Milind Srivastava's Art Foundation, with World Dance Day round the corner, celebrated its own annual effort at the Habitat Centre, Delhi, featuring both experienced and aspiring talents. The curtain raiser was a short Modern Dance item conceived and choreographed by puppeteer Salim Zaidi, titled Samhrti - 'an exploration of existence and transcendence through the art of dance.' The performance looks at the cyclical nature of the Universe with the eternal rhythms of creation and dissolution....
At the Habitat, the World Dance Day celebration brought together in one program, not just all Indian dance forms, including classical and tribal, but also international groups from countries like Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and a mixed African group. The event essentially stressed togetherness and bonhomie - represented through dances pertaining to various cultures - each with a distinctive identity. Mohiniattam dancer (who also teaches Bharatanatyam) Jayaprabha Menon, the choreographer, within the very short time she had for planning, wisely decided to enlist the help of foreign students studying in different colleges of Delhi. In what became a variety program of dance, each of the groups was given a separate slot of a few minutes, before coming together in the finale....
Fighting against very heavy traffic, I reached IIC too late to take in the starting item of dancer Amrita Lahiri's Kuchipudi program. The second item comprising a scene from the full length dance drama Usha Parinayam, revealed a dancer whose Bharatanatyam training with its linear geometry, has not influenced or detracted in any way, the mercurial grace and lyrical sensuality of Kuchipudi, which is in a compartment of its own, with her training under Jaikishore Mosalikanti and his wife Padmavani....
Yet another double bill presentation at the India International Centre, saw a very finished Bharatanatyam performance by Satvikaa Shankar, trained under Chennai's Anitha Guha. After gaining special accolades for her performance as Hanuman, it was a vastly different Margam dancer one witnessed with her opening comprising a rare varnam in Kalyani, a composition of Sivanandam of the Tanjore Quartette, addressed to the great patron of Arts, Maharaja Shivaji II, "Sarasa shikhamani neevani tsala nammiti." Set to dance by the dancer herself under the overall guidance of her guru, she specially mentioned her gratitude to both Nandini Ramani and Anupama Kylash for their help in better understanding the varnam.....
At the Shri Ram Centre, Kathak students of Sanskriti Foundation, the institution run by Gauri Diwakar, presented an evening of dance. With youngsters and the more advanced students participating, the program understandably, of varying standards, shared one pleasing feature, which was seeing all participants of different groups, turned out in simple salwar/kameez outfits of varying colours, deriving joy out of the entire enterprise.
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