhibitions, even transgressing geographical boundaries, join in the unique event of kite flying. In its highs and lows, this sport, much like ball play or motion of the swing, becomes an ideal metaphor for the unpredictability of life, with its ups and downs. Kite flying, in the competition for air space amongst fliers, witnesses the thrill of joy and sense of freedom as the kite soars in the sky, and the corresponding sense of deep loss and dejection when it comes spiraling down, its string in the air severed by a competing flier's kite - with the entire gamut of human emotions at play. 

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Prism - CHAALI... taking dance to her audience - Bharat Sharma

Performance thrives in Live Performance - this is fundamental to any Intangible Art. At a fundamental level, it is a conversation between the Body and the Viewer in a defined space of culture. This is primal, if we take stick figures etched in Bhimbetka Caves near Bhojpur in Madhya Pradesh as manifestation of community and participatory exuberance, or sophisticated articulation of an individual's craft of the sharira to the rasika, as expounded in the rasa theory in the Natyashastra (5th century BC). From time immemorial, the relationship between dance and her audience has been crucial for the survival of oral traditions.

Dance as Live Performance is also linked to life cycle of humans - dance is lived while the body has breath. Dance gets activated at birth and dies at death, leaving traces in memory of viewers, or remembered through traditions passed on by generational lineages. These memories of the dancing body are affirmations of the ethereal nature of performance. Dance can be kept alive, in Time and Space, through a system that brings together the dancing body and the viewer to converse. These eco-systems of performance can then be termed as support system within a culture. 

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Beyond margam expressions - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

MANDALA -A MOVING PSYCHOLOGICAL MUSIC/DANCE INTERACTION
Presented at Chennai's Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan auditorium, Mandala was a truly interactive music/dance artistic journey between two classical artistes - dancer Amrita Lahiri and musician Chandana Bala Kalyan. Mandala, the symbolism representing sacred space (in Hinduism and Buddhism) with concentric circles converging in one center, becomes a metaphor for one's search for the sacred, traversing through several journeys in search of that center, which one finally realizes, is within. India's classical music and dance have always been regarded as a search for that oneness through works, in this production representing different states of being - sringar (love), viraha (separation), maya (illusion) and aikya (dissolution), the final state of getting merged into that, which one has been seeking....

 

TO DUST WE RETURN
Yet another non-Margam performance conceived and presented by Anuradha Venkataraman, harnesses the Bharatanatyam technique in a stark dance theatre production - expressing deep seated anguish at how, what one mistakenly deems as Progress, has not only fatally damaged the environment leaving Planet Earth gasping for breath, but has also contributed to creating an unbridgeable chasm between the privileged few as against the largely neglected sections of society....

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Anita says...December 2024

We do not have to

become heroes overnight.
Just a step at a time,
meeting each thing that comes up,
seeing it as not as dreadful
as it appears,
discovering that we have the strength
to stare it down
- Eleanor Roosevelt, Former First Lady, USA



At the end of a tumultuous year, when we are staring into several conflicts and possible further escalations, we pause to take stock of our lives and our journey in the dance arts. This is the final edition of ANITA SAYS for the year 2024.

As we continue to wonder at the speed of passing time and the urgency and purpose of our lives, I would like to share my views and reactions to four performances I have watched in four cities over the 30 days of November. In New York City, Coimbatore and Chennai. Varied in content, purpose and intentions, these dance events have thrown up further questions about reinvention, re-purposing and revival. I will discuss each of these performances and add my personal take. These opinions are mine and mine alone and I hope that it is received in the spirit of someone who has been engaged in the performing arts scene for 6 decades.

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Bridging gap between theory and practice in multi-faceted Tripuranthara Festival - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

Tripuranthara Arts Festival mounted at Music Academy Mini Hall, was a collaborative effort between Anthara Centre for Performing Arts run by Bharatanatyam dancer Sreelatha Vinod and Tripura Ace Trust headed by Sripriyaa Venkataraman, spearheading a focus on Arts, Culture and Education as a means for creating inclusive and inspirational space for a future generation of leadership. A three-day event, the festival presented a combination of acclaimed senior dancers and emerging talents. In pursuance of its overall educational objective in narrowing the gap between theory and practice, the festival also included papers on aspects relevant to dance read by young researchers.

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