Wednesday 27 June 2012

Interview - Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao: Natya Shastra workshop in Chennai - Bhavanvitha Venkatesh

Pappus Academic and Cultural Trust in collaboration with ABHAI (Association of Bharatanatyam Artistes of India) is conducting a ‘Natya Shastra Workshop’ in Chennai by Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao. He is a member of Sangeet Natak Akademi and Secretary of the Madras Music Academy. He has authored 15 books, more than hundred research papers on religion, philosophy, music and dance.

The Natya Shastra workshop is scheduled during July 9-14, 2012 at TAG Center and will be inaugurated by Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam and Chitra Viswewaran. N Murali, President of the Music Academy, will distribute the certificates on the last day.

Read the interview in the site

11 comments:

  1. Fees is very much on higher side.. Abhai is a charitable trust..abhai has been started with a moto of yamirika bhayam enn??? it has become ABHAYAM.....

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  2. Namaskaram, I would like to know where can we find Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao's publications on Natya Shastra? Does he have any certificates in Natya Shastra?
    It is true that only those performers who excel then graduate to the level of a teacher and composer. I would like to see videos of Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao dancing or any references to him teaching dance. It is remarkable that Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao proved that Abhinava Gupta wrote Abhinaya Darpanam. I thought he wrote only Abhinavabharati. Also, I didn't know about the existence of the "4 volumes of Natya Shastra of Manmohan Ghosh with English transliteration".
    Thank you.
    Nandini

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  3. nowadays art has become commercial... is it only for rich people??? why they are fixing higher fees for such workshops???what is their purpose of conducting these type workshops with higher fees.????they don't want to spread the art to the economically weaker section..art should be free of such kind of activities. then only it can survive...

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  4. I remember reading in the Sruti magazine Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao's article on Sri Chakra. It was very well-written, and I admired his style. Later I found the same article, word-for-word, on the Internet dated much earlier and it turned out that it had been written by someone else. I am sure that everyone in their student days did the copy-paste jobs, and many of us would not have got their PhD's without borrowing from other authors while attributing the authorship to themselves. It is kind of normal maybe. In the govt schools, the teachers mug up a lesson from a handbook before teaching it in class. And for this their salaries are like Rs.30000/month.

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    1. selecting such govt schools is on our hand. they are not selling education in the name of charitable trust....they are not changing their face time to time.......

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  5. For those who are interested there is a review of Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao's workshop on http://www.thehindu.com/arts/dance/article2896206.ece .

    More details of the future workshops should be published, including the fees. Will the students learn anything not contained in Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam book on Natya Shastra or other books? Will it be a purely theoretical course or practical too?

    I am rather surprised that ABHAI's current president, Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam, who is an acclaimed though self-taught connoisseur of Natya Shastra, delegated it to Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao.

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  6. I'm curious why was there a need to state that artistes from Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria, Dubai, Singapore, Sri Lanka, US are participating. Will it in some way validate the certificates?
    If the emphasis of the workshop is on giving a complete over-all view of NS, can't this view be much easier obtained by reading NS even in that English translation by Manmohan Ghosh? If the purpose of the workshop is to deliver a concise digest of NS on the lines of For Dummies series, wouldn't it make sense for ABHAI to publish such a digest for the benefit of all its members who are incapable of reading NS on their own?
    The greatest question is, if an adult dance student is not capable of reading NS or its translation, what exactly would be the actual value of the attendance certificate issued by Pappus Academic and Cultural Trust?

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  7. If Dr. Rao is indeed adept in Sanskrit literature, I hope he will find time in his busy schedule to translate Abhinavabharati to prove his scholarship and to make his contribution to classical dance.

    To say - without bearing any responsibility for one's words - that the hoary tradition of Natya Shastra is now alive in Kashmir or Zimbabwe does not require a Ph.D. When Bharatanatyam dancers read that statements like "the proponents and practitioners of Kathakali followed the Natyasastra to the T.", they begin to doubt the sanity of the author of such a statement.

    Practically every computer-literate schoolchild today can give power point presentation on Natya Shastra and present the major components of each chapter. But none of our PhD's can answer simple specific questions, e.g. (Chapter IV): If "two karanas will make one Matrka, and 2, 3 or 4 Matrkas will make up one Angahara"(2x2=4, 2x3=6, 2x4=8), why then "the Angaharas consist of 6, 7, 8 or 9 karanas"? And why can't there be 11 karanas in a single Angahara?

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  8. on sangeethas.wordpress.com there is also a posting on natya shastra workshop, and in the comment this info:

    workshop on natyashastra is being held at natyashastra anusandana kendram, bhopal from 20 june-20 july at bhopal. workshop directors: KS Rajendran/AnjanaRajan

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  9. abhai has entered its 25th year with its new face of ABHAAAAYAM.. During Dr padma subramanyam's presidential period it reached its maximum height of popularity particularly after 1000 dancers festival at thanjavur. Dr padmasubramanyam never thought of making money by selling art in any form. But now abhai has changed its moto as money making trust..Money making people is exploiting abhai's popularity. Abhai's 25th year will be a remarkable one because of its new moto and face i.e selling art. They have changed workshop name as abhivriddhi shala i.e they are going to abhivriddhi their personal money...by collecting higher and higher abhivriddhi shala fees...

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  10. What were the fees for the workshop, and why the amount was not published in the info? all the fees went to Pappus Academic and Cultural Trust?

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