Week of varied fare - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

The evening of Odissi dance at the Triveni was titled Sankalan. Conceived by Odissi dancer and teacher Anita Babu trained under late Gangadhar Pradhan at Orissa Dance Academy of Bhubaneswar, Sankalan presented the results of a four day workshop conducted by the present head of Orissa Dance Academy (who also happens to be the President of the Odisha SNA) namely Guru Aruna Mohanty, one of the senior-most of Guru Gangadhar's students....

It was a pitifully scanty gathering in the Stein auditorium, for the Bharatanatyam performance of Anju Chandran of the Chennai Kalakshetra alumni. But what heart warming applause after each item! It did not take long for the audience to understand that here was a dancer totally unaware of herself and utterly charming - the line perfect nritta, and restrained poise of the abhinaya, never attracting attention to the persona of the dance.....

In a fast changing world, passing on to the next generation of students the essence of an art form inherited as a legacy from past gurus, faces greater challenges - on how to keep the roots of the art alive, while adapting to a contemporary clientele of both students and audience. As usual the evening at Natya Tarangini's outdoor performance space with galleried seating, began with the wise words of Raja Reddy on prachisudha and bhinnaruchi and on keeping in mind while teaching the responsibilities in passing on the cardinal principles of the oldest living civilization, namely India....

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Article - Why you must watch Madu - Dyumna Chhabra

Art doesn't create distinctions, people do. Madu is a testament to how access to learning and performing an art form can be a life-turner, and how passion can drive one beyond the walls they've known and persevered within all their life. This documentary follows the journey of a young Nigerian boy who gets to learn at Elmhurst Ballet School. Directed by Matthew Ogens and Joel Kachi Benson, it shows how passion can grow within creeks and how support can nurture it to fruition.

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Article - Reframing Swati Padams: A conversation with Dr. Neena Prasad - Shereen Saif

As the haunting melody in Aahiri weaves a mood of pathos, a lovelorn woman confesses to her beautiful moon-faced friend: "Oh, Madirakshi (one with intoxicating eyes)! Alas! My heart can no longer bear this turmoil caused by Cupid. What am I to do?"

In another scenario, set to the tune of Asaveri, a pining heroine seeks out her lover, only to find him aloof. Emboldened by the sway she has over him, she questions, "Oh, Beloved! Why do you not speak to me? What wrong have I done to deserve this?"

"Panimathi mukhi bale" and "Enthaho vallabha", two widely performed padams in Mohiniyattam, trace their origin to the early 19th century in Kerala, a time of great creative resurgence in poetry, music and dance. The former composed by Swati Thirunal, the erstwhile ruler of Travancore, and the latter, penned by his celebrated court poet Irayimman Thampi are two classic love ballads of that era, steeped in the ethos of the Vaishnava bhakti movement that had by then gained prominence all over India. Much like Sufi poetry, the lyrical content of these padams is intimate, sensual and carries the passionate longing for an absent beloved. Treated allegorically, the yearning of the heroine is interpreted as the soul's aching and desire for union with the divine.

However, even though the intention of the poetry is anchored in the devotional, the dancer's path to evoke rasa lies not in portraying chaste devotion. Rather, the opposite! Through the explicit and aesthetic portrayal of passion. In the hands of a mature performer, a love-soaked padam can inspire a divine, transcendental experience says Mohiniyattam dancer, researcher and choreographer Dr. Neena Prasad.

To explore this subject in depth, a 10-day intensive workshop was recently organized exclusively for dancers trained at Sougandhika Centre for Mohiniyattam in Thiruvananthapuram, a kalari she established 20 years ago for research and development of the art form. The workshop curriculum covered Mohiniyattam movement vocabulary, abhinaya techniques, appreciation of Swati Thirunal's poetry and music and her approach to choreographing a padam.

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Pug ghungroo bandh in Pune - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

Pune is a unique city for dance. It is like Madras. Near perfect. People in dance field are pucca about their work, professional in attitude and perfect in interpersonal skills. They don't go overboard with emotion like North India or go ballistic, as in East!

For 20 years now, one has been going to that city. First, as the national director of America based Ngo in cultural education called the AFS. We helped start the Pune chapter and also steered it for three years. It was the most differently abled chapter in AFS network. Parents were demanding and kids were nicer! Well behaved, disciplined and kept to the course. That was 2004/5. A full 20 years ago. It was so nice to meet one such alumnus of AFS Yes program Valerie Apte, who was compering the Anuvedh festival on occasion of the World Dance Day celebrated with pomp and show by one of the biggest Kathak dance centres of Pune called Maneesha Nrityalaya.

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Epoch making 17th World Dance Day celebration by Natya Vriksha - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

Much more than yet another festival of dance, Natya Vriksha's seventeenth consecutive celebration of World Dance Day at the IIC, imaginatively curated by Geeta Chandran and meticulously executed by its tireless crew, was a hard act to emulate. Crafted to meaningfully punctuate presentational gloss with sessions of intelligent reflection, the entire effort mirrored the impact of time on dance forms. Starting with Movement Technique in Sattriya, to a Celebration of Rukmini Devi Arundale as a Revivalist and Institution Builder based on V.R.Devika's latest book, with an illustrated talk/discussion by the author, to a Seminar on Legacy in Classical Dance moderated by Geeta Chandran, featuring a prominent panel comprising Guru/dancers from each dance tradition, to culminate each evening with performances featuring promising young talent and established dancers, the two day event did not have one dull moment.

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Anita says...May 2024

"Dance disappears almost at the moment of its manifestation. It is an extreme expression of the present, a perfect metaphor for life. Dancers sculpt space in real time, working inside a form that is constantly in a state of vanishing. We have no artifacts. I find it strangely beautiful to be creating something that is made of us - made of our breath and blood and bones and minds. Something that is made of the space we occupy and made of the space between us. We embody both the dance and its disappearance."
- Crystal Pite, Canadian dancer & choreographer

A very special Hello to May born dreamers and achievers! This is our month! Well... I am born in this month and so it is my favourite time of the year. May is also the birth month of so many, many creative people - singers, dancers, composers, painters - May is the month when Taurus - the stubborn, loyal, imaginative and sensorial pleasure loving bull collides with the cerebral, quick thinking, restless Gemini twins - what a combination... and for me - born on the CUSP of both months - it means there is a whole lot of stuff going on inside!

There is also lots to talk about in the world of dance and the current spectacle of India's national elections and the vociferous protests going on in US campuses. Both countries look like bristling performance art when viewed from the outside!  

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