He is the ‘bete noir’ of Carnatic music. T.M. Krishna, TMK to his
legions of fans, dropped a bombshell stating on FACEBOOK that he will no
longer perform during the December Chennai season. The brouhaha that
erupted outside his native Tamilnadu brought up the tired arguments of
caste, class and exclusivity all over again. In his home town of
Chennai, he is being roundly criticized for his statements and both
audiences and presenters are moving on, without missing a step.
Read all about it…
An Indian classical performing art plucks at the heartstrings of
spectators, by presenting an emotional human experience that is
universal in nature. This aesthetic theory is the underlying belief and
philosophy of all Indian classical arts called rasa theory.
The rasa-sutra
The goal of any natya is only to create rasa. Rasa is the enjoyment of an aesthetic bliss derived through witnessing or reading a dramatic or literary piece of work. “Vibhava anubhava vyabhichari samyogad nishpattih” is the famous rasa-sutra of Bharata, which is a formula-like, succinct statement about how rasa arises. …..In formulating the sutra,
Bharata is explaining the factors of art creation; he is also
suggesting that an emotion or an emotional experience, which is content
of art-presentation, cannot be stated in words or narrated; it has to be
poetically constructed in order that it conveys not merely information
or knowledge of the emotion but also produces an appropriate emotional
response. The factors or components of this art construction are
the determinants and the physical and mental consequents, which the sutra
states. It is also suggested that an emotional experience
constructed through the art components can alone reach the reader or
spectator, evoke an emotional response in him and lead him to enjoy it.
This is rasa; and the sutra, in a way, presents to us an anatomy of rasa-experience.”[1]
Therefore, the success of the art-presentation depends on the audience
response (relish of rasa) to the dominant emotion (sthayibhava); or
their identification with the idea i.e., content of art-presentation.
Read the article in the site
The feel in the hands of this edition is the same as it is of the expectation as compared with that of attendance
2013-14 ‘Telugu Traditions.’ The pleasant surprise is in the difference
of the content and in the emphasis this time around. Yes, the content
is of different bandwidth and presentation altogether. Attendance
2014-15 focuses in this edition about numbers, about significant
milestones, on some memorable dancers, and wonderful institutions as
they approach important anniversaries. The cover mentions the
importance of numbers vis-à-vis the above topics (of 100+ years of Zohra
Sehgal or the golden jubilee of SPA Mauritius so on).The
editorial is a simple note, Ashish’s wish and appeal to the readers to
encourage more reading of the dance annual and his acknowledgements to
the various contributions of individuals. I observed that in the
previous version edited by Ananda Shankar Jayant, there was no section
on male dancers and I am glad to have found that the male dancer got his
due attention by way of a detailed article this time. The
“opportunity-taboo and the career-dilemma" angles are covered nicely and
Bharatanatyam dancer Praveen Kumar and Kathak dancer Muralimohan Kalva
contributed their thoughts on how it is being a male dancer.
Read the review in the site
US based Yamini Saripalli is a Kuchipudi dancer trained under legendary
Kuchipudi guru Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam. She is a regular performer in
both the US and the Chennai Marghazi Season. At present she is learning
from Vempati Ravishankar, son of Dr Vempati. Yamini is a practicing
physician as well. She also organized several dance programs for
charitable organizations. Being a direct student of an illustrious guru
who shaped the art form to the entire world and whose choreographies
continue to attract more students from different walks of life, I felt
that her dance and her thoughts would prove to be useful for many a
Kuchipudi dancer.
Yamini, please let us know how your dance life started.
I come from a family of doctors and engineers. But then, I have always
loved music from my childhood. My mother says that I would make my
parents record songs with certain ragas I liked so that I could listen
to them over and over. Any kind of music has always moved me to dance.
My introduction to Kuchipudi was through my first dance teacher Sujatha
Vinjamuri in my home town of St. Louis, Missouri. I then seriously
started learning Kuchipudi in high school after being inspired by my
guru’s dance drama Hara Vilasam. Once I started learning under Master
and his son Vempati Ravi Shankar, I knew that this was what I wanted to
pursue for my lifetime and from that point on, I have never looked
back.
Read the interview in the site
Sizzle, Snap, Pop.
The summer heat may have fried some of our brains with 45 degree
scorching days, (America - get with it! work out the burning
temperatures from Fahrenheit into the global norm) but the dancing feet
did not stop. Like THE RED SHOES of the famous Hans Christian
Andersen's children's story that never stopped its wearer from moving,
Indian dancers and musicians were leaping and twirling across the oceans
to one nonstop gig after another. Premieres, reviews, previews,
contests - we received so much information this month on our news desk
that it did not seem like a summer vacation was taken by any dancer!
Read the message in the site
