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Dance for Dance Festival
The Bangalore Edition
Performers
The Dance for Dance Festival is one of the initiatives by Kalavaahini Trust (founded by Malavika Sarukkai), started in 2018. This was in response to the need for a well curated festival where both junior and senior artists could share their work in an environment conducive to fostering excellence.
Kalavaahini has curated three editions (2018, 2019, 2022) of the Dance for Dance Festival in Chennai, during the December Music and Dance season. The Dance for Dance festival has premiered performances of acclaimed artists to house-full shows while also showcasing younger talent to give them greater visibility. This year the Dance for Dance Festival is travelling outside of Chennai for the first time.
Programme Schedule:
Wednesday, August 23
Junior Fellowship | 7pm – 7:50pm
K Sarveshan | KailāsaKrishna | Bharatanatyam performance
Senior Fellowship | 8pm – 9pm
Gauri Diwakar | Shades of Emotion | Kathak Performance
Thursday | August 24
Group Thematic Dance Presentation | 7pm – 8:30pm
Sankhya Dance Company | Four Seasons: Vasanta – Grishma – Varsha – Shishir – Vasanta | Bharatanatyam performance
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KailāsaKrishna | Aug 23 | 7pm
In a beautiful mandira situated on the snow-capped peaks of Kailasa, Parvati and Shambhu, tired from a night of passion, rest in each other’s loving embrace. Shambhu admires Parvati’s enchanting beauty and wonders how magnificent it must be to experience life as a Woman. With the tips of his fingers, he caresses Parvati’s lotus face and requests her to take birth as a man on Earth, so that he may take birth as a woman and experience the wonders of Womanhood. Parvati obliges. Together they prepare for their descent to Earth and go on to become the Eternal Lovers that we adore today: Radha & Krishna.
KailāsaKrishna is a Bharatanatyam work created by K Sarveshan as part of Kalavaahini’s Junior Fellowship Program 2021-2022. Sarveshan creatively employs what he believes to be traditional techniques and tropes from the Bharatanatyam repertoire to re-imagine this exceptional episode from the Devi Puranam. This alternate origin story of Sri Krishna Avatāram not only forces us to broaden our approach towards the complex nature of our Purānas and Itihāsas, but also adds nuance to the global conversations surrounding the politics of gender, identity and spirituality prevalent in the world today.
Resources Persons: Kalarigram Lakshman Gurukkal & Kathyayini Gururaj
Music: Rithvik Raja
Nattuvangam: Harikrishnan B
Vocal: Mithun Madhusoodanan & Gopika Harindranath
Mridangam: Kiran R Pai
Flute: Sujith Naik
Violin: Anantharaman
Shades of Emotion | Aug 23 | 8pm
Shades of Emotion is a mesmerising journey through the various hues of human emotions, showcasing the depth and complexity of human feelings. The performance unfolds in several acts, each portraying a distinct emotion, from invocation filled with devotion, to joy & longing. Emotions are to be delved into deeply. They remind us of the universality of human feelings and Shades of Emotion displays the innate power of dance to transcend language and touch our souls.
Vasanta – Grishma – Varsha – Shishir – Vasanta | Aug 24 | 7pm
This production explores commonplace stories of the world to seamlessly flow through the grid of Bharatanatyam. Picking from emotional human experiences, it draws a parallel to each season of the year. Vasanta – Grishma – Varsha – Shishir – Vasanta is a poetry of movement on Spring – Summer – Monsoon – Winter – Spring.
With hope, I see around. A new beginning marks its start. Spring is about blossoming.
With desire burning down my words, silence remains. When everything burns under the scorching sun, voice is parched. This summer within kindles conflicts, makes all arid.
Somber eyes like pregnant clouds wait to burst upon my skin as I long for your touch.
A winter evening, peeping through windows in skyscrapers, into lives; I see people; cosmetic, distanced, from nature or themselves. I question, does this mirror lie or fantasize; or does it expose my masks. Am I to strip myself off to be redeemed?
Every night sees the day, newness springs into our lives. Spring is not just about blooming, but also fading away. As the wheel of time turns, it brings my end. I blossom only to wither away.
Show design: Sushant Jadhav
Concept and Choreography: Vaibhav Arekar
Music compositions and arrangement: Aalap Desai
Percussion design and Music Composition: Satish Krishnamurthy
Poets: Sant Meerabai, Dharamapuri Subbaraiyyar, Nalesh patil and Sudheer Moghe
Costume design and Light design: Sushant Jadhav
Assistants: Eesha Pinglay, Radhika Karandikar, Rutuja Madiwale, Ruta Gokhale
Dancers: Eesha Pinglay, Swarada Bhave, Poorva Saraswat, Aditi Paranjpe, Gautam Marathe, Shruti Ranade, Anagha Harkare, Devayani Samant, Swarali Ghangurde.
In collaboration with:
In association with:
Performers
K Sarveshan
K Sarveshan is a South African Bharatanatyam artiste of Indian Origin. His performance practice rigorously explores the complexities of his diasporic cultural heritage and his embodied experience. The interplay between Bharatanatyam, Kalaripayattu, Yoga, Traditional Indian Folk, Kathak, African dance styles and Carnatic Music has revealed to him a creative path that beckons him to be free in diverse classical and contemporary worlds. Bharatanatyam, however, remains the fertile ground from which his creative endeavours take root. Sarveshan’s distinct understanding of Bharatanatyam is derived from his initial training with Savitri Naidoo – student of the formidable Pandanallur Srinivasa Pillai and Indira Rajan – and his expert training received from Natyaacharya Shanta & V.P Dhananjayan. Even though Sarveshan is a seasoned Bharatanatyam performer, he concerns himself in areas of dance research and scholarship, with a first-class BA Honours in Performance Studies from The University of Cape Town (2021).
Gauri Diwakar
Gauri Diwakar is an acclaimed Kathak dancer and choreographer based in New Delhi, India. Gauri was trained by eminent Gurus Ms Sumita Chowdhary, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Shri Jai Kishan Maharaj and Ms Aditi Mangaldas. Gauri’s production Hari Ho….Gati Meri (Let my Salvation be in You) was showcased at Sadler Wells in Darbar Festival, Sydney Dance Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival apart from several performances in India. Her major productions include Samratri- The Night of Divine Union, Dancing Emptiness, and Mugdha- Celebration of Beauty & Womanhood. Her contribution as a Kathak Expert in the theatrical adaptation of Mughal-E-Azam is widely appreciated. Gauri forms part of the teaching team at Akram Khan Company’s intensive program teaching Kathak. In recognition of her work, she has been awarded the Senior fellowship by Kalavaahini Trust, Chennai in 2019. In the year 2008, she was awarded the ‘Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar’ by India’s premier cultural body, Sangeet Natak Akademi. Gauri is also passing on her skills by training young students under her own trust ‘Gauri Diwakar Sanskriti Foundation- Sarvatra Nrityam’ and thus helping to keep the age-old tradition of Kathak alive.
Sankhya Dance Company
Sankhya Dance Company is one of the leading dance companies from western India. Its forte is Bharatanatyam through which it investigates, involves and interrogates concepts as well as dance techniques for performances, with the quest to find the “contemporary” with the “classical” folds. Founded in 2009, by Vaibhav Arekar, Sankhya came as a natural extension of his artistic vision. Today, with the added dynamism and vision of its co-director Sushant Jadhav, Sankhya is a formidable institution based in Mumbai. Its dynamic and inspiring repertoire, both in the theme and performance, has an impressive collection of dance works – ranging from the traditional endeavors, contemporary classical creations to spectacular dance dramas.
