Base Notes by Shanta Serbjeet Singh - Sangeet Natak Akademi’s New General Council

By the time this edition of Base Notes is up, the new Governing Council of the national Sangeet Natak Akademi would have been constituted and functioning.  Delhi know-alls are many.  Many more are the conjecture specialists and the culture forecasters.  First, for months, one has heard of all manner of names being floated around as the new Chairman of the Akademi.  The punter’s favourite horse, or in this case, mostly mares, were supposed to come straight from the ‘horse’s mouth.’   But I have always wondered who that great oracular horse must have been who started this adage!  And what did he forecast about!

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Roses & Thorns - Some questions need to be asked - Madhavi Puranam

Can you ask questions, raise issues, and seek answers?
No, you dare not. The powers that be will come down hard and reduce you to the status of a pariah, a social outcast, an English word of pure Tamil origin. But some questions need to be asked. Nartanam has never shied away from taking up issues. However, our initiatives would be worth the courage, only if the other stake holders of dance deliberate and follow them up with concrete action without fear or favour. For any purposeful and meaningful action we need sensitive, competent and courageous leaders. Sadly, dance administration, festival organisers, academics, writers, performers, and gurus have rarely seen leaders of substance emerge from amongst them in recent times. 

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Profile - Prof. A. Janardhanan Compiled by Lalitha Venkat

Aryambath Janardhanan is a well known exponent of Kathakali and Bharatanatyam. Born on April 25, 1942 in Kerala, Prof. A. Janardhanan’s association with Kalakshetra commenced in 1958 and continued for 47 uninterrupted years. He received rigorous training in Kathakali from his father Guru T. K. Chandu Panicker (a student of Icchara Menon in the Kallarikoda tradition of North Kerala) and honed his skills under the renowned Guru Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair with a two year Govt of India scholarship. He received his Post Diploma in Kathakali with distinction in 1966 and continued in Kalakshetra as a teacher of Kathakali and Bharatanatyam.
In the course of his 47 years at Kalakshetra, Janardhanan was a student, a principal dancer in Kalakshetra productions directed by Rukmini Devi, a faculty member, principal of the Rukmini College of Fine Arts (June 2001 - May 2003), retiring as Professor Emeritus when he was 62 years of age.  

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Article - An African spell - Priti Mastakar

I have this ‘var,’ this blessing that whenever I want something very badly, I get it and so months later with much following up, Slim Ikonta arrived to learn Odissi and I was blessed further. Anita Obidi arrived with him…Anita, an exquisite, exotic African beauty, a nymph, an Apsara, tall and slim, a perfect match for Shiva. The first day we went through the chowka and tribhangi. It was just unbelievable. Without much effort there was the chowka and tribhangi, perfectly executed! We dancers have painstakingly trained for six months to get it right and here were dancers slipping into our form like slipping into a different pair of shoes.

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Article - Audience: The tug of the credulous and the credible - Ramaa Venugopalan

Audience - the most important factor for any Bharatanatyam performer. We grouse about the audience a lot. We want them to come in large numbers and yet, have absolutely no idea how to lure them performance after performance! It seems that the success of a performance and the performer is so dependent on the audience turnout that one of the first post-performance thoughts for any dancer would be the proverbial “Oh! I wish there were more audience to watch me...”
Who are these audiences anyway? Observation and logic will lead to the following categorization of the audience


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Book review - "In praise of Kathak" - Shyamhari Chakra

 
“Today, this book is in front of you. It is a bundle of my passion, my struggle, my experiences and my sentiments.” These last lines of the book authored by Mumbai-based Kathak exponent Uma Dogra aptly sums up her “labour of love” carefully and honestly crafted over the past five years.


The well-known dancer-choreographer-scholar, a much respected name in Mumbai’s artistes’ fraternity, released the book during a very special occasion that she hosted in Mumbai recently. It was the 25th edition of the annual Pt.Durgalal Festival that she has been staging in memory of her guru. It was also the Silver Jubilee celebration of Samved Society of Performing Arts that she had founded. And, most importantly, it coincided with 50 years of her journey as a dancer. 

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Ratikant Mohapatra Calling.... - Life after Guruji

Bereavement has more than one side to it. The death of a loved one, the passing of a beloved and inspiring teacher, the huge loss that death brings to us when such death comes unexpectedly. These and similar thoughts assailed me during the funeral of my father and guru Sri Kelucharan Mohapatra. My loss was two-fold. I had lost a father and I had also lost my most revered teacher. The father who sustained me in childhood through years of toil and poverty and the teacher who taught me all I know and whose teaching continues to motivate me through the many years that have passed since his demise.  
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