Monsoon showers along with a program deluge - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

PARAMPARA FESTIVAL

Following a fairly barren two months, came a deluge of programmes in the capital starting with the annual Parampara Festival of the Reddys – which this year, considering the vagaries of sudden monsoon showers, was held at the Kamani auditorium, instead of the usual haunt of their own open-air theatre in their Saket home....

 

SARE JAHAN SE ACHCHA

Odissi exponent Ranjana Gauhar’s annual festival Sare Jahan se Achcha, began in the customary way established so far with the first evening being devoted to a presentation by the host institution Utsav. This year’s presentation Chitrangada based on Tagore’s play, with concept, script and direction by Ranjana and music direction by Saroj Mohanty, had Sandeep Dutta’s technical direction, for what has become the institution’s most prolifically staged nritta natika presentation.....

UNUSUAL KUCHIPUDI/KATHAK PERFORMANCE
Performing for a Delhi audience for the first time, Ritusri Chowdhuri and Amrita Singh settled in Kolkata, provided an evening of Kathak and Kuchipudi respectively, at the Stein auditorium....

REGALING TWOSOME FOR IIC’S MONSOON FESTIVAL

Geetanjali Acharya, a student of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, trained in Srjan, the Guru’s Odissi institution, performing at the IIC , given the brief recital, comprising the first half of the first evening, for the two-day Monsoon Festival, showed in her dance the unmistakable stylistic impact of the Guru. 

The Odissi recital was followed by a superb Bharatanatyam presentation by Apeksha Kamath, a student of Indira Kadambi of Bangalore. For the first time after a number of years, one found a dancer stressing the idea of the Monsoon (in the title of the event) as a central theme, while planning the recital....

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Article - The Ethics of Dance Critique: Why it matters who writes - Anita Vallabh

(The article first appeared in Global Indian Artist™ LLC, dated July 19, 2026)

In an interview, the former New York Times chief dance critic Alastair Macaulay described his work this way: “To reconcile heart and head; to show how emotion and intelligence can combine when absorbing works of art. To report on and to evoke an event for those who weren't there. To provoke and enrich discussion of dance. To help people show how many elements - how many values - go into the process of judgment.”

It's an apt description of the critic's role: feel deeply, think clearly, write truthfully. But behind those thoughts, lies an ethical terrain every dance critic must navigate.

I started critiquing in 2014 for no other reason than my love for writing and dance. My first critique was on a performance by my gurus, The Dhananjayans and published in Narthaki. Soon after, I had a conversation with my Gurus about what I had written. In that exchange, I understood the power of words and the responsibility to choose them with care.

It was then I realized that if I wished to write honestly and critically, I could not also remain a performing artist in the same spaces. I made a conscious decision to step away from the stage and commit to critiquing. In the eleven years since, apart from the occasional performance for a non-profit or community event, I have not danced publicly. My love for dancing will never vane, I think of my transition form dancer to writer as expanding the artistic canvas. 

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Prism - Mohiniyattam: Identity and Aesthetics - V. Kaladharan

Kerala, the south-west tip of the Indian sub-continent, can boast of giving birth to several highly evolved traditional performing arts viz. Kutiyattam, Krishnanattam, Kathakali, Mohiniyattam and Thullal, a semi-stylized solo dance-theatre narrative. Except Kutiyattam the first stage performance of which is deemed to have taken place between the 10th and the 11th century AD, the rest of the artforms came into being in the 17th century AD. Thullal dates back to the 18th century. While there are convincing evidences to establish the period of origin of Krishnanattam, Kathakali and Thullal, the history and development of Mohiniyattam prior to the establishment of Kerala Kalamandalam in the early 20th century is still shrouded in mystery not withstanding multiple references from various sources made by genuine and pretentious scholars over a period of time. Even the so called Mohiniyattam which poet laureate, Vallathol Narayan Menon, resurrected at Kerala Kalamandalam way back in the 1930's, was the remnant of its glorious past. 

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Interview - Odissi's Ambassador to Peru - Maria Laura Valdez Usseglio - Shyamhari Chakra

In one of the episodes of Mann Ki Baat, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed her contribution for popularising Odissi dance in the South American nation of Peru.
"In Peru, Herlinda Gonzales and Maria Valdez are popularising Bharatanatyam and Odissi dance respectively; showing how Indian classical dance is creating waves of popularity in South America," he had mentioned.

For Maria Laura Valdez Usseglio, the first and only Odissi dancer from Peru, such an important acknowledgement from the head of a country - that was her home-away-from-home for two decades - has been the ultimate honour that she could have ever aspired for as an Odissi dancer. 

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Article - Gaudiya Nritya: Analyzation on the subjects of debate - Adrita Misra

Gaudiya Nritya, at present is among the most debated dance forms of India which are yet to be considered strictly 'classical'. Despite covering the technical criteria of a classical dance form, Gaudiya Nritya faces strong criticism and opposition due to several reasons which we attempt to address and analyze here.

Gaudiya Nritya was denied the recognition based on various reasons... 

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Of Chinna Nadam and periya talents! - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

Nartanam Academy of Dance and Music (NADAM) is among Bangalore's best Kathak and Bharatanatyam teaching and performing society. Coconut is a fruit of which no part is wasted! Tender water, add protein rich fruit, even the shell makes Fab India buttons now! Then there's coir mat, rope, carpets, beds and more. Add the tree itself... Dancing in the winds when you see it! That's why NADAM is aptly located on Coconut Street! In where else? Centre of Bangalore's traditional culture - Malleswaram, the other bastion being Basavangudi. R.K. Narayan's famous book that Shankar Nag and wife Arundhati Nag made into a beautiful DD teleserial - Malgudi Days - partakes of these two wor(ld)ds Mal - (from Malleswaram) and Gudi from Basavangudi. Great ideas are simple; clutter leads to confusion. Or Confucius!

Confucius sounding, read 'sorted,' are NADAM founders Murali Mohan Kalvakalva and Nandini Mehta. Stable, sensible and solid, both have trained many, performed much and steered 25 years of Bangalore's best dance festival, nay, two festivals - Chinna Nadam for children under 13 and Periya Nadam for grown up talents in December.

It's a sheer delight to watch the young ones, all dolled up like - dolls!  

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Bharatanatyam and Neuroscience for Creative Aging - Sloka Iyengar - Not just anyBODY: a health and fitness column

I came to creative aging a few years ago through neuroscience and a series of losses in my family. Growing up in Ahmedabad, I learned Bharatanatyam at the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts. My doctoral and postdoctoral work has been in neuroscience, more specifically in epilepsy; my clinical experience was with children who have refractory epilepsies. After my postdoctoral appointment, I lost my mother, mother-in-law, and a close older friend. Seeing formerly vibrant women being treated with pity and condescension when they were sick and frail, I was moved to think of ways to use my scientific and dance training to alleviate suffering, especially in older adults. I wanted to see if I could use Bharatanatyam as a vessel to provide a space where older adults can exercise their full human potential.

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