Article - The twain shall meet - Aniruddha Knight

Tradition, in the context of hereditary dance and its music, is riddled with more questions than answers. We grapple with its present day contextualisation, much of the time in spurts of emotional zeal and laced with an undercurrent of guilt and a sense of loss. In recent years there has been an increasingly clamouring of voices, demanding that these suffocating traditions of nearly a century have their rightful space amongst mainstream interpretations of Bharatanatyam.

Though I come from a tradition of dancers and musicians myself, there are many times when feeling lost amongst the clamouring, name calling and jeering that has riddled social media today. I write not to enumerate further the social uphill and trauma of what many hereditary families have experienced. No one can deny that my family and others are a living example of how tradition can survive and thrive in the 21st century.

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Article - Actor on the Lights - Parshathy J Nath

How is it for an actor to work in the lights department and what transforms when one stops looking at the person as an 'operator', but a 'performer'? This is first of a three part series of my experience being mentored for a year at Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research in Puducherry through the Inlaks Theatre Award scholarship.

Lights and performance, two words entwined with each other. Yet so different in their execution. But one cannot do without the other. Lights need a performer's body to find its subject. And the actor needs the lights to reveal herself. So, what happens when an actor turns into a lights performer? When I stepped into Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research for a year-long mentorship in Theatre Training through the Inlaks Theatre Scholarship award, I never imagined I would be doing the lights. That's a world I had never stepped into in my performance journey. But, little did I know that it will be a transformative journey for me under the mentorship of Vinay Kumar, the artistic director of the institution, by viewing lights and performance in a holistic way.

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Triple A - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

A book, a film and a conversation by Annette Leday from Paris, then a book and talk on Ram Gopal by Ajay Sinha from a state in the US of A whose capital is Baaasttunn (Boston). That was the highlight of the beginning of the dance calendar here in Bangalore.

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Book Review - Lakshman's Natyam: Delightful reading - VR Devika

It makes delightful reading. This fun filled tribute of a Sishya to her Guru. Author Preetha Sampath does many permutations of adavus (movement units) to create a korvai that is part entertainment, part history and part devotion. "Lakshman's Natyam" is a myriad hued chiaroscuro of Adyar K. Lakshman's illustrious life story told with unbridled affection. She gives an enduring picture of her Guru's life and the river flows within one. Eloquent descriptions of life cycle rituals are just the beginning to a life so enriched by the circumstances it found itself in and grabbed opportunities presented with both hands and created a future for a large number of individuals.

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Choreographing SRINGAR - The Raja Rasa: Column by Janaki Patrik

SRINGAR - The Raja Rasa. LOVE ... King of Romantic Sentiments ... Ruler of Erotic Emotions. LOVE ...... the emotion from which all other emotions are said to emanate.

No words can speak as eloquently as photographs can reveal .... the profound differences in choreographic expressions of Sringar Rasa in classical north Indian Kathak and in western modern dance and classical ballet. The tender eloquence of interlocked eyes and restrained lack of physical contact in Birju Maharaj and Kumudini Lakhia's Kathak duet contrast with the wild abandon and melding of bodies in Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins duet from George Ballanchine's ballet CHACONNE and the primeval animal innocence suggested in Merce Cunningham and Meg Harper's duet in RAINFOREST.

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Dvi-Nethram - A two eyed vision of tradition in Natya Darshan - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

It was a two- eyed vision of tradition, in more ways than one, in Dvi-Nethram - The Vision of Parampara - that the onlooker was treated to, in Natya Darshan 2022, by Kartik Fine Arts, held at its customary venue of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan auditorium, Chennai. The subject conceived by advisor Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy aimed at highlighting India's dance culture, comprising what is referred to as 'the classical and the folk' - inclusive of art with a stylised vocabulary attained through generations of teacher-to-student transmission on the one hand, alongside the country's, less formal, myriad folk expressions among different sections of people- spontaneous and participatory - with degrees of stylisation too in some cases. Curated and conducted with involvement and panache by convenor Roja Kannan, senior Bharatanatyam exponent running Bharata Natyalaya, musician, teacher and choreographer, presently also General Secretary of ABHAI, the festival also brought out tensions within a tradition, as it travels through the corridor of time.

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Interview - The camera can tell a story without even having a dialogue: Innee Singh - Shveta Arora

Delhi based Innee Singh has been photographing portraits, weddings, Indian classical dances and music for two decades. He speaks to Narthaki about his work and inspiration.

When did you begin working as a photographer? How and why did you take it up, and why classical dance and music photography in particular? Was there any influence or inspiration?

I began photographing dance sometime in 2005, starting with Kathak. At the time, though, I did not share any pictures with anyone, and posted them just a few times on my social media.

I come from a business family that has been making and selling musical instruments since the 1950s. My grandfather started the company, called BINA, and specialized in harmoniums. Since I'd been around musical instruments from the beginning, I used to try and play most of them. I was always interested in the sarod and the tabla. My inspiration was always Ustad Amjad Ali Khan sahab and Ustad Zakir Hussain. I have been learning sarod from the legendary Ustad Amjad Ali Khan sahab for about six to seven years now. I can easily call myself the most disappointing shagird (disciple) Abba ji has ever had. But I feel blessed to be learning from him and being in his presence is a blessing itself.

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Anita says...January 2023

 Celebrate endings - for they precede new beginnings - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Cheers to the new year and another chance to get it right - Oprah Winfrey
Don't live the same year each time and call it a life - Robin Sharma
Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one - Brad Paisley.



I have chosen the word FURIOUS.

Because that is the pace and velocity with which we have lived this past year.
Devouring anything and everything in our path - food, travel, clothes, art, recreation, vacation, celebration, work - everything had a quality of happening at a FURIOUS pace. It was as if we were not going to see, experience or live through the next moment. It was a voracious whirl.

And December brought it all to a pinnacle. Like the heart of a tornado, where the centre is quiet but deadly. Like the promise of yet another twisted version of the virus. But this time, we are ready. Or not. Two years of isolation brought the Christmas month to a fever pitch of performances, festivals, celebration and bonhomie across the world. Just seeing the crowds at the auditoriums, faces familiar and new and everyone with a mixture of relief and joy in their eyes was enough to reassure me that even GRATITUDE must be cultivated with FURIOUS determination.

Having been in the thick of so many (too many) events in December, I missed so much of what was happening around me. Chennai maybe the epicentre of a mammoth music and dance festival but many other cities were also celebrating with equal aplomb.

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