Ranee Ramaswamy: McKnight Distinguished Artist

Ranee Ramaswamy: McKnight Distinguished Artist- Lalitha Venkat
The Mcknight Distinguished Artist is an annual honor that includes a $50,000 cash award and recognizes individual Minnesota artists who have made significant contributions to the quality of the state’s cultural life.

On May 27, 2011 the McKnight Foundation of Minnesota named Minnesota-based dancer / choreographer Ranee Ramaswamy as the 2011 MCKNIGHT DISTINGUISHED ARTIST, in recognition of artistic excellence spanning more than three decades.

Ranee Ramaswamy is the first dance artist to be selected as McKnight Distinguished Artist that is now in its 14th year.

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Stirring a hornet’s nest? - Book review

Stirring a hornet’s nest?
- Kiran Rajagopalan

In October 2010, Mumbai’s Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts & Sangeetha Sabha published a special commemorative issue of their quarterly magazine, Shanmukha, on the banis and latest trends of Bharatanatyam. Most of the major banis are adequately discussed in the first half of the issue by leading dancers, gurus and scholars including Kamala Lakshminarayanan, Alarmel Valli, Leela Samson and Ashish Khokar. The Vazhuvoor, Pandanallur, Kalakshetra and Kattumannarkoil banis are each represented through single articles by these authors. Interestingly, the Thanjavur bani is more extensively covered in the four articles on Kitappa Pillai (Dr. Sucheta Chapekar), Sri Rajarajeshwari Bharatha Natya Kala Mandir (Jyothi Mohan) and Dhandayudapani Pillai (Jayalakshmi Alva & Urmila Sathyanarayanan).

A commendable effort by the organization to compile such an exhaustive and informative issue featuring articles by so many different artistes. The editor of this issue, Radha Namboodiri, thoughtfully remarked whether this endeavor would “stir a hornet’s nest.” Hopefully, it will be a starting point for serious discussions about the future of Bharatanatyam.

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Leela Samson, currently chairperson of the Sangeet Natak Akademi and director of Kalakshetra in Chennai, has been elected as the new chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) - film censor board. She will succeed veteran actress Sharmila Tagore, who ends her tenure on March 31, 2011.

For Reactions from the dance ecommunity on this additional posting to Leela Samson, visit
A dancer as Chairperson of the Indian Censor Board

Shanta Serbjeet Singh has been elected Vice-Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi

Eminent arts writer and columnist Shanta Serbjeet Singh has been elected Vice-Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the national academy of music, dance and drama in New Delhi, by its General Council. The Chairman of the Akademi is well-known dancer Leela Samson, who was appointed by the President last year. The Secretary and Chief Executive is Jayant Kastuar.

Mothers by daughters - My mother - Ileana Citaristi

I was rehearsing for my new production 'Karuna' inspired by Mother Teresa's life when the phone rang on the 2nd of August: “Ile, mother has left us one hour ago.” My brother's voice was choked; the phone fell from my hands. She had been sick for the last few months. I had visited her thrice in the hospital, last time in July, along with the members of my troupe. She had been looking forward to our July program in Bergamo, my home town. We had been talking about it over the phone, making plans about where the artistes would stay and which items we should do, until that fatal brain hemorrhage happened in February, after which she had been silent, closed in her own world, but still alive, still listening to our tales, giving a few signs of recognizing us like the tears which dropped from her eyes when I first visited her in the hospital in March.

She was not a dancer or a musician or an artist of any sort; she has been a devoted wife all through her life. I used to envy my father and at times be jealous of him. Even during the few days I would return home, I rarely could have her all by myself. I always thought it was my right perhaps because during my childhood, I had been deprived of her presence and attentions since, being a headmistress, she used to leave home every day in the morning and come back only late in the afternoons.

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Mothers by daughters - Aai: my dearest mother - Jhelum Paranjape

Aai - that's what we say for mother, in my language - Marathi, the mother tongue of Maharashtra. Aai loved dance, she still does. She is a natural dancer. She was born with dance in her, and her body was nothing but grace and poise. But ...Why am I saying 'was'...? I should say, 'is'...! Today, even at 80 and with joint problems, one can see that inherent grace and poise...and a free spirit... she gets up spontaneously at any party when the music comes on and dances; she does that every year when it rains for the first time too, gets drenched dancing in the rains...I really am lucky, for I have inherited this natural grace and poise. And I must say her beautiful curvaceous bottom too... these three factors are a definite 'add on' for the Odissi dance style.

During the initial stages of my dance career, we all would rag her. Well...not me, but the others in the family... that my dance is actually her surrogate ambition. She was very fond of dance. But her father, a very traditional orthodox man who had stopped even my grandma playing the dilruba after marriage, just did not have the ability to understand that there is music in life, so how could she even dream or think about dance...?

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Articles - Dance and Martial Arts - Umesh Naidu

It has been nine years now; however long I journey, I realize it's a new discovery everyday, but I feel it started only in recent times. What began as a hobby and an unwinding exercise caught up with me as I grew up. I would swim, skate, play football, practice Taekwon-Do thrice a week and dance once a year. Craft making, drawing, writing poetry intrigued me and aroused my attention and I couldn't help but praise the beautiful things that began to inspire me.

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