Nrityantar's Naman 2024 an interactive delight - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

In the present dance scenario, the performance aspect has assumed such pre-eminence, that interactions on dance between artistes, dance writers, and audiences have become too few and far between. It is in blending performance with the educational benefits of interaction with various agencies concerned with the dance, that the two-day event Naman 2024 (an annual event), hosted by Nrityantar, the Odissi school of Bangalore based artiste Madhulita Mohapatra, deserves high praise for.

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Crowded week starts with monsoon moods - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

One recollects the time when late Manna Srinivasan, an arts activist, informally helping out IIC with ideas for its Programme Division, first mooted the idea of a Monsoon Festival as a seasonal event over two days of dance, built round presentations, in some way connected with the Monsoons. Today any idea of "Rimjhim Rimjhim Barase" ideas belong to the past - for now IIC's Monsoon Festival is like any other festival in terms of its content. This year's two-day event presented two Kathak dancers, each consummate in the art form in her own way. 

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Anita says...Sep 2024

 

No one leaves here alive.

So please stop treating yourself as an afterthought
Eat delicious food
Walk in the sun
Jump into the sea
Speak the truth that you carry in your heart like a hidden treasure
Be silly. Be good. Be weird
There is no time for anything else
- British film actor Anthony Hopkins

Wise words. Very few of us have the courage to follow through on every one of his prompts but we can keep this mantra in our hearts as we breathe through our days and pursue our goals.

Rape case protest
(Rupak De Chowdhuri / NurPhoto via AP)

As I write this editorial, many cities in India are still protesting and holding candlelight vigils as a response to the horrific attack on the medical trainee at RG KAR hospital in Kolkata on August 9. The soul-numbing rape-murder occurred in the middle of the night when the 31 year old was resting in the hospital's seminar hall. The incident has since turned political and updates and revelations are emerging every day.

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Moham and performances for Independence Day - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

Performing after a fair gap in the capital, Ragini Chandershekar's Bharatanatyam recital at the Deshmukh auditorium, under the banner of Kalangan, displayed the power and depth of dance proficiency stemming from family inheritance, and the ambience of music and dance she grew up in. As Jamuna Krishnan's daughter / student, honed right from childhood with training under the best of Gurus - K.J. Govindarajan, K.N. Dakshinamurty, Kalanidhi Narayanan and Usha Krishnamurty, Ragini has been performing for over forty years. Heading Kalangan ever since Jamuna Krishnan's absence, the dancer would seem to have single mindedly further enhanced her music / dance, knowhow and performance.....

Time and tide wait for no man and soon after the mortal remains of legend Yamini Krishnamurti being consigned to flames, dance lovers entering the portals of Ganesa Natyalaya for the Swarna Saroja evening for Padma Subrahmanyam's lecture on the Natya Sastra, was for this critic, a pointer to the reality of life that marches on with arrivals and departures....

Supported by Ministry of Culture and the Habitat, Odissi exponent Ranjana Gauhar's Utsav held its annual two-day, handsomely attended festival Sare Jaahan Se Achha, at the Stein auditorium of Habitat. Several dance related personalities encompassing dancers, art sponsors, art bureaucrats, music composers, dance writers, not excluding costume and jewellery designers et al were honoured before the dance presentation started, both days. While the performance calendar, for the first evening, featured dancers of Utsav only, the second evening, starting with a short presentation by the hosts, featured Bharatanatyam, Manipuri and Kathak in that order....

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Article - Handing over a tradition - Renu Ramanath

Once again, the flames were flickering. Once again, the miniscule, multihued 'thiraseela' (curtain) was being held up. Once again, the petite figurines in Kathakali costume were held up in hands. But this time, the hands were new. And young.

Pulling back an endangered art form from the abyss of oblivion is the task that takes a lifetime. But, ensuring that the resuscitated art form does not slip back onto the brink of that abyss again, is the responsibility of another lifetime, another generation. When 'Pavakathakali,' the glove puppet tradition indigenous to Kerala, is being handed over to the next generation of artistes, it is the beautiful continuation of that uninterrupted flow of artistic endeavour taking its course from one generation to another.

The resuscitation of Pavakathakali had happened about forty years ago, under the auspices of Natanakairali, the research and performing centre for traditional and folk art forms of Kerala that was founded by G. Venu, scholar, performer and trainer. Spurred on by none other than Kamaladevi Chattopaddhyay, the then Chairperson of Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, and the prominent patron of India's handicrafts, handlooms and traditional and folk art forms, G. Venu had taken upon the responsibility of piecing together the almost-lost heritage of Kerala's glove puppetry tradition and breathing a new life into it. Supported with a meagre financial aid sourced through Kamaladevi, Venu had managed to create a troupe of Pavakathakali at Natanakairali with K.C. Ramakrishnan and K.V. Ramakrishnan, two youngsters from the village of Paruthippally in Palakkad district, which was the home of the art form in bygone days. Chamu Pandaram, the last of the Pavakathakali performer hailing from the Andi Pandaram community, the traditional community who were the guardians of the art form, had passed away a few years ago before that. Armed with a couple of puppets made by Thottassery Narayanan Namboothiri at Vijnana Kalavedhi, Aranmula, where the initial part of the revival project was conducted, and supported by his own training and knowledge of Kathakali, Venu managed to design a couple of Pavakathakali performances. 

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Natyarpana by Natyamurthy: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

While Yamini Krishnamurthy was forgotten soon enough (Delhi being Delhi or reality of life today in most metros), one function that stood out was by her mansik shishya, Abdul Khalid. He is an Eklavya of and in Kaliyuga. Ask him his thumb and he'd give his head for his guru. Possessed by dance like no one I've seen in recent years, he is a survivor. No money, no mentor no nothing in hand but dil ka dhani and dimag ka dabangg!

He dedicated his annual day Natyarpana to his mansik guru's memory and it was not tokenism as such things often become. It was genuine. The emotion, the energy, the eclectic audiences of babus, defence officers, business class, parents and all.

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Obit/Tribute - Yamini: The enigma - Leela Venkataraman

Words fail me even as I try hard to capture in writing, the magic of that meteor, streaking across the skies and illuminating the dance world - adding a different texture to Indian dance history. Even amidst changing socio/political contours with dance trying to steer a path between flagrant sensuality and punctilious religiosity, Yamini Krishnamurti burst on the scene - the sheer exuberance, joy, sparkle and effulgence of her dance making all arguments meaningless. The formal contours of Bharatanatyam, of Kuchipudi, of Odissi apart, what Yamini's magic gave to the dance was something that came from within her. It was Yamini's dance, which could not be replicated. The minute she stepped on the stage, that switch was turned on, and carried the audience along with its ecstasy. There will never be another Yamini! 

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