Vaibhav Arekar | Photo Credit: M. Srinath In the Varkari worship tradition of Maharashtra, it is customary to open with a description or varnan of Vittala’s form. In his solo production titled ‘Nama Mhane’, Vaibhav Arekar adheres to this convention by commencing with an alarippu, the opening piece in the Bharatanatyam margam, the subtext of […]
Urmila Sathyanarayana and her students performing at Narada Gana Sabha in Chennai | Photo Credit: S. R. Raghunathan The third edition of ‘Vaggeyakara Bharatham’, presented by Nrithyopasana Trust and Natyarangam, featured a collaborative attempt between Urmila Satyanarayana and Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi. The well-known dancer and violinist selected some compositions, including a few rare ones, suited for […]
Plastic chairs and string cots are arranged neatly in a semi-circle under a canopy of trees at Beguna Diha, a village on the outskirts of Mayurbhanj in Odisha. You can hear the sound of practising percussionists, as young men and women get ready for a performance. The audience slowly fills the space. As the drums […]
Mridula Shivakumar will present a margam, based on the compositions by K.N. Dandayuthapani Pillai. There is no dearth of talented dancers, but many find it a Herculean task to find platforms to showcase their art. To support young talents from her school Sridevi Nrityalaya, founder and guru Sheela Unnikrishnan has set up SDN’s Kriya, a […]
Hiromi Maruhashi | Photo Credit: Athira M Hiromi Maruhashi’s face lights up as we sit down to talk about Mohiniyattam. The classical dance form of Kerala has been integral to her life for over three decades now. Every year she comes down to the State to brush up on her lessons, learn new productions and […]
Kathak dancer Ashimbandhu Bhattacharjee’s performance highlighted the guru-sishya bond between Ramakrishna Pramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Ashimbandhu Bhattacharjee (Kathak), Deepak Majumdar (Bharatanatyam) and Aruna Mohanty (Odissi), who performed at the festival, showed how poetry finds diverse interpretations in dance. It was an evening meant to celebrate the contributions of three veteran […]
‘Parishvanga Pattabhishekam’ performed by the students of Anita Guha. | Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ B Over the years, the Ramayana has been reimagined and reinterpreted by various dancers and choreographers, reflecting the richness and complexity of the classic. As part of Rama Navami celebrations, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan had organised the dance-drama ‘Parishvanga Pattabhishekam’ by students […]
From ‘Meanwhile Elsewhere’ staged at Natarani in Ahmedabad | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement That you get a reality check while watching Yadavan Chandran’s ‘Meanwhile Elsewhere’ is true, that you question the meaning of life and death, attachment and detachment, is a given too. But, what does not happen after watching it is you walking out […]
Srividya Angara in a scene from Manomanthana | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Jagadananda Karaka, Endaro Mahanubhavulu or KaniKontini — may sound familiar to any classical dance or music patron. These are some of the most used works of one of the greatest poets, Tyagaraja, in Indian classical music and dance. He is often also identified […]
Kumudini Lakhia | Photo Credit: Courtesy: Kadamb When you looked at Kumudini Lakhia’s gentle, modest and cheerful persona, you could have hardly imagined she was a woman with immense inner strength and a steely resolve. After all, she fought the patriarchal setup in the Kathak world in her own quiet way, and encouraged many young […]
