Article - Growing into your own seal, A journey from the collective to the individual - Dr. Lata Surendra

Growing into one's own signature as an artist is not a frantic search for a unique style, but rather a quiet, reflective process of recognizing one's authentic voice, that tends to be hidden within gestures, choices, and a way of seeing the world through another's eyes. It is a journey from imitation to internalization, transforming raw emotion and technique into a consistent, personal "fingerprint" that resonates with both the creator and the viewer.

An artistic signature is not created; it is recognized over time. It is the rhythm of color, the movement, and the emotional touch that remains constant even as subject matter shifts. The signature in fact is a soul mark - an extension of the artist's personality--whether harsh or gentle, bold or whispering--acting as punctuation at the end of a personal, creative monologue happening through an evolution over a period of time gathering in depth, performance after performance. 

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Article - The return of Nāṭya Art, Memory, and the Long Rhythm of a Civilisation - Rohit Viswanath

At the great temple of Bṛhadiśvara in Thanjavur, the stone speaks in an administrative voice. It records land grants, duties, and allocations. Among these, it notes the presence of hundreds of women attached to the temple, trained in music and dance, and sustained through a carefully organised system of patronage. They are not incidental figures. They belong to the structure of the place.

Further north, at the Virūpākṣa temple at Hampi, inscriptions from the Vijayanagara period record similar arrangements, including endowments for dancers, musicians, and ritual specialists. The language is consistent across centuries. Performance is accounted for, maintained, and institutionalised.

From a modern vantage, these records can appear as remnants of a lost world, evidence of a tradition that flourished, declined, and was later revived. But this reading carries a familiar assumption that history moves in a straight line.

Nāṭya does not quite follow that line. Its movement is cyclical, recursive, and responsive to shifts in the conditions that sustain it.

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Anita says...April 2026

In the shadow of a brutal war still continuing in the Middle East and its consequences spreading across the globe, I share my monthly musings. To be honest, it feels strange to talk about "dance", "performance", "culture" and the Arts when all we see and read is more and more bloodshed and devastation in the news cycles. And to think that I transited through the now damaged Dubai airport on my way home from South America barely 4 days before the mayhem began!

My personal thoughts about the value of the live arts in the current "theatre of war" seem almost puerile against the bombardment of heritage buildings and precious architecture that we are seeing crumble before our eyes. Perhaps this is the very contradiction that should be a sobering reminder of what really matters in our lives.

March started with a flood of dance performances. It felt like a wave of excess after my sabbatical in February. For eyes like mine, who have seen so many performances across the world for 50 years, it needs something very special to make me focus and sit up.

Fortunately, some dancers did make me smile in admiration. 

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