From Birth to Regeneration - The Eastern Eye: Column by Dr.Utpal K Banerjee

Manjusri Chaki-Sircar has been a dancer extraordinaire all her life. Born half a decade before the onset of the Second World War and reared in a quaint town in the erstwhile East Bengal, she tumbled into dance as a tiny tot in enacting a Tagore poem, Pujarini (the Worshipper), culled from the Buddhist annals. The event was almost prophetic, presaging three trends of her later life. One, she would exalt in dancing all her living years till the very end of the century. Two, she would have a dominant influence of Tagore on her, alongside many other traditions and strains of Indian heritage. Three, religious anthropology would profoundly affect all her choreographic oeuvre: beginning with the Meitei Maibi worship of Manipur and ending with the Yatmul puberty ritual of New Guinea.

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Tharang Utsav and Trivandrum diary - Footloose and fancy free with Dr. Sunil Kothari

5th edition of Tharang Utsav
Aparna Vinod Menon has been conducting Tharang Utsav for the past four years in Bangalore. Besides showcasing the senior established dancers, Tharang offers platform to young dancers to encourage them and also show their young students the high standards of senior and young dancers. Besides being fond of classical Hindustani music, and studying under the renowned Bengali vocalist Rina Basu, a disciple of Chinmay Lahiri, guru of Parveen Sultana, Tharang also presents up and coming Carnatic vocal and instrumental musicians....

Trivandrum diary 
Sunanda Nair was having a shooting for a documentary made on her by the renowned film director Vinod Mankara. His films Kamboji and Priyamanasam have received critical appreciation. Latter film is in Sanskrit. He has won national award for his film on Mohiniattam and is quite an authority on the dance form. I was invited to watch the shooting and also speak on Mohiniattam and dancer Sunanda Nair, whom I have known for many years when I was in Mumbai. Under guidance of Kanak Rele, she had shown commendable progress and by fortuitous coincidence, she even resembles Kanak Rele! Often people used to ask Kanak Rele if Sunanda was her daughter..... 

Soorya Festival
The 111 day Soorya Festival has expanded its scope to include theatre and films besides classical dance and music. Conducted with clockwork regularity for past three decades by that indefatigable director, visionary and devotee of performing arts, Soorya Krishnamurty, the festival features seasoned and up and coming young artists. The festival is held at various venues in Trivandrum which is a welcome move as various sections of society can attend it.....


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Article - The embodiment of rural identities, Movement is giving sense to divine language - Marc-Paul Lambert

I) The Predravidian Kerala legacy "It's my dance-give it back to me." - La Danseuse (French movie, October 2016) Let alone the idea of getting hints from an inspiring ritual, rural source in most cases acts like a rejuvenating incubator of talents for 'Shastriya Natya' - the corpus of Indian classical dances [1]. Classic tradition, its model rooted in Hindu history, versus rural creativity, a disposition of the mind, expressed bodily in a "freer way", would be two terms: the two sides of a formal disengagement. Once looking into productions, rural epistemology brings more aesthetics to the light. We find any time the evidence of an argument, a mood or a gesture was picked up from rural performance, passed on to the classical repertoire; it soon has modified the scale of body language. It was the case for the canonization of Bharatanatyam (1932), led by Rukmini Devi Arundale, according to a procedure Indira Viswanathan Peterson describes entirely in the genesis of the art form, outside its rural origin [2]. It is also true for Ottam Thullal, inspired two centuries ago from Padayani vinodams. Something was borrowed, and it was deviated. Much of what creators have picked from the rural, the musical or the dance motif, the idea or the narrative once performed, has generated something different in another social context. Read the article in the site

Mask and masquerade - The Eastern Eye: Column by Dr.Utpal K Banerjee

All noble writings are capable of multiple interpretations in different times and in varied contexts. Tagore's 1936 dance-drama Chitrangada - - culled from the Mahabharata - - is usually taken to depict the unambiguous stand favouring women's empowerment. After the initial hesitancy of the Manipuri princess when she initially decides to undertake the guise of almost an enchantress, she discards the pretence and comes out triumphant. But supposing she went a step further? Could she have possibly discarded her masquerading role as a gaudy temptress and come direct to challenging the male ego, in a full frontal confrontation with the object of her adoration - - without any compromise of her essential femininity?

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Interview - CP Satyajit: Information is information, not knowledge - Thushyanthy Velauthan

C.P. Satyajit, as an experienced Bharatanatyam dancer, a yoga practitioner and a professional photographer playing 3 roles in his career, shared some interesting insights on his recent visit to Sri Lanka to perform in 'Aum Shiva Muruga' dance drama to raise funds for the re-construction of Thiruketheeswaram temple, Mannar.

Satyajit learned dance from his parents, The Dhananjayans, and since his dance debut in 1988, he has been performing Bharatanatyam all over India and abroad. His creation 'Mounakkural', a dance drama on women commissioned by the British Council to commemorate the UN women's conference in Beijing has received accolades. He is also experimenting and sharing experiences of yoga in dance. He has been working in the field of photography, mainly engaged in advertising related photography, which include: automotive, architecture, interiors, fashion, food, jewelry etc. 

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Living movements serenade frozen movements in Konark - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

The crackling air of excitement all round the Konark township during the annual festival mounted jointly by the OTDC and Odisha SNA, would seem to show that far from evoking ennui, this event, over the years, is attracting larger audiences from all over. What with the Sand Art exhibition on Chandrabhaga beach involving voluntary participation from several foreign artists, a day time literary festival, the grand temple site with Puri also just an hour away by road and handloom exhibition, this week long fare projects a mini art world of Odisha. The Pipli lamps, road strewn with rangoli patterns, trees and plants lit up in myriad colours, and guest houses decorated with exotic lighting, add to the atmospherics. And every year sees something new - this time the nifty drone camera taking pictures for simultaneous DD Bharati broadcast replaces the intrusive long armed Doordarshan contraption which used to obstruct view in earlier years. 

The festival fare devoted one half of each evening to an Odissi group presentation, with a non-Odissi projection in the other half - all watched by a handsome turnout in the massive open air auditorium. 

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Singapore and Kuala Lumpur Diary - Footloose and fancy free with Dr. Sunil Kothari

Singapore Diary

I arrive by 3pm at the stage door of Singapore's Esplanade main theatre to see rehearsal of Anjaneyam: Hanuman's Ramayana. I have to submit my passport to enter. Three years ago when I attended Angkor: An Untold Story rehearsal, I had gone through this exercise. Abroad, be it Lincoln Centre in New York, The Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, Barbican in London, Opera House in Sydney, the authorities insist on this strict procedure to safeguard against any untoward event. But in India, anyone can walk in backstage, and no one is bothered. I think we need to follow this procedure. I read the other day that at Ravindra Bharathi Auditorium in Hyderabad, several purses and mobile phones were stolen from green room when the performance was on. In past in Mumbai at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, thieves walked in and stole Grundig German tape recorder and valuables of dancers. Of late in Mumbai precaution is being taken at NCPA and other major theatres. Dancers beware in India. ....

Kuala Lumpur Dairy

The Blue Mountain Exhibition: Ramli Ibrahim is the most renowned dancer in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He has been honoured by Malaysian Government with civil honour Datuk, similar to our Padma Shri award. His Sutra Dance Theatre has performed his several choreographic works in Odissi in major cities of India regularly. He has a huge following in India. The moment his shows are announced there is a buzz about him and the auditoriums are full. He had a close association with painter Dinanath Pathy. For his services to Odissi, Ramli has been honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi award.....

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