Anita says...December 2023

 Where do stories come from?

They come from other stories
From deep within ourselves and from the cave of memories
Stories bind us and release our imaginations to swoop and soar
- Author SALMAN RUSHDIE award acceptance speech, Germany



We ask that same question each December!

"Where did the year go?"
"What? Already?"
"Gosh! How time flies!"

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UPAJ - Part II - NRITYA (Section # 2): Column by Janaki Patrik

ELEMENTS of IMPROVISATION

1. The Kathak body stance & stage conventions

Kathak has origins in the village storytelling style katha vaachak - literally meaning "story speaker" - from the Sanskrit root vaak - speech. Kathak's lingering folk elements contribute to the informality of many of Kathak's storytelling techniques, and to the ease with which performers can improvise. Performed with an upright torso carried on straight legs and loose knees, Kathak can cover space with an un-stylized gait, which is close to ordinary human movement. With the continuity of its upright stance for both nritta and nritya (pure dance and storytelling), Kathak can seamlessly transition into the distinctive gaits of all kinds of characters in its stories, uninterrupted by the need to return periodically to a style-imposed position such as Bharatanatyam's araimandi , the "half-sitting" pose , or Odissi's tribhanga - "thrice-bent "- pose . 

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UPAJ - Part II - NRITYA (Section # 1): Column by Janaki Patrik

In my two-part essay entitled "UPAJ - Improvisation in Kathak", written for Narthaki Online, I endeavor to demystify Kathak's rhythmic and storytelling improvisational processes. I suggest that improvisation is an art which is learned and practiced - an art which is not limited only to those who are "born with it". UPAJ - Part I - NRITTA examines the structures in Kathak dance, which support rhythmic improvisation. The essay you are now reading - UPAJ - Part II - NRITYA -- examines the techniques and performance practices, which support improvisation in Kathak storytelling.

MEMORIES
I arrived at Palam Airport in the muggy, pre-monsoon heat of July 1967. It was the beginning of my first trip to India to study Kathak at Kathak Kendra with Maharaj ji (later honored as Padma Vibhushan Pandit Birju Maharaj). I lived with the Garga family in staff housing on the grounds of Bal Bhavan, the National Children's School, which had been founded by Nehru and was located a short walk from Kathak Kendra. Poppa Garga, Director of the Art Department of Bal Bhavan, had been awarded a Rockefeller grant to study in the United States in the mid-1960s. To return the hospitality he had experienced in New York City from one of my friends, Poppa and his wife welcomed me into their family like an elder sister of their three children.

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Profile - Destiny with dance - Ranee Kumar

Kuchipudi as a dance form has always been in the eye of the storm with as many advocates to swear by its authenticity and antiquity and equal or a greater number of detractors condemning its classicality and its lack of sophistication. Both are justified to a certain extent. And whatever Kuchipudi we tend to appreciate today is either from the disciples of Vempati Chinna Satyam stable in southern India or Guru Radha and Raja Reddy in the North. In such a milieu, it is refreshing to note that the present generation dancer Arunima Kumar has placed Kuchipudi on the flag post in the United Kingdom with pride and dignity. With no godfathers in a foreign soil, she rose to commendable heights by sheer dint of merit and now she has landed with her Kuchipudi at 10 Downing Street on invitation!

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Dancing duos - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

Archana-Chetana are their names. Dance is their game. Born in an SOS village, they had it hard but thanks to a genuine guru like B. Bhanumati and her sis-in-law Sheela Chandrasekhar of Bangalore, they have blossomed into fine twin talents. Their show at a spiffy chamber theatre called Shukra was full of delightful surprises of maintaining perfect symmetry, speed and substance. All through the evening they kept up a sweet smile (sometimes not necessary ALL the time while dancing) but it was genuine. They were happy to be on stage....

Shabash should be her middle name. Ananda Shabash Shankar!  Shabash (means well done or bravo ) for having worked hard in the field and come up despite no real support in initial days, coming out of Kalakshetra and taking up a full-time job with the Railways,  survived cancer, and continued to be counted in the over-crowded world of Bharatanatyam and train many students in Hyderabad through her Shankarananda Kalakshetra. The young student Neha Sathanapalli had a jump in her step and suited well some of the roles like Hanuman that demanded this sprightliness....

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IIC Experience celebrates the lived traditions of South India in Dakshinayan - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

Changing tack from its usual all India approach, India International Centre's celebration of its signature festival the IIC EXPERIENCE, this year in DAKSHINAYAN, put the searchlight solely on lived traditions of South India. Starting with a journey in the Art Gallery of Kamaladevi Complex on Chettinad -An Enduring Legacy (from the collection of RM Cultural Foundation, Chennai) focusing on history and heritage of this highly evolved community known for their art patronage, with a peep into the symbolism of clan temples and majestic homes of Chettiars, to Conference Room I which was the venue for an exhibition 'of texts, reproductions of archival photographs, facsimiles of rare books, digitized copies of manuscripts and other digital reproductions' from the collection of the Connemara Public Library, Chennai, on to the open grounds of Gandhi- King Plaza where Stories from the Earth comprising Terracotta Narratives, exhibited select pieces from the Sanskriti Museum of Indian Terracotta from earthen pot for drinking water to equestrian figures of the Ayyanar cult of rural Tamil Nadu. It was a plethora of projections on and from India's South.

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Obit/Tribute - Premature adieu by Prabal Gupta - Leela Venkataraman

A Bengali settled in Bangalore practicing Kathakali stree vesham - nothing about dancer Prabal Gupta seemed to fall into one inevitable connect! Much in the same vein was his sudden passing away in the prime of health, just as his career seemed to be taking an upward curve with promise of more performance opportunities.

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