Modern Moksha - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

Moksha is the ultimate quest for most evolved souls but in dance how to achieve it? No, I'm not referring to the often concluding item in Odissi repertoire, which is a joke now as all are smiling as if there's no tomorrow! Moksha? They are thinking of momos for dinner or what their mummies have made for dinner post-performance!

Minal is both a mummy and moksha seeker and if her Moksha was a quest for a new dance aesthetics in Bharatanatyam then she succeeded admirably at Alliance Francaise, Bangalore. Bringing in an international cast was both a boon and doom because one each student from London (Ritika Srikanth), Boston (Manasi) and 'Frisco (Janaki) showed virtual learning and internationalism in Indian dance and yet a repeat show will not be easy to collect them again, unless someone bank rolls it or sends their private plane to fetch each and drop back. Manasi and Janaki are sisters, besides. 

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Malavika Sarukkai's inward journey into dance/space relationship keeps audience spellbound - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

Speaking of a world she inhabits, where dance is the language of communication, Malavika Sarukkai's talk at the IIC titled Dance Speak, held a rivetted audience enthralled. Totally divorced from textual theory and based entirely on her own intensely personal journey into the relationship of how dance sculpts and interacts with space, she had arrived at the conclusion that 'Space and Dance were partners'. Dance for her had become a language. Her natyadharmi, she discovered, was decided by space. Mudras and hastas don't speak by themselves. The gravitas of a hasta stems from its placing in space - as for example showing a 'sitting bird', just holding the mudra is not enough. One has to make the hand in hasta travel through the air and settle down to convey and suggest the message of a sitting bird. It is the elaboration of the hasta and its movement and placing in space, that conveys the full meaning.

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Article - Jana Gana Mana is a song not a document, Kapila Vatsyayan, T.M. Krishna, and the Politics of Sanskritization - Dr Avanthi Meduri

Abstract:
This essay responds to T. M. Krishna's 4th Kapila Vatsyayan Memorial Lecture, "I Sing, Therefore I Am," by examining his radical proposal to rethink Rabindranath Tagore's Jana Gana Mana through the lens of language, caste, and regional identity. It argues that reducing the national anthem to a problem of caste hegemony, power and Sanskritized language politics misses the distinction between written text and embodied cultural performance central to Vatsyayan's thought. Drawing on notions of rasa, unisonance, nationalism, Sanskritization, and collective singing, the essay contends that an anthem is not merely a linguistic artifact but a performed, socio-cultural form through which the individual "I" is gathered into a shared national "we."

T. M. Krishna's (TMK) title naturally intrigued me. I wanted to see how he would invoke Descartes to think through Vatsyayan's legacy - specifically her lifelong affirmation of the sovereign voice and subjectivity of the musician, actor, and dancer. But I came away dismayed. 

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Obit - Dr Mandakranta Bose (1938- 2026) - Jai Govinda

Scholar and author Dr. Mandakranta Bose passed away on September 10, 2026 in her home city of Vancouver/ Canada. Professor Emerita at the University of British Columbia, and director of the university’s Centre for India and South Asia Studies, she held a D. Phil. degree of Oxford University and was a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and the Department of Sanskrit (Mahamahopadhyaya), University of Calcutta. 

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Individual dance creations of compelling resonance - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

VILASINI NATYAM PREMIERE

It all started at the Stein auditorium of the Habitat with a stunning solo premiere in Vilasini Natyam by veteran dancer Swapnasundari, followed by a group presentation of her creation of temple dance in the Agamic style.

PARABOLA OF DANCE
Aditi Mangaldas' generous initiative in starting what she has named Parabola of Dance, featuring creative efforts by dancers pertaining to different dance traditions, with the performance part succeeded by discussions on the constantly evolving process behind these creative enterprises, has been attracting larger sections of dance lovers. 

SWAN LAKE IN ODISSI

Sharmila Mukerjee (student of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra) and her group of students from Sanjali Ensemble of which she is the Artistic Director, presented her creation of Hansika, based on the famous Swan Lake Ballet of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; the work in the Odissi format premiered back in 2018. 

LOKCHANDA CULTURAL UNIT PRESENTS EVENING OF NRITYA KATHA

Designed by Maitreyi Pahadi, the Nritya Katha evening at the Habitat was predominantly a Kathak event, with one exception of an item of Mayurbhanj Chhau, the event centered round the Monsoon theme.

UMA SHARMA'S CUSTOMARY JANMASHTAMI

Veteran Uma Sharma's Janmashtami evening Sree Radha at the IIC, saw her students of Bhartiya Sangeet Sadan present Nritya Ras, her annual homage to the Krishna Janma Bhoomi -which constitutes her personal contribution to the world of dance - based on the research she undertook, in the Brindavan area and its vicinities. 

TWIN SHADES OF FOLK AND CLASSICAL AT IIC

In support of its recent approach supporting both fold and classical, IIC Double Bill concert presented an evening clubbing Kajri music with Kathak. 

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Article - The connotative appellative: Does arangetram need multicultural synonyms? - Dr Lavanya Iyer

Why is it that BHARATANATYAM ARANGETRAM-s are being categorically and repeatedly designated with the name of RANGAPRAVESHAM, duly by Bharatanatyam gurus themselves? Even on the invitation cards, the trend is being followed. Earlier, it was prevalent only in other south states which I attributed to state linguistic issues (not that I endorse it, but still it made sense). Now it's prevalent among the Tamizh speaking gentry from Tamil Nadu and in Tamil Nadu itself. Now that is appalling. Now my simple question is ----- Why is this so called "trend" prevalent and what has trend got to do with tradition?

RANGAPRAVESHAM, a term exclusively associated with KUCHIPUDI, the classical art of Andhra and Telangana, neither fits into the linguistic side of Bharatanatyam nor is it that there has been any issue with the term ARANGETRAM which is exclusive to Bharatanatyam's patrimony and legacy of its mother state Tamil Nadu. Why take away the basic beauty of a Tamizh word meant to decorate the art born of Tamil Nadu and push a nonnative vernacular version for no reason. ETRAM and ARANGAM being Tamizh words fit the bill, RANGA and PRAVESHA being Sanskrit / Pali, definitely do not. We also see the terms MANCH or MANCHA that are derived from Prakrit / Sanskrit. Kathak and Odissi use the terms RANGMANCH PRAVESH and MANCHA PRAVESH respectively, which is common to Sattriya as well. Manipuri of course has a very different genre of MAIBI or the Ras Leela depending upon the debuts. 

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Article - From Abhinaya to Responsibility Nāṭya, Human Formation and the Ecological World - Rohit Viswanath

The discussion of Nāṭya, Abhinaya, Rasa, Sādhanā, and related dimensions of practice in this essay draws substantially upon the writings and reflections of Dr. Padmaja Suresh, whose work has explored the philosophical, aesthetic and spiritual dimensions of Nāṭya. Her contribution is especially relevant here because of her association with Nāṭyaśāstra Gurukulam, where she has contributed to its pedagogical and aesthetic direction. The extensive engagement with her work reflects both its direct relevance to the argument and its place within the intellectual and pedagogical context from which this essay emerges. 

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Interview - Bharatanatyam dancer Vinay Tiwari on choreographing Magadh in Kathak - Shveta Arora

I spoke to Vinay at length about his repeated presentation of Bihar in his choreographies, about 'Magadh' and working with Gauri in Kathak and the process of conceptualizing each piece in the function. I also spoke to Gauri about choosing Vinay as this year's guest choreographer and about how he fared in her estimation.

When Gauri invited you, a Bharatanatyam dancer, to choreograph for her Kathak showcase, how confident were you - firstly, about choreographing the disciples of another guru and then, of a different stream of dance altogether?
The idea of such a collaboration had been in my mind for a long time. I had been in Lucknow for 7-8 years - my exposure to classical dance, I would say, consisted more of Kathak than Bharatanatyam. I was a student at Bhatkhande University, and Bharatanatyam in Lucknow was either those people who were in my class or those who were related to that class. But Kathak was more widely present in the form of performance or presentation. So just my constant observation of Kathak spans 12 years to 13 years. I also had some opportunities to play characters in Kathak dance productions by Surabhi Singh Tandon ji. So it was that I understood the body language of Kathak. I have many friends in Kathak and much exposure to it.

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Article - In Me - The Shishya and the Guru - Dr. Lata Surendra

Abstract:

In Me - The Shishya and The Guru:
The Dualistic Paradigm of Shishya and Guru in the Eternal Continuum of Learning

The paper explores the epistemological and ontological dimensions of lifelong learning through the dual lens of the Shishya (the perpetual student) and the Guru (the inner teacher). Rooted in the rich philosophical heritage of India, this study unpacks the multi-tiered evolution of mentorship - tracing the spiritual and intellectual trajectory from Upadhyaya (skill instructor) to Acharya (the exemplar of conduct) and, ultimately, to Guru (the absolute dispeller of existential darkness). Drawing upon a shared global tapestry of insights, the narrative synthesises the existential angst of Western thought (Eliot, Sartre, Kafka, Dostoevsky), the abstract spatial geometries of modern painters (Kandinsky, Van Gogh), the humanist architecture of Rabindranath Tagore, and the moral and contemplative rigour of East Asian classical traditions (Confucius and Japanese Zen Buddhist aesthetics). On the occasion of Teacher's Day, and in alignment with the seminal warnings of philosopher-statesman Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the author argues that true intellect resides not in the accumulation of empirical certainty, but in the radical vulnerability of acknowledging one's own profound ignorance. The paper establishes that the act of giving (teaching) is intrinsically an act of receiving (learning); by interacting with the diverse human "moulds" of life, latent wisdom, historical experiences, and artistic masteries are reawakened and transmuted into immediate tools of comprehension. Ultimately, the paper positions life's inevitable crises - typified by the divine alchemy of Sri Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra - as the supreme catalyst for spiritual unravelling and self-realization. The study concludes with a phenomenological reflection on macro-micro cosmic unity, asserting that the deepest depths of universal wisdom do not require external conquest, but an open, receptive heart capable of listening to the echoing depths of the infinite cosmos mirrored in the most ordinary fragments of nature. 

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Article - Beyond Familiarity: Authenticity, Adaptation, and the Odissi Experience - Dr. Rohini Dandavate

Ever since I migrated to the U.S., I have sought to remain rooted in the authenticity and integrity of the Odissi style while finding ways to connect with audiences unfamiliar with its traditions, aesthetics, and cultural contexts. For me, the tension between authenticity and adaptation has never been about choosing one over the other. Rather, it has been a continuing process of understanding what must remain rooted in the tradition and what can evolve so that Odissi can speak meaningfully within the multicultural context of my adopted home.

Authenticity, as I understand it, cannot be static. Odissi itself has evolved through many historical transitions - from temple traditions and Mahari and Gotipua practices to its modern reconstruction and codification. Authenticity, therefore, is not the preservation of a frozen historical moment, but an ongoing relationship with tradition. My challenge has been to translate the form without losing its grammar, integrity, or cultural memory, while making it possible for audiences to encounter Odissi without first needing to understand all that lies behind it.

My experiments in translation began almost a month after my arrival in Ohio. In one of my earliest presentations, for a class of kindergarteners, I quickly learned from these five-year-olds that I needed to begin with stories and images familiar to them. Their response prompted me to think, learn, and discover new ways of presenting Odissi that could create curiosity about a movement language they had never encountered. 

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Interview - We worship Bharata Muni in Thailand: Bharatanatyam dancer Awassada Kilnsukhon - Shyamhari Chakra

She was in her mid-20's when she represented her country in the historic international conclave on Indian dance hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Sangeet Natak Akademi in New Delhi two years ago. The youngest delegate in the meet, she was one of the panelists to speak in the important and interesting session on Indian dance diaspora.

She is Bharatanatyam dancer Awassada Kilnsukhon from Thailand who was in India for two years and recently returned to her country upon completion of her masters in Bharatanatyam from Banaras Hindu University.

How did you get interested in dance?
I was born into a family of Thai classical musicians. Therefore, I grew up surrounded by the arts traditions of ancient Thailand. As a kid, I was quite fond of dancing. I began learning classical Thai dance as part of my school's dance curriculum from kindergarten when I was just four years old.

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Anita says...September 2026

 Aaaand... hello again!

Another month goes by. Another capture through my personal lens. Another set of thoughts shared. As Time marches on and tastes shift and change, it is a challenge to find that common ground that you, the reader who can be - dancer, choreographer, guru, teacher, musician, composer, costume designer, lighting director, Arts manager or anyone who is interested or working in the performing arts sector can connect to. Being a senior in the field, I realise that many of my views are shaped by the long decades of learning, performing, producing, curating, mentoring, speaking and writing about dance and society. I write and speak as I see it.

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Monsoon showers along with a program deluge - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

PARAMPARA FESTIVAL

Following a fairly barren two months, came a deluge of programmes in the capital starting with the annual Parampara Festival of the Reddys – which this year, considering the vagaries of sudden monsoon showers, was held at the Kamani auditorium, instead of the usual haunt of their own open-air theatre in their Saket home....

 

SARE JAHAN SE ACHCHA

Odissi exponent Ranjana Gauhar’s annual festival Sare Jahan se Achcha, began in the customary way established so far with the first evening being devoted to a presentation by the host institution Utsav. This year’s presentation Chitrangada based on Tagore’s play, with concept, script and direction by Ranjana and music direction by Saroj Mohanty, had Sandeep Dutta’s technical direction, for what has become the institution’s most prolifically staged nritta natika presentation.....

UNUSUAL KUCHIPUDI/KATHAK PERFORMANCE
Performing for a Delhi audience for the first time, Ritusri Chowdhuri and Amrita Singh settled in Kolkata, provided an evening of Kathak and Kuchipudi respectively, at the Stein auditorium....

REGALING TWOSOME FOR IIC’S MONSOON FESTIVAL

Geetanjali Acharya, a student of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, trained in Srjan, the Guru’s Odissi institution, performing at the IIC , given the brief recital, comprising the first half of the first evening, for the two-day Monsoon Festival, showed in her dance the unmistakable stylistic impact of the Guru. 

The Odissi recital was followed by a superb Bharatanatyam presentation by Apeksha Kamath, a student of Indira Kadambi of Bangalore. For the first time after a number of years, one found a dancer stressing the idea of the Monsoon (in the title of the event) as a central theme, while planning the recital....

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Article - The Ethics of Dance Critique: Why it matters who writes - Anita Vallabh

(The article first appeared in Global Indian Artist™ LLC, dated July 19, 2026)

In an interview, the former New York Times chief dance critic Alastair Macaulay described his work this way: “To reconcile heart and head; to show how emotion and intelligence can combine when absorbing works of art. To report on and to evoke an event for those who weren't there. To provoke and enrich discussion of dance. To help people show how many elements - how many values - go into the process of judgment.”

It's an apt description of the critic's role: feel deeply, think clearly, write truthfully. But behind those thoughts, lies an ethical terrain every dance critic must navigate.

I started critiquing in 2014 for no other reason than my love for writing and dance. My first critique was on a performance by my gurus, The Dhananjayans and published in Narthaki. Soon after, I had a conversation with my Gurus about what I had written. In that exchange, I understood the power of words and the responsibility to choose them with care.

It was then I realized that if I wished to write honestly and critically, I could not also remain a performing artist in the same spaces. I made a conscious decision to step away from the stage and commit to critiquing. In the eleven years since, apart from the occasional performance for a non-profit or community event, I have not danced publicly. My love for dancing will never vane, I think of my transition form dancer to writer as expanding the artistic canvas. 

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Prism - Mohiniyattam: Identity and Aesthetics - V. Kaladharan

Kerala, the south-west tip of the Indian sub-continent, can boast of giving birth to several highly evolved traditional performing arts viz. Kutiyattam, Krishnanattam, Kathakali, Mohiniyattam and Thullal, a semi-stylized solo dance-theatre narrative. Except Kutiyattam the first stage performance of which is deemed to have taken place between the 10th and the 11th century AD, the rest of the artforms came into being in the 17th century AD. Thullal dates back to the 18th century. While there are convincing evidences to establish the period of origin of Krishnanattam, Kathakali and Thullal, the history and development of Mohiniyattam prior to the establishment of Kerala Kalamandalam in the early 20th century is still shrouded in mystery not withstanding multiple references from various sources made by genuine and pretentious scholars over a period of time. Even the so called Mohiniyattam which poet laureate, Vallathol Narayan Menon, resurrected at Kerala Kalamandalam way back in the 1930's, was the remnant of its glorious past. 

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Interview - Odissi's Ambassador to Peru - Maria Laura Valdez Usseglio - Shyamhari Chakra

In one of the episodes of Mann Ki Baat, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed her contribution for popularising Odissi dance in the South American nation of Peru.
"In Peru, Herlinda Gonzales and Maria Valdez are popularising Bharatanatyam and Odissi dance respectively; showing how Indian classical dance is creating waves of popularity in South America," he had mentioned.

For Maria Laura Valdez Usseglio, the first and only Odissi dancer from Peru, such an important acknowledgement from the head of a country - that was her home-away-from-home for two decades - has been the ultimate honour that she could have ever aspired for as an Odissi dancer. 

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Article - Gaudiya Nritya: Analyzation on the subjects of debate - Adrita Misra

Gaudiya Nritya, at present is among the most debated dance forms of India which are yet to be considered strictly 'classical'. Despite covering the technical criteria of a classical dance form, Gaudiya Nritya faces strong criticism and opposition due to several reasons which we attempt to address and analyze here.

Gaudiya Nritya was denied the recognition based on various reasons... 

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Of Chinna Nadam and periya talents! - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

Nartanam Academy of Dance and Music (NADAM) is among Bangalore's best Kathak and Bharatanatyam teaching and performing society. Coconut is a fruit of which no part is wasted! Tender water, add protein rich fruit, even the shell makes Fab India buttons now! Then there's coir mat, rope, carpets, beds and more. Add the tree itself... Dancing in the winds when you see it! That's why NADAM is aptly located on Coconut Street! In where else? Centre of Bangalore's traditional culture - Malleswaram, the other bastion being Basavangudi. R.K. Narayan's famous book that Shankar Nag and wife Arundhati Nag made into a beautiful DD teleserial - Malgudi Days - partakes of these two wor(ld)ds Mal - (from Malleswaram) and Gudi from Basavangudi. Great ideas are simple; clutter leads to confusion. Or Confucius!

Confucius sounding, read 'sorted,' are NADAM founders Murali Mohan Kalvakalva and Nandini Mehta. Stable, sensible and solid, both have trained many, performed much and steered 25 years of Bangalore's best dance festival, nay, two festivals - Chinna Nadam for children under 13 and Periya Nadam for grown up talents in December.

It's a sheer delight to watch the young ones, all dolled up like - dolls!  

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Bharatanatyam and Neuroscience for Creative Aging - Sloka Iyengar - Not just anyBODY: a health and fitness column

I came to creative aging a few years ago through neuroscience and a series of losses in my family. Growing up in Ahmedabad, I learned Bharatanatyam at the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts. My doctoral and postdoctoral work has been in neuroscience, more specifically in epilepsy; my clinical experience was with children who have refractory epilepsies. After my postdoctoral appointment, I lost my mother, mother-in-law, and a close older friend. Seeing formerly vibrant women being treated with pity and condescension when they were sick and frail, I was moved to think of ways to use my scientific and dance training to alleviate suffering, especially in older adults. I wanted to see if I could use Bharatanatyam as a vessel to provide a space where older adults can exercise their full human potential.

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Book Review - Kathak and Sanskritisation? - Leela Venkataraman

At the IIC, it was an evening with a scholarly gathering to mark the release of the book by Shubhi Publications on Speaking Sculptures - Karanas in Kathak, authored by Kathak specialist Shovana Narayan.

The Natya Sastra Karanas (Hasta-pada samayogah karanamiti samjnitam), we know, are not stances, but units of movement in a coordinated conjunction of hands and feet operating in a prescribed fashion. Shovana (as other scholars), understandably looks at sculpture as the best indicator of dance movement in history. One must remember however, that the Karana is a whole unit of movement - which has been arrested at any one point of a whole movement cycle, to be captured on temple walls by the sculptor's chisel. In other words, sculptural representations comprise frozen moments of whole units of movement prescribed as a Karana. And what is caught on stone arrested at any point -and what is seen in sculpture may not necessarily show the start or the culmination. 

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Mixed week of folk and stylised traditions - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

Treated generally to tailored, stylized fare of classical music and dance, the audience at the IIC auditorium, Delhi, seemed to get caught on the wrong foot, with the very different texture of the no-holds-barred exuberance, very much in the old Mujra style of the Lavani and Jogwa dancers from Maharashtra (performance courtesy NCZCC and Culture Ministry). Originating during 18th -19tth century Maharashtra under the Peshwas, who were great patrons of this art form, as a means of morale boosting entertainment for soldiers, Lavani  performers are mostly from among the community of Dangars (shepherds) of the Sholapur region of Maharashtra, their art a provocative blend of storytelling, dance and music, brimful of socio-political satire, built round society, religion and politics....

At the Habitat Centre’s Stein auditorium, watching the poised Bharatanatyam in the Tanjore Bani presented by Sneha Mahesh, trained under dancer Priya Murle of Chennai, one was surprised that this dancer had never before performed in Delhi. Entering the starkly bare stage, her curtain-raiser was a Muthuswamy Dikshitar composition Ananda Nadana Prakasham in raga Kedaram, one of the panchabhuta sthala kritis dedicated to Lord Shiva as the embodiment of space or akash in the Nataraja temple. Brilliant as innumerable suns, the Lord as granter of worldly pleasures and liberation, reveals himself with his dancing feet, to sages Patanjali and Vyagrapada.....

With a capital in siege for a week, understandably lean audiences at the Habitat Stein auditorium greeted both the Bharatanatyam and Pravat Kumar Swain’s group Odissi Nrutya Arpana. This writer was struck by one stark difference, in that Sneha Mahesh performed on a bare stage - with even the announcements from backstage - whereas the tastefully decorated altar for Jagannath greeting the onlookers for the Group Odissi recital led  by teacher Pravat Kumar Swain, was the starting point of prolonged formalities, which went on for over quarter of an hour – with every person known to the dance world in the audience, being called to the stage to be honoured - draped with elegant dupattas, with the hospitality involving  a bag containing other goodies!.... 

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Article - The lullaby that awakened - Dr. Lata Surendra

The First Gurus!

'To be is to know that you are not separate, but an ongoing flow of every history gone before.'

My father was the scholar and linguist who awakened me to the magic of words. Through scriptures, chants, and books, he introduced me to friends across epochs. He taught me to romance poets who charmed my soul, and philosophers who silenced the hunger of the dust. In his eyes, I sought to dance past every milestone; he made achievement so effortless that it became a habit. Yet, when I grew too lost in the past, he gently urged, "Close the books now, dear, and read from the pages of life." Growing up under British rule, his accent was flawlessly British - to me, he was simply the ideal, and he was my own.

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Anita says...August 2026

July has been 31 days of ceaseless unrest. Ablaze with arguments and heated rhetoric about issues of representation and race swapping. About translations, cinematic liberty and appropriation. The rumble became a roar with the student unrests in India that started in with a leaked examination paper and the subsequent student protests in New Delhi has rocked the government and the ripples continue as I write this monthly message. 

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Article - My Guru's greatest choreography: An institution that taught me to fall in love - Dr. Amrithasruthi Radhakrishnan

Every Guru Purnima, we celebrate the guru. This year, my gratitude extends beyond my guru to the institution she has cultivated over three decades: Natya Vriksha. I have come to recognise that the greatest choreography of dancer Geeta Chandran (Akka, as generations of us affectionately call her) may not be a work created for the stage at all. It is the institution she has built. To build an institution is among the most demanding acts of artistic practice. Choreographies conclude after the final applause, but institutions demand care every single day.

When I first entered Natya Vriksha as a young student, everyone around me believed I was rolling in a dance school, where I would acquire a vocabulary of movement and, one day, perform. Little did I know that this was where my becoming would quietly unfold. Today, whatever I have become, as a dancer, researcher, a teacher, administrator, and a cultural practitioner, has its roots there. Natya Vriksha gave me ground steady enough to take flight from, and a place to land each time I returned.

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Thoughts of an 82-year-old Kathak dancer: Column by Janaki Patrik

My hair has turned white and I've celebrated my 82nd birthday. It's now patently evident that I've been around for a while! So when young Kathak dancers and their parents discover that I've been a Kathak dancer... student, performer, guru, choreographer... for 60 plus years, they sometimes ask me for advice.

I suppose they expect me to tell them to practice tatkar every day for several hours, followed by an orderly regimen of bol parhant and repetitions of chakkurs, tukras, parans, paramelu, kavita torahs etcetera etcetera etcetera .......

But that's not the advice I give. I speak more about longevity in terms of sustaining our lives as creative artists within a supportive community, and of maintaining the "life of the mind" while sharing what we know and appreciating the gifts of others. 

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Article - Guru Purnima-From darkness to light - Bana Shastri Ramanath

Guru Purnima is a special full moon day that is observed once a year. It is also celebrated to honor the birthday of the ancient enlightened Hindu Guru Veda Vyasa who organized and compiled the Vedas and authored the epic Mahabharatam - an encyclopedia of the ever-evolving human drama. As Guru Purnima approaches, I feel moved to express gratitude to my Gurus, guided by faith and a sense of responsibility shaped by my upbringing in traditional Indian culture. People of Indian heritage around the world celebrate Guru Purnima through rituals, worship, gift-giving, and other expressions of respect. When my own students offer their gratitude and appreciation on this day, I cannot ignore the meaning and significance of Guru Purnima.

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Article - The thirty second sentence, How the 30-second loop is dismantling the Performing Arts - Dr. Lata Surendra

We have reduced the vastness of human expression, the agonizing architecture of art and the very rhythm of life to a fleeting thirty-second glance. In the modern cultural landscape, thirty seconds is no longer a mere unit of time, it is a violent trial. It is the maximum boundary of human attention before the thumb twitches, the screen changes, and the psyche shifts. Yet we wonder why a relentless, automated loop of these same thirty seconds leaves us completely reeled. We are caught in a hypnotic vertigo, spun around by a carousel of fragments that mimic depth but offer only a momentary spark. Time it was, when surrender to the aesthetics cradling art was ever so vital. To watch a classical dancer trace the geometry of grief across a stage; to hear a vocalist hold a single, trembling note until it fractured the silence, or to witness a theatrical monologue build its emotional scaffolding over the course of hours - these required a shared covenant of time. It was absolutely 'a transaction' of presence. Today, that covenant is broken. 

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Article - Guru and Sishya: The sacred bond then and now - Vazhuvoor Saravanan

A Modern Dilemma

A boy known to me was deeply inclined to learn the Veena. After consistent prayers, he found his Guru near Adyar, Chennai. Both considered themselves lucky - the Guru found a devoted disciple, and the sishya a knowledgeable teacher.

However, despite the boy's sincerity and perfect attendance, he soon experienced disheartening neglect. His Guru frequently took long breaks for personal commitments, leaving the student in tears. On one occasion, the boy confirmed his class by phone a day before and again an hour in advance, only to travel to the teacher's house and be turned away at the door by the Guru's husband, who stated she was suffering from a headache and resting. The young boy was shattered - not by the tiring public commute, but by the callous treatment and lack of concern. Today, this mutual loss of respect and devotion between teacher and student has become all too common. 

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Debadhara Festival built round Debaprasad style of Odissi - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

The three-day festival at Habitat's Stein auditorium in Delhi, featuring Odissi of the Debaprasad school, was a joint effort by Debadhara run by Binayak Panda and Tridhara, the institution under older brother and guru Gajendra Panda, at Bhubaneswar of Odisha. With the dance tribe in general facing daunting financial limitations in arranging events involving the larger circle of dance practitioners, the brothers must be credited for managing grants by the Ministry of Culture and other Corporate Sectors enabling the sponsoring of such a festival, involving dancers from forms outside Odissi too.

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Tribute - The Pinnacle of Kathak - Pandit Kundan Lal Gangani - Dr Chitra Sharma

Pandit Kundan Lal Gangani was one of the most eminent exponents of the Jaipur Gharana, whose creative vision shaped the very form in which this illustrious tradition is known today. Drawing upon the priceless legacy inherited from his forefathers, he enriched and expanded the art of Kathak through his profound knowledge, imagination, and experience, creating a legacy that has itself become a part of history. 

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Obit / Tribute - Teejan Bai: Folk Theatre artist from the Pardhi Margins to the Throne of the Mahabharata - Dr Navina Jafa

The stage did not tremble when Teejan Bai stepped on it; it remembered how to tremble.

Teejan Bai, the great teller of the Pandavas, died on 5 July 2026 at the age of 70. She was born into the Pardhi community, a denotified tribe in Chhattisgarh that had been unjustly branded as criminal and pushed to the margins, and was told early that women in her world were not meant to speak for gods. She did not learn to obey. She learned to sing the Mahabharata aloud, on her own feet, and in her own voice. 

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Book Review - Dance games for digital age denizens - Ranee Kumar

Though not the first of its kind, this play activity book on Indian classical dance has a cutting edge with its mind games and pithy puzzles. Aptly titled 'Natya Kreeda' and authored by California-based Aria University professor Dr. Velury Sumitra (Dept of Kuchipudi), the glossy 46-page book is a mini handbook on dance, not just for kids but for dance aspirants across all ages.

It's a brilliantly conceived workbook with a definite design and direction. Replete with artistic pictures the table of contents, divides itself into seven chapters beginning with: 1) The dance Maze puzzle; 2) Word-finder; 3) Yati and builder games; 4) Jumbled word games; 5) Advanced puzzle sections; 6) Complex word-building and 7) Answers to the puzzles. The author has provided ample instructions to the practitioner/readers of this workbook in the form of one-page notes - on her own objective in crafting this book, another note to the dance teachers, a guiding page to the dance maze puzzles apart from aesthetic titles in Sanskrit with English tag line.

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Article - Seeing the world through a Bharatanatyam body - Samyuktha Gopi Raj

Reflections from The Buckley School's World Dance Workshop and Flip the Script

At The Buckley School, Sherman Oaks, CA, dance education extends beyond learning choreography. It encourages students to explore movement as culture, storytelling, and identity. During the Fall 2025 semester of World Dance, culminating in the October 2025 World Dance Workshop, and later through participation in the April 2026 spring dance concert in Flip the Script, I began to understand how deeply my Bharatanatyam training shaped the way I approached unfamiliar dance forms. Rather than feeling separate from my classical background, each experience reinforced how Bharatanatyam provides a foundation that allows a dancer to move thoughtfully across traditions. 

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Trip down Odissi's memory lane in Orissa Dance Academy's Subarnima - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

Celebrations marking fifty years of an art Institution, can take on many hues. Apart from marking a milestone, it can be a time for stock taking, for renewing pledges and also reveling in still retaining a place in a fast-moving world with a penchant for splashes of brilliance rather than longevity. What one saw in Subarnima of Orissa Dance Academy, an institution with a hyper active calendar of events, established in 1975 by the enterprising Guru, late Gangadhar Pradhan and now managed by his top disciple Aruna Mohanty, was a thoughtfully designed umbrella of items, encapsulating a salutation to the artistry, of all the great Gurus of Odissi - but for whose Herculean efforts, present day Odissi could not have boasted of such a large presence in the prevailing dance scenario of India. All credit to Aruna Mohanty, Creative Director cum Secretary of Orissa Dance Academy, who by laying stress on the contribution of the entire family of teachers, has subsumed the invariable contradictions existing between and amongst different Paramparas. By this one act of unifying the entire Odissi brigade with so much grace, the three day Subarnima event (June 22 to 24, 2026 at Rabindra Mandap, Bhubaneswar), acquired a special texture of togetherness and bonhomie.

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Article - Embracing motherhood - Sree Veena Mani

Most of us here have embraced motherhood. We know what it feels like to not wear our bells for almost a year - whether it is for the first baby or the second. Looking back at both my pregnancies, there is one thing I can say with certainty: it may be a pause from being on stage, but it is never a pause from dance itself.

Through both my pregnancies, I continued to grow as an artiste. I focused on understanding the theoretical aspects of Nritya, exploring them in depth with my guru, and strengthening my foundation as a practitioner. One of those explorations was even featured on this website.

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Anita says...July 2026

 I write this month's thoughts from the cool of the mountains. Watching the mist shifting shapes and sipping a cup of Nilgiris tea. Taking long walks in silence and reading. Writing a script for a new work and recalibrating for the months ahead.

It is that time of the year when sporting events abound. Amidst the summer outdoor dance and music festivals, my eyes turn to tennis (what else!) and the surprise that unfolded on the clay courts of Paris.

Even though the sport has moved onto the Wimbledon grass, I want to bring your attention to a surprising event that took place just before the women's and the men's singles final matches.

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Interview - Bringing Rasa to the Digital Stage: A conversation with Aravinth Kumarasamy - Dr. Siri Rama

With so much culture now experienced through screens, can the deep emotional connection of Indian classical dance - the Rasa experience - be felt online? Aravinth Kumarasamy, founder of Avai.Video, a streaming platform for Indian dance and arts, believes it can. 

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Obit / Tribute - Pratap Pawar (1942-2026)- Ashish Mohan Khokar

In the death of guru Pratap Pawar (20 May 1942 – 25 June 2026), a lifetime Kathak trotter came to an end.  A generous man but democratic personality, he was the FIRST ganda bandh (formally accepted student with a red thread on wrist tying ceremony) shishya of Pt. guru Birju Maharaj in 1970.

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Double Bill Summer Dance Festival at IIC - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

IIC's Summer Festival, for its dance component on the second day (June 12), attracting a fair-sized audience, could not have envisaged a more rewarding recital than that of Sourav Mohanty - a rare male Odissi talent, whose evocative dance effloresced in both stillness and movement. A product of training under Durga Charan Ranbir and presently under Rahul Acharya, both hailing from the Debaprasad gharana of Odissi, Sourav's dance with its impeccable lines, could be a reference point for both delicate artistry and aesthetic sensibility in Odissi...

The next half of the program featured Bharatanatyam dancer Sandhya Easwar, this year's winner of the Spirit of Youth Series in Chennai. Trained at Chennai's Kalakshetra, followed by a spell under Roja Kannan with abhinaya lessons under Bragha Bessel, the dancer is presently pursuing her training under the Dhananjayans....

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Article - Guinness Record - Vazhuvoor Saravanan

Today, one frequently sees performances of our traditional music and dance being staged under the banner of "Guinness World Records." It is evident that students, parents, and - even more so - their teachers and organizers are keenly interested in showcasing these events. Does this seem sensible?

Our ancient traditional arts, preserved and cherished for centuries, form the foundation of our esteemed Indian culture. These arts are the identity of this land; language and art are like our two eyes. Until a few centuries ago, these art forms were practiced primarily as a means of worship.  

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From Entitlement to Embodiment A Nāṭyaśāstra Reflection on Desire, Dharma, and Śṛṅgāra - Rohit Viswanath

The internet is a storm chamber. One wrong gust and a petty quarrel becomes a cyclone. The recent dating refund controversy is one such micro-storm: a man treats the cost of a shared meal as an investment that ought to yield a return, and the court of public opinion quickly divides into camps. Some argue for splitting the bill; others condemn the attitude as a red flag or a violation of consent. These are necessary, defensive arguments. They tell us what not to do. They do not tell us how to rise.

To understand the poverty of this encounter, we must move beyond the mechanics of modern dating and recover a neglected civilisational dimension. Śṛṅgāra is the classical Indian aesthetic of cultivated desire, revered in Bharata Muni's Nāṭyaśāstra as the Rasarāja, the sovereign among rasas. Viewed through this lens, the controversy is not merely a matter of poor manners or questionable etiquette. It reveals a deeper aesthetic failure: the reduction of the unpredictable mystery of human relationship to the rigid arithmetic of a ledger. 

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Interview - Sandhya Raman and Suma Suresh on the layers of art forms that brought interdisciplinary Kintsugi to life - Shveta Arora

Starting late 2025 and continuing well into 2026, Lata Pada's Canada-based Sampradaya Dance Creations toured with the production 'Kintsugi'. Kintsugi is a Japanese art that honours broken pottery by mending it with gold lacquer, highlighting the breaks rather than hiding them and 'embracing embellished brokenness'. The concept of the production was that kintsugi is 'where rupture meets renewal and radiance', 'what we lose, what we mend and what endures'. It was applied to the Mahabharata, reimagining volatile and unresolved ruptures in relationships as points of transformation or healing. It was a rich amalgamation of Kathak, Bharatanatyam and contemporary dance, which was very well woven into the music and the rhythm. Plus, there was a natya element in enacting the stories - Eklavya and Drona, Draupadi and Yudhishthir, Kunti, Arjuna and Karna, Gandhari and her daughter Dushala.

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Prism - Odra-Magadhi as Odissi: Myth or Fact? - Rahul Acharya

 Among the many claims surrounding the antiquity of Indian classical dance traditions, one of the most repeated assertions in modern Odissi discourse is that the dance form finds direct mention in the Nāṭyaśāstra under the term Odra-Māgadhī. This proposition, widely circulated particularly in post-independence scholarship, seeks to establish an uninterrupted continuity between contemporary Odissi and Bharata's Nāṭyaśāstra.

However, such a claim requires careful historical and textual scrutiny. Modern scholarship has often attempted to connect living performance traditions directly to the Nāṭyaśāstra in order to legitimize them through antiquity, sometimes overlooking the complex evolution of Indian dance through centuries of regional practice, transformation, and codification. A close examination of the Nāṭyaśāstra reveals that the text neither discusses present-day "classical" dance forms as we know them nor conceptualizes dance in the same manner as later traditions.

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