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Artist Subodh Poddar, creative director with FCB Ulka Advertising, completed 20 paintings during the 40 minute performance of Guru Shankar Behera and Italian dancer Antonella Usai, three on canvas and the rest on Chinese rice paper with ink and colors. Subodh focuses more on body movements than facial expressions. The calligraphic paintings are now part of a collection of about 300 such works. |
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Master bronze craftsman S Rajan has been commissioned to make a 20' tall bronze statue of Lord Nataraja for the London Museum. It is the first time such a large statue is being created and is estimated to take 2 years to complete. |
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Organized by the India Habitat Centre, the International Centre for Kathakali dispensed with the usual all male cast and presented NALACHARITAM DAY IV in the last week of April, with a women's only set of protagonists. Revathi Iyer was King Nala, Sudha Gopalakrishnan was Damayanthi and Lavanya Ranjeet was her companion Kesini. |
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Sudha Gopalakrishnan, a student of Guru Namkulam Vishnu Namboodri recently translated Unny Varier's Nalacharitam written in the 17th century into English, in an attempt to make the sub - text of Kathakali acting accessible to a larger audience. |
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There exists a uniform code on matters related to Sattriya costume and repertoire but there is no authority to implement it. In early 2001, a congregation of scholars, gurus and exponents evolved a code for costume and repertoire of Sattriya dance, based on the common features of the Kamalabari and other Satras. Like Chennai Kalakshetra, Jawaharlal Nehru Academy in Manipur and Odissi Research Centre in Bhubaneswar, a need is now felt to set up an academy as an authority to implement these codes. |
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For the first time since Sattriya dance was accorded the status of a classical dance form, it was featured in the Khajuraho Dance Festival on March 3, 2002 on the concluding day. The performance was by Guwahati based Sattriya Academy under the direction of Jatin Goswami. |
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Mumbai based Mubina Bandukwala, student of Chhaya Khanvate, is the first Bohra Muslim girl to learn Bharatanatyam. She has performed in the presence of Prince Charles at a benefit evening in London. |
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Darpana Academy in Ahmedabad recently sent 25 Harijan students to the US to present a dance performance choreographed by Mrinalini Sarabhai on the theme of non-violence and to enact the story of Gandhi. These children had hardly ever been even on bus rides in India. |
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Odissi dancer Ranjana Gauhar will begin work on a new documentary that will explore age old cultural ties between India and South East Asia, especially Vietnam and Cambodia through sculptural evidence found in these countries. The focus will be mainly on Karnataka in India, the sculpture in Angkor Wat in Cambodia and some Hindu temples in Vietnam. |
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Sattriya dance guru Ram Krishna Talukdar has authored NRITYA KALA DARPAN, a valuable book about Indian classical dance in Assamese, which caters to the needs of students, teachers and scholars of classical dance. |
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