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 Prakriti Foundation Announces PECDA Awards 2012 For Excellence in Contemporary Dance in India August 25 & 26, 2012 Chennai August 12, 2012 Prakriti Foundation, noted promoter of India’s diversified cultural arts through various initiatives, has announced the dates for its first edition of Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance Awards (PECDA) in Chennai on 25 & 26 August, 2012 at the Museum Theatre Egmore. Celebrating the vigor and variety of India’s thriving dance culture, the Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance Awards (PECDA) 2012 will felicitate the best talent from the contemporary dance fraternity in India along with providing an unparalleled platform for emerging young artists to showcase their performances to a wider audience in a bid to lend recognition and popularize the relatively less explored contemporary dance form in the country. An initiative for nurturing and promoting young contemporary dancers, the PECDA awards in its first edition will be spread over two days, 25th and 26th August. The awards will commence with performances by 11 shortlisted artists over the two days and the best performers will be presented with excellence awards on 26th August. The performances will be judged by an expert panel of jury members from across the performing arts spectrum.
Performing for the audiences will be noted contemporary dancers Preethi Athreya, Padmini Chettur, Gilles Chuyen and Chitra Arvind along with emerging young performers Mehneer Sudan, Swati Mohan, Sowmya Jaganmurthy, Archana Kumar, Ronita Mookerji, Divya Naidu and Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy. Creative Director - Karthika Nair The jury panel this year includes renowned international dance artist Saskia Kersenboom, noted dance critic Sanjoy Roy (The Guardian, UK), artist programmer for UK’s main Dance House Sadler’s Wells, Emma Gladstone and eminent writer and artist Manjula Padmanabhan, Deputy Director (dance) of Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, Claire Verlet. Mentoring the performers will be Leela Samson (Chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi & Central Board of Film Certification), Anmol Velani (Executive Director, India Foundation for Arts) and Sadanand Menon (Managing Trustee, SPACES Arts Foundation, Chennai). The Winning participant will receive a cash prize of Rs. 5,00,000 and will receive mentoring from the Akram Khan Dance Company with an opportunity to perform in Prakriti Foundation’s Park’s New Festival 2013 in six cities. About Prakriti Foundation Prakriti Foundation was founded by Ranvir Shah in Chennai in 1998 to host events enquiring into our cultural heritage and inheritance. The vision behind Prakriti was to host events that would play a catalytic role in changing and enlarging the cultural scene in Chennai. Thus, Prakriti Foundation saw itself typically as the moving force behind events as diverse as music concerts, seminars and serious scholarly discourse, multi media events, experimental and protest cinema and theatre festivals. In the last nine years, Prakriti Foundation has worked to explore identity through history and heritage, art and cultural expression. In a city accustomed to a regular diet of classical performance, Prakriti has been the space where scholars, researchers, artists, critics, poets and filmmakers have been able to present their work to those who engage with it on serious terms. The foundation’s lecture demonstrations, poetry readings, film screenings and intimate performances continue to dot the Chennai calendar. About Ranvir Shah, promoter of Prakriti Foundation A cultural activist, philanthropist and businessman, Ranvir Shah has always had a great interest in books, art, music, interior decoration and a sharp aesthetic perception. Currently, he is involved in the conceptualization and delivery of seven calendar events throughout the year: One Billion Eyes: Indian Documentary Film Festival Parks New Festival: A festival showcasing new and emerging work in the field of dance, music and theatre. Poetry with Prakriti: A two week poetry festival featuring 25 poets and 100 readings Tree of Life: A festival designed around the theme, ‘Nature, Chennai, Us’ Hamara Shakespeare: A three day festival exploring the Indian twist on Shakespeare. Gharana Indian Music Festival: A festival presenting the richly resonant art of Hindustani music He is a freelance journalist and theatre/art critic for the Hindu and New Indian Express newspapers. Ranvir Shah holds a Masters Degree in Political Science and has over two decades of experience in the domestic and international markets in garment exports. He is currently Managing Partner of PS Apparels, Chennai as well as the independent director of KCP Sugar & Industries Corporation Ltd and also Managing Partner of PS Hospitals, a healthcare company that recently launched the Shanta Ayurveda Hospital, 24-bed multi-specialty Ayurvedic hospital started with the aim of providing holistic, natural and effective treatment. For further information please contact: Ujjala B. Gupta/ Prerika Rao VTY, New Delhi Email: ujjala.vty@gmail.com / prerika.vty@gmail.com Phone: +91-9899927626 / 9873474028 |
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