Allowing a thousand flowers to bloom in a world gone haywire - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

LET A THOUSAND FLOWERS BLOOM

In a world going haywire with dissensions, the exhibition 'Let a thousand flowers bloom' mounted at Delhi's Habitat World by Malaysia's Sutra Foundation, was like a breath of fresh air. Structured round Odissi dance, the event comprising exhibits of drawing, painting and some excellently sensitive photography, featuring 21 artists of India and Malysia, was a tribute to late Dinanath Pathy of Odisha. 

THE GITA GOVINDA CAN NEVER GO STALE

What is the alchemy of the 12th century text of Jayadeva's Gita Govinda with its 27 Ashtapadis in 12 prabandhas (which by the year 2002 itself had inspired 57 commentaries in over twenty European languages!) still holding the world of art captive, with its multi layered theatre of bhakti and sringar? Yet another collaborative production 'Gita Govinda where there is Radha, there is Hari,' at the Kamani (New Delhi), before an engrossed audience, proved that this Sanskrit work with its strange sringar twosome comprising a supreme being entangled in a form of his own creation (a rare situation of the macro ultimate also crying out for the micro), with its peaks and depths of emotion, mesmerizes audiences even today. Shivam Sahni, director, script writer and conceptualizer, who also takes on the role of Krishna in this Contemporary Dance/Theatre work, defines his involvement as a 'visceral calling, far greater than perception'!

NO HOLDS BARRED FEMALE GAZE OF 'REBEL RANIS' HOLDS AUDIENCE SPELLBOUND

Visceral and unapologetic in its blistering tones, of re-contextualizing attitudes defining our epic heroines, through what is referred to as the 'female gaze, placing woman at the center of the performance,' Rebel Rani staged at the Kamani, held a packed auditorium spellbound. Presented by the experimental Keelaka Dance Company founded in 2024 by Jyotsna Shourie and long-standing student Aneesha Grover, its interdisciplinary approach, not dictated by conventional classical performance practices, in a layered, emotive form of its own creation, not excluding the spoken word and music (contributed by MadStarBase, Dr.Himanshu Srivastava, Harini Iyer and O.S. Arun) - makes for highly communicative fare.

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Article - Growing into your own seal, A journey from the collective to the individual - Dr. Lata Surendra

Growing into one's own signature as an artist is not a frantic search for a unique style, but rather a quiet, reflective process of recognizing one's authentic voice, that tends to be hidden within gestures, choices, and a way of seeing the world through another's eyes. It is a journey from imitation to internalization, transforming raw emotion and technique into a consistent, personal "fingerprint" that resonates with both the creator and the viewer.

An artistic signature is not created; it is recognized over time. It is the rhythm of color, the movement, and the emotional touch that remains constant even as subject matter shifts. The signature in fact is a soul mark - an extension of the artist's personality--whether harsh or gentle, bold or whispering--acting as punctuation at the end of a personal, creative monologue happening through an evolution over a period of time gathering in depth, performance after performance. 

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Article - The return of Nāṭya Art, Memory, and the Long Rhythm of a Civilisation - Rohit Viswanath

At the great temple of Bṛhadiśvara in Thanjavur, the stone speaks in an administrative voice. It records land grants, duties, and allocations. Among these, it notes the presence of hundreds of women attached to the temple, trained in music and dance, and sustained through a carefully organised system of patronage. They are not incidental figures. They belong to the structure of the place.

Further north, at the Virūpākṣa temple at Hampi, inscriptions from the Vijayanagara period record similar arrangements, including endowments for dancers, musicians, and ritual specialists. The language is consistent across centuries. Performance is accounted for, maintained, and institutionalised.

From a modern vantage, these records can appear as remnants of a lost world, evidence of a tradition that flourished, declined, and was later revived. But this reading carries a familiar assumption that history moves in a straight line.

Nāṭya does not quite follow that line. Its movement is cyclical, recursive, and responsive to shifts in the conditions that sustain it.

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Anita says...April 2026

In the shadow of a brutal war still continuing in the Middle East and its consequences spreading across the globe, I share my monthly musings. To be honest, it feels strange to talk about "dance", "performance", "culture" and the Arts when all we see and read is more and more bloodshed and devastation in the news cycles. And to think that I transited through the now damaged Dubai airport on my way home from South America barely 4 days before the mayhem began!

My personal thoughts about the value of the live arts in the current "theatre of war" seem almost puerile against the bombardment of heritage buildings and precious architecture that we are seeing crumble before our eyes. Perhaps this is the very contradiction that should be a sobering reminder of what really matters in our lives.

March started with a flood of dance performances. It felt like a wave of excess after my sabbatical in February. For eyes like mine, who have seen so many performances across the world for 50 years, it needs something very special to make me focus and sit up.

Fortunately, some dancers did make me smile in admiration. 

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Article - The city stands tall - Yazhini SP

What kind of people make sense in stories? I wish to show the ideologies that dominate this purely aesthetic question, show rasa itself as complicit, and argue for the stage as a place exempt from such governance, where people and their interiority are valued as material, risk is valued as an aesthetic event, and unmediated audience perception is valued as the foundational condition of art.

What kinds of people "make sense" in stories?

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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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