Anita says...January 2026

 And just like that! It is 2026!

The Chinese year of the Horse. The sacred month of Margazhi or Margasirsha. The time of holidays, family gatherings, dance meetings and of transition when we watch another 12 months that has flashed past us and a brand new dozen appears, filled with the promise of an improved year ahead.

2025 has been a year of great fluctuations. Many of us in the performing arts have faced major life shuffles, dislocations, health challenges and many ruptures. But the year has also been important for personal development, career shifts and lifestyle readjustments. Global and geo political realities have impacted the arts and have reduced the flow of people and ideas. The rise and rise of digital technology has caught many of us by surprise and is presently overwhelming us with its astonishing complexity and sophistication.

And yet, here I am. Writing this monthly column, now in its 16th year. That means that this is the 190th monthly edition that I am sharing with you. It has been and continues to be a privilege to express my views and opinions as another generation of dance emerges to claim space and attention for Indian dance. Whether Gen Z and the Millennials read my thoughts or not, these will remain as a document of observations and reflections of a dance passionista!

Read more in the site

Please type your name along with your comment. Anonymous and derogatory comments are likely to be removed.

Profile - Pusthakam Ramaa: An artiste without boundaries - Jyothi Raghuram

Whether on stage or off it, she attracts attention, for the right reasons! The range, clarity and flexibility of her singing reflect the freshness of youth. In traditional silks and glittering ornaments, she is no less than a dancer in brightness and vivacity. A top concert singer and high-demand dance vocalist, Pusthakam Ramaa has gifted the arts a legacy that defies categorization.

 

Read more in the site

Please type your name along with your comment. Anonymous and derogatory comments are likely to be removed.

Article - What my Guru gave me, I struggle to give my students - Sushma Kotireddy

For me, Bharatanatyam has never been just a sequence of steps. It has always been a living conversation between rhythm, movement, and devotion. As a child growing up in India, I was immersed in this world from the very beginning. My earliest memories are not only of dance classes, but of the sound of the nattuvangam, the voice of the vocalist rising and falling with emotion, the steady heartbeat of the mridangam behind me. Music was never something I danced to - it was something I danced with.

Read more in the site

Please type your name along with your comment. Anonymous and derogatory comments are likely to be removed.

Classical genres perform to backdrop of dance immortalized on stone - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

Come December and it is time for the magnum opus dance celebration at Konark, when the quiet tourist township surrounding the celebrated temple of the Sun God, sees a rush of high profile activity, with visitors of all denominations descending, to witness not just the dance festival but also the activities surrounding it, like the annual Sand Art festival. Alongside is a highly trumpeted, popular late night event, much patronized by the hoi polloi, comprising music, dance and drama.

Hosted by the Odisha Tourism Department Corporation in conjunction with the Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi, the programing of the five day fare (Dec 1 - 5), ensuring understandably, a major share of this dance patronage to its own classical dance of Odissi, has an established convention of one Odissi group recital on one half of every evening of the festival with the other featuring a dance genre from outside the State. Mushrooming Odissi bodies in the State notwithstanding, the five year gap in festival participation insisted upon down the line, poses challenges in ensuring Odissi groups of standard. 

Read more in the site

Please type your name along with your comment. Anonymous and derogatory comments are likely to be removed.

An evening in Paris! And a night in Stockholm - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

AttenDance, India's only yearbook on dance turned 25 (years)! To have sustained a hard bound, all colour book for 25 years shows Punjabi spirit, Tamil mind, made in Baroda, Gujarat model! This silver jubilee issue focussed on Indian Dance in France in the last hundred years. No one in France or in India had attempted this subject in such in-depth and scope with substance. Sonya Wynne Singh did. 

Read more in the site

Please type your name along with your comment. Anonymous and derogatory comments are likely to be removed.

Profile - Dancing between worlds: Arunima Kumar's diasporic journey - Bibin Balan

Homecoming... It's a different feeling. It's been sixteen years. That is how long it has been since Arunima Kumar began her back and forth journeys between India and the United Kingdom. Yet this time, her return feels personal. After preparing for one year, she fulfilled her vital duty as a mentor guiding more than twenty of her students, all born and raised in the UK, on a cultural exchange that mirrors her own journey of discovery. For these children, this visit is a chance to feel the pulse of India, to understand the Guru Shishya Parampara, and to witness how classical art breathes within its homeland. For Arunima, it is a full circle moment, a return to the source after years spent carving her place abroad. 

Read more in the site

Please type your name along with your comment. Anonymous and derogatory comments are likely to be removed.

Article - From Aramandi to Allegro: How Bharatanatyam built my dance foundation - Samyuktha Gopi Raj

I was five when I first stepped into my guru's studio in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles County, my tiny feet learning the basic tattadavu. Nine years later, these foundational rhythmic patterns would become my secret weapon across all dance forms.

In those early classes, even the simplest sollukattu felt like trying to speak a new language. Now, in World Dance class at the Buckley School, Sherman Oaks, CA as we all work through complex beats together, I find myself quietly drawing strength from years of practicing tisram patterns, grateful for this foundation that helps me understand new rhythms. When working through the World Dance choreography, I silently thanked my guru for the years of rhythmic training that helped me understand these new patterns.

 

Read more in the site

Please type your name along with your comment. Anonymous and derogatory comments are likely to be removed.