Obit/Tribute - Memorable tribute to a Master - G Ulaganathan

The iconic Chowdaiah Memorial Auditorium opened its doors after nearly 8 months on December 30 to bring together almost all the dancers of Bangalore. The solemn occasion was to pay tribute to the irrepressible dance historian, critic Dr. Sunil Kothari who all through his life made it a mission to connect and communicate to the dancers all over the world. Bangalore, which he often used to say is his second home, has thus taken the lead in paying tributes to the man whose Globetrotter column in Narthaki.com was always looked forward to by the senior as well as the younger dancers of the city.

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Obit/Tribute - In remembrance of Dr. Sunil Kothari - Deepsikha Chatterjee and Uttara Asha Coorlawala

Indo American Arts Council mourns the passing of Indian dance lover and scholar Padma Shri Dr. Sunil Kothari on December 27, 2020. He had contracted COVID earlier, and after treatment was released last week, only to be readmitted soon. He succumbed to a heart attack on the morning of 27th December 2020. Born in 1933, he was 88 years old. He was a Sangeet Natak Akademi award winner along with many other accolades.

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 Anita Ratnam and Narthaki.com present ANDAL'S GARDEN, Andal's TIRUPPAVAI 30, a series of curated performances celebrating the spirit and poetry of the only female Azhwar, Godai, for 30 days from December 16, 2020. These 30 poems or Pasurams, are brimming with imagery, imagination, and innovative metaphors influenced by the naturescapes of the Sangam era and Andal's own knowledge of the Bhagavatham.

ANDAL is for everyone. Her 9th century voice was among the earliest of the female mystic poets to flood this land. ANDAL'S GARDEN - where Carnatic music meets Kathak, Mohiniattam, Kathakali, Odissi, Kuchipudi and of course, Bharatanatyam. Original music, freshly filmed videos in the outdoor, shorn of extra ornamentation and focusing on the poetry and the mood of the Margazhi season.

Art by KESHAV - ©krishnafortoday & Keshav
Translations by Priya Sarukkai Chabria - 'ANDAL: Autobiography of a Goddess'

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Au revoir 2020, Welcome 2021 - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

 What a year! Whoever would've thought we will witness the most unusual and scary year, without even SEEING the enemy. Our parents had seen World Wars, their parents, perhaps the Spanish Flu; we living in North India faced the Partition and lost everything overnight (and still half my father's family survived and served India after independence, as Army doctors and COs) and my mother's side of the Kumbakonam-Kanchi family escaped (to Madanapalle) from Madras to avoid the possible bombing by the Japanese in WW2. I, growing up in Delhi, witnessed wars with Pakistan and China, but this 2020 INVISIBLE attack on the entire world was something evil, almost diabolical. Biological warfare has begun. All them American films on bio wars (there was a real bio attack in a Japan metro too, some years ago) now seem prophetic. The strangest part of the pandemic has been until now that all the scientists and medicos just mumbled inanities on TV, since none really knew what they were dealing with in the first place. One Delhi doctor, heading a prestigious national institution began every discourse with: So, we know this but we don't know that...As if, we already didn't know this and that. Now mutant ninja is here, from UK. 70% faster in transmission they say. Born in the USA (I learnt on KBC) but now the PM of UK, Boris - that man with a seemingly perpetual bad hair day - is slated to be the Chief Guest at our Republic Day, come Jan 26. Will he still come or comb India? More on this and that, later.

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Obit/Tribute - Drishtikon pays homage to Astad Deboo

 

What happens to the dance when the dancing body is no more? What happen to the love we shared, when - skin, muscle and bone have disintegrated - dust to dust?

Astad, your dance, your humanity, your generosity of spirit - and above all your courage and conviction to be the lonely trailblazer on the dance sky, will forever remain in our hearts and minds. Your dance and your life will inspire and give courage to many generations to come.

You are and will always be a part of our living mythology - your 'dance being' had so many stories to share.

The heart can only ache...and you touched so many. Your friends and fans across the world are devastated.

Just a few days ago your voice was positive about your recovery.

Just a few weeks ago, we were chatting about your latest photoshoot.

Just a few months ago, you shared your brilliant dance film made with your dancers over zoom.

Dec.10th, 2020 ...you are gone.
Belief is suspended. I am so so so sad
- ADITI MANGALDAS

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Letters from a Father to his Daughter by Jawaharlal Nehru from Allahabad to Indira Priyadarshini, aged 10, residing at Mussourie in the summer of 1928 numbered 30 and, culled in a book in 1930, has been a great favourite with global readers: an affectionate, erudite persona reaching out to a tender mind. This critic recalls a most touching, theatrical rendering of the same narrative by the noted thespian Vijaya Mehta at an intimate gathering at Ashoka Hotel in Delhi in the 1980s.

Almost half a century went by, when Batakrishna Dey, a renowned Bengali poet, lyricist and essayist, much published and honored during his literary career of over 70 years, penned his romantic poems in the 1950s, with images and metaphors of his time around nature and often reflecting - perhaps unwittingly - the nuanced sorrow and melancholy of an unrequited amour sung in Ghazals originally from Central Asia. To his talented daughter Sreyashi Dey, with her married abode in Ann Arbor, Michigan, this year of global upheaval seemed unlikely when she could bridge the enormous physical distance from her US abode to her father's niche in Kolkata.

Unable to travel home and adopting the digital medium, Sreyashi - groomed in Odissi and quite adept in creative style, running her own dance institution overseas for years -- felt moved to choreograph six of the vintage songs her father wrote in the 1950s, calling it A Daughter's Tribute to her Father, reversing the Nehruvian name! It was as moving an obeisance to her father's sprightly writings, as Vijaya Mehta's dramatic homage to Nehru has been in another time and clime! [Just a footnote here: The so-called Adhunik Gaan (Modern Song) genre of the 1950s' Bengal has long yielded to Jivanmukhi Gaan (Realistic Song), a kindred of the robust Western Pop Songs and hold popular imagination in Bengal in this millennium.]

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Profile - Nirmala Paniker - Venugopal SK

As part of the series paying my tributes to some of the finest gems in the world of Mohiniattam who gave their life and times promoting the dance form, this piece is on Guru Nirmala Paniker of Natana Kaisiki, Irinjalukkuda, Kerala.

I came to know of Nirmala Paniker teacher, through a Facebook post by her disciple Sandra Pisharody. I remember it was the 70th birthday of her teacher that Sandra dedicated a beautiful composition honoring her Guru. It was a marvel of a performance that you seldom get to see with so much perfection in the movements and abhinaya. I was so impressed by her dancing skills that I did a small research to find out more about her and her school of learning. Thanks to FB, I could further establish contact with the artiste and came to know as to how from the age of 5 she was learning from Nirmala Paniker (almost like under Gurukul system). I took the phone number of her guru and spoke to her followed by a visit to her home in Irinjalakkuda to know more about her.

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