Ranjana Gauhar’s Utsav Educational and Cultural Society activities have
included several welcome facets for the past twenty six years. Besides
education, preservation, promotion and popularizing classical,
traditional dances, in particular Odissi dance and music, Ranjana has
endeavoured to offer a platform to young and promising exponents of
classical dance to encourage them and bring their talent to the notice
of wider community of rasikas. Besides the present festival under
review, Ranjana has been presenting Sare Jahan Se Achha festival on 15th
August highlighting in various dance forms, the glory of India. In
Kalinga Utsav, she presents traditional Odiya dancers, including Gotipua
dancers and also organizes seminar on Odissi dance and music.
On 17th April, the festival was inaugurated by Kumari Selja, Hon’ble
Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India, at the
Habitat Centre. Congratulating Ranjana for her laudable attempts to
promote the young generation of dancers, the minister recalled her
association with Ranjana for more than 20 years and expressed hope that
these artistes would find their place in the
sun.
Read the review in the site
Soorya Performing Arts under the leadership of Guru Prasanna Kasthuri
hosted a three day dance festival in St. Louis in the third week of
April 2013. All in all, 22 dance performances, 9 ethnic dance styles,
more than 150 artistes who had flown in from India, France, United
Kingdom and cities from all over the USA were the hallmarks of this
dazzling event. Prasanna Kasthuri, Artistic Director of Soorya
Performing Arts and chief convener of the 5th St. Louis Indian Dance
Festival, shares his thoughts on organizing such mega festivals.
Read the interview in the site
Adi Shankaracharya is the Father of Particle Physics, says Prof. V
Suryanarayana Rao, Chairman of Foundation of Vedic Sciences. Shankara's
diagram in SOUNDARYA LAHIRI of the PADMA (lotus) has been discovered as
the source of God Particle by scientists with the recent accelerator
experiment when the thousand-petalled lotus manifested while they
brought proton in collision with another proton of the same particle.
The Sri Chakra with its pinnacle, Mahameru, the tip of the iceberg, is
the representation of the entire process of creation, sustenance to
destruction with the triangles being the forces of Shiva (pure
consciousness/spirit) and Shakti (energized consciousness/matter). There
is ONE PARABRAHMAN (eternal, indescribable, attributeless, Nirguna)
which is reflected as the world of MAYA (moving, filled with attributes,
Saguna). A cosmic creative vibration (called sphota or explosion)
arises between Shiva and Shakti called Nada. This Nada then gets
consolidated into Shabda Brahman (differentiated sound energy), the
universal cosmic resonance, symbolized by Om. From this arises cosmic
intelligence that is responsible for the creation.
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In the present scenario of art research field, bringing out a research
journal is understood to be of absolute necessity. In this regard, there
is neither any documentation nor internationally registered magazines
with media and academic background, to publish the opinions of
researchers, or publish their writings. Research papers presented on any
special occasion or seminar, if not published in a journal, will not be
of any value. For many years the art field has been facing the dearth
for a research journal which can give a standard quality, and act as a
guiding element for further healthy research. Realizing this lacuna, the
Noopura Bhramari Dance Researchers’ Forum has come up with a dedicated
endeavor of commitment towards search-research work which gives support
and inspiration to the interested research group. Hence, the
Noopura Bhramari Dance Researchers’ Forum comprising of resource
persons, experts in the field of education and media has brought out a
Registered Annual research Journal with ISSN No. exclusively for
researches.
Read the review in the site
KP Bhaskar, a leading light in the Indian dance community of Singapore
and former president of WDA Singapore chapter passed away in Singapore
on the morning of April 17, 2013 due to heart related illness.
Read the tribute in the site
A few days ago, as a student of this classical dance form, I found
myself aching for Balasaraswati's blessings. On the night of 13th of
April, as I listened to a classical composition in praise of the Devi -
Mother Goddess, my intense longing was transformed into a portrait in
charcoal of Balasaraswati, on a 5' x 4' canvas.
Read the article in the site
The bodily techniques would be nothing else than the body’s capacity to adapt in front of varied situations, creating one habit that is handed to the new generation and changing accordingly to each nation and each historical period. When two or more techniques meet in some period of history, they can merge, bringing to the future generations a tradition modified by the the influence of other society and culture. Taking in consideration the theories of human development of Gallahue and Ozmun (2001), we are results of our genetics, of the ambient that we live in and the tasks we realize. So, if Rukmini Devi practiced classical ballet, there’s no way that the style developed by her didn’t have influence of western ballet.
So, the West too may have taken from India not only themes for their ballets, but also corporal movements, like Anna Pavlova. Besides rescuing what Europe had forgotten, the beautiful traditions of Indian dances undergo corporal influence in her compositions with the help of a Indian dancer Uday Shankar, and together they put up shows like ‘Radha and Krishna’ and ‘Hindu Wedding’ being a success in Europe, United States and in India itself. Pavlova was applauded for her " modern Indian" choreographies.
Even the role of Bharatanatyam in temples have a totally different dimension to ballet in European palaces (Gaston,1996). We can´t stop thinking of their technical similarities that can be the result of a "rendezvouz" at the end of the 18th and beginning of 19th centuries. To Gaston (1996) the artistic vision of Bharatanatyam will be always diverse and like every art, will continue to adapt and change.
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Under the aegis of Pratishruti Foundation, Sattriya dancer Prateesha
organized Sankardev Utsav, inviting monks led by Adhyapaka Tankeswar
Barabayan from original Kamalabari Sattra from Majuli Island, Assam, now
shifted to Titabar, near Jorhat, after the floods in Brahmaputra River
in mid seventies.
Though Sattriya dances have been recognized as the eighth classical
dance form of India in the year 2000, precious little is known about
this dance form in major metropolitan cities, barring the Capital.
Fortunately for Mumbaikars, in Prateesha Suresh (Saikia), they have a
crusader, who is determined to popularize Sattriya dances by
presentations, lec-dems, performances, seminars, collaborating with
other leading dancers of Mumbai and bring Sattriya, the classical dance
heritage of Assam, within the fold of performing arts in Mumbai.
Read the review in the site
