Tribute - My Jayanthi Akka - Anil Srinivasan

(A special exclusive article for Narthaki by Pianist and Educator Anil Srinivasan on Jayanthi Kumaresh being selected for the SANGITA KALANIDHI title by Madras Music Academy.)

There are moments in the life of a musician when the world gets something exactly right. This is one of them.

When I heard that Jayanthi Kumaresh had been chosen for the Sangita Kalanidhi — the highest honour our classical tradition bestows — I felt something that is hard to describe without sounding sentimental. It wasn't surprise. It was the deep satisfaction of the inevitable, finally arriving.

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Article - How emotions evolve in a changing world - Shreya Kumar Gopal Rao

Emotion is something that comes naturally to humans, a form of expression to voice our thoughts, ideas, and desires. But when it becomes something that you have to control, it begins to feel uncomfortable.

In Bharatanatyam, abhinaya forces us to experience and visualize emotions from perspectives we may have never considered before, and it's an odd feeling. In a generation that reacts first and then reflects, it shows how emotionally undertrained we are. Sure, we caption heartbreak, we constantly upload our highs and lows, and we curate vulnerability. But is that form of expression really the same as understanding emotion? 

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Anita says...March 2026

February has been a very special month for me personally. A trip of a lifetime with my favourite sibling, the mountains and rivers singing into my ears every night, fresh food being harvested before my eyes by the gentle and spiritual Andean people, the contrasting energies of the larger than life spectacle of the Rio Carnival - dancing in the streets and foot tapping rhythms around every corner. What better way to disengage and recharge than to travel. To savour the lives and rhythms of people far away from my homeland and yet connected through the elements of the sun, moon, water and wind. To re-enter my own inner world by observing the habits and customs of another culture half a world away. To return feeling chastened by the common threads and eternally grateful for the magnificent planet we inhabit.

AND

To not wear any make up, Kajal, lipstick or worry about my hair for weeks. Just moisturiser, sun screen, a hat and a big smile! Only a dancer will know what a joy that is!

So this month, I will not talk about dance in the expected ways. Instead, I will share my thoughts of my recent travel and experiences that were full of colour, movement and energy. To put out there the ideas of rest, recharge, reboot, review, renew and revisit our lives and art. 

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Article - The future of the Sabha lies in differentiation - Rohit Viswanath

Why artistes must rediscover their svadharma and build their own assemblies.

ach December, as the Margazhi season gathers force across Chennai, an old argument returns with predictable intensity: should dancers pay to perform? For some, the very notion undermines the dignity of art. For others, it is a practical exchange: a fee for infrastructure, visibility, and documentation in an increasingly crowded field.

The debate often hardens into a moral binary. Either one defends artistic purity, or one capitulates to commodification. Yet this framing obscures a deeper structural issue. The real crisis is not 'pay to perform.' It is that we no longer have clarity about what a Sabha is, nor about what it is meant to do.

The Sabha as Assembly, not Rental
Historically, the Chennai Sabha was more than a performance venue. It was an assembly; a gathering shaped by shared aesthetic literacy, discernment, and accountability. A performance under a respected banner signaled not merely stage access but entry into a cultural conversation.

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Dhauli-Kalinga - Where man of war converted to messenger of peace - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

Envisioned by late Odissi Guru Gangadhar Pradhan over a couple of decades ago, and mounted by his institution Orissa Dance Academy, at Shanti Vihar, the foothills of Dhauli, the Dhauli-Kalinga Mahotsav, now held under the auspices of the Department of Odia Language, Literature and Culture, government of Odisha, is one of its kind - combining in its fare, dance of various genres along with martial art forms. A very fitting twosome one would think, to be presented on the historic grounds where the epoch making Kalinga war was fought, with river Daya flowing in the region earning the sobriquet of Nirdaya, its waters running red with the blood of fallen heroes! Overnight, the scale of slaughter turned Emperor Ashoka, the conqueror in innumerable wars, into a messenger of peace. And even now, when dignitaries during the lamp lighting ceremony for the festival at the foot of the hill, stand with backs to the audience, facing the Peace Pagoda on top on the right, flanked by the Shiva temple on the left side, holding aloft burning torches in a solemn oath-taking gesture, saluting peace, it is a moving moment, for in the strife ridden world, peace is a pre-eminent need.

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Article - The Myth of the Either/Or - Dr. Lata Surendra

A committed dancer does not choose between the stage and the hearth because for her life is not a dichotomy, but a deliberate choreography. To say she must pick is to ask her to breathe only on the inhale; instead, she understands that art is the soul's inhalation, and life - with its messy, beautiful, quotidian demands - is the exhale. Her feet are rooted in the earth, anchoring her to the mundane, while her arms reach toward the ethereal, crafting stories in the air. She is not a creature of either/or; she is the living embodiment of both. Each pirouette is fed by the lessons of the day; each quiet moment with family lends depth to her performance. She is not fragmented; she is unified in motion, finding in the tension between duty and desire not a struggle, but a rhythm. Her art and her life do not compete; they dance together.

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Prism - The spectacle and the spectator - Sree Veena Mani

Walking down a street, you may suddenly find yourself watching an argument or confrontation unfold - an everyday occurrence. In such moments, we often remark that those involved are "creating a spectacle." This idea of spectacle lies at the heart of how Indian drama has been understood. In his commentary on the Nāṭyaśāstra, Manmohan Ghosh explains that Indian drama is conceived as prekṣā - a spectacle to be seen - while the audience is the prekṣaka, the spectator who beholds and interprets the performance.

Spectators were never called Srota or the audience, Ghosh's interpretation of the Nāṭyaśāstra says. 

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