Bharat Prem Katha - A new curriculum by Sharmila Biswas - Dancing on Air: Column by Kathakali Jana

Building upon the three pillars of dance, process, practice and performance, Odissi dancer-choreographer Sharmila Biswas has devised a series of online classes to be taught over one year. She unveils her course, Bharat Prem Katha, and shares details about what went into it and how the curriculum emerged.

What is your main thought in creating this?
Searching for creativity in the two main aspects of dance - in the curriculum (the building blocks), and in creating dances (to communicate deeply). I enjoy both immensely and these have occupied a major part of my dancing life.

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Obit/Tribute - Two gurus and an obit: Gurus Jitendra Maharaj and Kanak Rele - Ashish Mohan Khokar

Two eighty year olds die within few days of each other. One a Kathak guru, another a Mohiniattam one. One in Delhi and one in Mumbai. Their initials also follow each  other: J...K. Gurus Jitendra Maharaj and Kanak Rele - Feb 18 then 22 of the year ‘23.

What do they represent? They represent among the last of that generation value system when dance was first, not the dancer. When material was more important than men and women in power. When books were written and read, not just Facebook. When serving dance was serving God. When awards were deserved, not got or bought! When students were valued not devalued. When art was above the individual. When individual became an institution. When an institution became a temple. When temple was made of soul, not a hall of gold. She made Kanak Sabha, he made Sangeetika. She created hundreds of students, he made one pair equal to a hundred.

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Article - Movers and Shakers: K. Vishwanath movies - Ranee Kumar

...It was in such a milieu that ace film director K Vishwanath used his directorial ventures as tools of social transformation. A classicist to the core and a keen observer of the society, he pioneered a cinema with a purpose: to inculcate the lost values of traditional arts, shun caste-based discrimination and influence youth to follow their heart and heritage. His target audiences were the literate middle classes and educated upper classes which form a major chunk of any given society. He had a subtle way of ushering in change which made for the success of his movies.

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Interview - Sudha Raghuraman: Abhinaya has to come through music as well as dance - Shveta Arora

Sudha Raghuraman is a renowned Carnatic classical composer and vocalist whom I have had the pleasure of hearing many times over the years, usually in dance recitals. Whether she is performing live or in a recording, Sudha's formidable command over her art, her controlled yet virtuoso style and her intelligent customization and innovation in dance programs leave an indelible impression on the viewer. Watching her perform live is a special experience and always a memorable one - I have found myself humming the refrains from her compositions long afterwards. One such refrain was 'Madhumati aushadhi' from the Bharatanatyam production 'Ratnagarbha', conceptualized and performed by Rama Vaidyanathan in Delhi last year. I spoke to her recently about that production, her career in Carnatic music and about singing for dance.

How were you initiated into music? When did you decide to make it a career?
I was born into a family of musicians. We lived in a joint family in Karol Bagh where my grandfather and guru, O.V. Subramanyam of the Tanjavur bani, gave Carnatic music lessons. He moved from the Tanjavur district to Delhi and made a huge contribution, especially in Delhi, to bring Carnatic music to this level, and created a legacy - he trained hundreds of students and several of them have further trained many other students. So it became exponential.

So it was a very natural call for me because the house was always reverberating with music and students coming in regularly. It was in the genes, obviously, and I used to be extra attentive in my guru's classes. 

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Magic Bow's enchanting delve into mind of music composer - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

To how many people is given the blessing of looking into the mind of a music genius, about what has inspired his creations? Was it a thought process or visual images that spoke to him through melodic phrases? To Gowri Ramnarayan, was given the great good fortune, in her many close interactions with the Carnatic music savant Lalgudi Jayaraman, of delving into the recesses of his mind, to form an impression of the kind of images inspiring some of his compositions. And as a creative person, the temptation to pattern a Bharatanatyam performance based on Lalgudi Jayaraman's creations, re-visualised with the scenarios in the creator's mind while giving birth to these compositions, became over powering. And what better combination could one have, than Sheejith Krishna's fertile choreographic mind, with him and Anjana Anand as the dancing twosome, under Gowri's direction and script, visualising the programme, premiered at Kalakshetra's Rukmini Arangam, Chennai?

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Profile - Jiwan Pani - Surbhi Agarwal

Jiwan Pani exhibited a keen interest in music, dance, and theatre since childhood. He also enjoyed playing the flute and cricket—besides, he cherished photography and cooking. At the age of thirteen, his first poem was published, which was widely applauded. He became a celebrated poet and lyricist whose art was sung by every common man. He was solely responsible for bringing forward the Orissa art aesthetics to the classical level. The paramount interest and versatility in every form of art left him no space untouched. He was conferred the Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his outstanding study of the performing arts of Orissa. Some of his pioneering works include research studies on Chhau and Odissi dance forms, as well as puppets and masks of India.

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Drishti Festival - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

Drishti started off as a palm-sized art mag by Anuradha and Vikranth - a smart, smiling duo of Bangalore - some twenty years ago. Guru Maya Rao, the Kathak legend, sent them my way to get guidance. 

Anuradha Vikranth also helped compile list of main city dancers for the Bangalore special issue of attenDance in 2005/6. The Governor T.N. Chaturvedi hosted its launch at Raj Bhavan in 2006. The date was 4/5/6! I still have the car parking sticker of Raj Bhavan, so I remember the unusual date. I had somewhat known the Governor from Delhi days when he was the CAG and his nephew went to college in the same bus I took. Yes, those days VIP kids also travelled by ordinary bus with ordinary people!

This preamble may help establish how hard the Vikranth couple have worked to create a dance festival that in 2023 reached its 18th edition. Most people in the field even see success but not the hard work that goes behind. In Sahakar Nagar, they have an active school, with hundreds of students learning in assembly line, well trained and well run. Anuradha herself is an able dancer, who has in last decade come under the tutelage of Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam and this festival was a pre 80th birthday celebrations when her big birthday is on 4th Feb, same as Birju Maharaj ji too.

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Tribute - K Vishwanath: A Trailblazer - Ranee Kumar

The sun has set on aesthetic cinema in south India with the demise of ace director Kasinadhuni Vishwanath. He was one-of-a-kind film director who worked his way up by sheer dint of merit in a highly commercial and competitive world of Telugu (south Indian) film field. He used cinema as a vehicle to propagate performing arts. Unlike earlier filmmakers who adapted classical dance and music to suit a film audience, K. Vishwanath introduced the movie-goers to traditional classical arts in their purest form. It was a bold and risky step as Telugu audience was used to cheer at gyrations in the name of dance and light song sequences - risky in the sense of vagaries at the box-office in case an experimental film failed to garner audience which meant collections at the ticket counter. Afterall, cinema production was business in right earnest. He was a bold director who jettisoned the run-of-the-mill romance and sob stories of social movies and challenged the conditioned environs of middle-class morals, caste bias then (1960s-2010). He also 'created' artistes as he gave them their first break in challenging roles. So sure of his expertise was he, that any actor - new or experienced - delivered the goods like never before in his/her career!

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Tribute - Lakshmi Viswanathan (January 1944 - January 2023)- Jeetendra Hirschfeld

There are people in your life that come in, and you make sense to each other, and that is what I had with Lakshmi Viswanathan.

I had known Lakshmi for decades. I think I first met her in the early 1990s. For many years she was a dancer I watched and admired. We met at the sabhas and just had friendly interactions. It was only around 2013 or so that we started talking more, and she would invite me to her every performance, knowing that I would be there even without an invitation. And I would now and then visit her home to discuss dance and art. Our mutual interest in Tanjavur Natyam brought us closer together. 

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Book Review - Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, the Mozart of Kathakali - Prof. Z. K. Peter

For Dr. Mohan Gopinath, Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair on stage will always remain a legend who transforms himself so magically into the character that the art and the artist become one. Be it Nalan, Bhiman, Arjunan or characters with dark shades like Keechakan and Rugmangadan, Krishnan Nair asan could emote any role effortlessly. Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair (1914-1990) was one of the most renowned Kathakali artists and perhaps the greatest in the history of the four-century-old classical dance drama of Kerala.

Dr. Mohan Gopinath's book Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, the Mozart of Kathakali goes beyond a mere biography or chronicle of the actor. The focus of the book is on examining the dance drama (Kathakali) from different perspectives, and by doing so it is expected that the reader will get a sharper insight into the complexities of this dance form and the difficulties involved in producing a mature actor. The author examines the changes and interpretations that Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair brought to the genre which are relevant even to this day.

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Anita says...February 2023

 

I use Dance to give expression to my inner vision
It is not mere exercise nor as escape to get away
From the harsh realities of life.
Its significance goes much deeper.
The physical exercise and the mental discipline
Are means to realising the highest experience given to man
This is the real meaning of dance.
- Sri Lankan cultural icon GURU CHITRASENA



And we quietly slip into the year of the Rabbit.

After much tumult, I welcome the leaping out of the year of the Tiger as the Rabbit hops its way in! The Tiger definitely roared, pounced, clawed (and occasionally purred) its way through 2022. After the last several months of daring adventures, we are more than ready for the kind hearted rabbit to get going.

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