13th edition of The Music Academy Dance Festival-Part 2 - Footloose and fancy free with Dr. Sunil Kothari

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Vive la Republique! - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

So, the new year began in right earnest where I was born, Baroda. The Dept of Dance at MSU was the happy venue for many dance academicians to meet and greet; eat and interact. Small town India is what big towns once were: happy, happening and healthy! Distances are easy to commute; people easy to bond with. 

Harish Gangani, the current head of the dance department outdid himself by hosting and organizing the best ever gathering, an international one, on 4th and 5th January, where dancers and researchers came from all over - from as far as Trinidad and Tobago and Mauritius; from closer home in Sangli or Telangana. Biggest number of participants came from Punjab. They were happiest in the assembly, perhaps reflecting mind over matter. Many delegates felt more time was spent in eating than on seminar. Many participants were disappointed too, since venues were three, so audience got split but how else to accommodate so many applicants?

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13th edition of The Music Academy Dance Festival - Part 1 - Footloose and fancy free with Dr. Sunil Kothari

Dance aficionados eagerly await the annual Dance Festival of The Music Academy that takes place from 3rd till 9th January for the past 12 years. 

This year's Nrithya Kalanidhi award was conferred upon Shanta Dhananjayan for her distinguished career as a dancer, guru and choreographer. Her husband V.P. Dhananjayan was conferred the Academy's Sangita Kala Acharya award in 2005. The award now has been titled as Nrithya Kalanidhi award. 

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Book Review - Gotipuas: the Boy Dancers of Odisha by Priyambada Mohanty Hejmadi - Krittika Mondal

Dr. Priyambada Mohanty Hejmadi is one of the pioneers of Odissi. It was her dance at the Inter-University Youth Festival, New Delhi, which Dr. Charles Fabri hailed as the 'discovery of Odissi'. With her brilliant academic perspective, coupled with some personal anecdotes, Dr. Mohanty Hejmadi-s commentaries on dance are a treat. In the Gotipua Dance Festival of 2012, for the benefit of the many Hindi-speaking viewers of DD Bharti watching the live telecast at home, Dr. Mohanty Hejmadi was asked to give a brief introduction to the dance form. As soon as she descended from the stage, Ashok Kumar Tripathy (I.A.S.), Principal Secretary of Tourism and Culture (Odisha), proposed that she write a monograph on Gotipua. After much deliberation, Dr. Mohanty Hejmadi agreed, eventuating to her most-recent work, Gotipuas: The Boy Dancers of Odisha - a formidable attempt to elaborate on this traditional art form.

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Seven Nymphs from Manipur - The Eastern Eye: Column by Dr.Utpal K Banerjee

Silhouetted in the rear horizon, the angelic nymphs are painted still, in white gossamer chiffon. Then, in ever slow steps, they descend as though from heaven to the soiled earth in front stage, beginning their journey through the muddle of anguish and sorrow, the quivers of joy and ecstasy. Edging along and deciphering on their journey many wayward challenges through their rituals and traditions, they carry the seeds of human identity and culture -- inherited from the very distant ancestors - and move through the past, present and future, negotiating peace of sky, peace of earth, peace of water, peace of trees and peace of man. The nymphs are flying towards 22nd century . . .

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Concept to execution: ANEKA a clean winner - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

In both concept and execution of Sri Krishna Gana Sabha's 38th Natya Kala Conference titled Aneka, Dr. Srinidhi Chidambaram, convenor for the third successive year, has raised the bar of the event so high, that it is going to be a hard act to emulate for the successor who takes over the baton. Under three categories of Timeless, Transformative andTrending, Aneka became the umbrella covering in its daily deliberations, "the old and the new, the young and the old, the accepted and the problematic, the global and the local." 

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The Quintessential Calcutta - The Eastern Eye: Column by Dr.Utpal K Banerjee

Amidst all the anguish and agony of a troubled daily life, and all the squalor and scampering of an ever-busy pace of city living, the denizens of the eastern metropolis never ignore their utsavs (festivities) and melas (fairs), which seem to anybody caring to observe, as dime a dozen. The current powers-that-be have added an unending string of Public Holidays to bolster up the spirit and there you are, moving from one celebration to another -- all through the year! And yet, the two occasions the enthusiasm and frenzy of enjoyment reach their peaks are: the autumnal Durga Puja and the vernal Yuletide wave, when the lights are set ablaze; the whole city pours out on the amply-lit and copiously-decorated streets and persist on staying out enjoying and merrymaking till the wee hours of the morning! Though not quite at par with the Marghazhi frenzy of Chennai this is quite something that the people ardently look forward to. Here follows a random sampling from the enthusiastic and colorful dance scene this Christmas and New Year Season...

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