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 Ashish Mohan Khokar's Attendance Annual Awards 2024 Alliance Francaise Hall, 6pm November 30, 2024 Bangalore Nov 6, 2024 There are awards and awards in Indian dance world. Everyone seems to be getting titles or giving awards! In this melee is there some benchmark? Any quality check? Any litmus test? Who gets it for what and why? Even state awards seem now friends-of-friends syndrome! National awards are always a case of those who get are happy and those who didn't, unhappy. In all this, one award that's low-key, genuine, even the jury is unknown (so no canvassing is possible) and only the really deserving get it - are the attenDance awards, now in its 10th year. Which means 50+ till date have got it, since a minimum of 5 awards every year are bestowed in five categories: attenDance Mohan Khokar Dance Writing/Documentation award in memory of promoting pioneering scholar-savant-critic and Collector Mohan Khokar, who founded attendance yearbook also in 1999. Anita Ratnam, Gowri Ramnarayan, Nandini Ramani, B.M. Sundaram, Lalitha Venkat have been bestowed with this honour. attenDance Ram Gopal Best Male Soloist Award for an under 40 male dancer of note, who shows promise and potential and needs MENTORING and support through shows, outreach even an international internship. Past awardees Ramli Ibrahim, Satyanarayana Raju, Rahul Acharya, Parshwanath Upadhye, N. Gururaju, Laxminarayan Jena among others and all these have arrived nationally, even internationally. Complete list of last 10 years in each category is on attendance-india.com attenDance Uday Shankar Award for Choreography which many worthies like Mayuri Madhuri Upadhyay, Attakkalari Jayachandran Pallazhy, Madhu Nataraj, Murali Mohan Kalva, Daksha Mashruwala and Shama Bhate have received. attenDance Nataraj Shakuntala Award for Dance Couple have been given to Anuradha- Shridhar, Nirupama-Rajendra, Tushar-Pooja Bhat, and the Dhananjayans. attenDance Rukmini Devi Award for overall contribution has gone in past to those who have made significant contribution to a form or baani like Padmini Ravi, Vasundhara Doraiswamy, Sucheta Chapekar, Alarmel Valli and Mysore B Nagaraj. attenDance Maya Rao Lifetime Achievement Award is truly for a life in dance or art and Vimala Rangachar, Chiranjiv Singh, Radhakrishnan, Sonal Mansingh and Padma Subrahmanyam have been bestowed this honour. Two new honours were instituted last year: M.K.Saroja True guru shishya parampara award given to Deepa Krishnamurthy and Vidya Passard of Paris. The dance field calls it or treats it as akin to India's Critics' Choice Awards. The jury changes often and pan India vision and mission is at its core. The awards carry NO purse or shining shawls. A specially designed stole and a citation that's worthy of a read for it contains the gist of the recipient's life and art. The awards are tastefully done and the awardees are treated like royalty. As is customary, no one has to actually dance on the award night to prove anything. A short film clip showcases their work and worth. In addition to honour and respect, the younger ones get 3 shows in a year in different parts of India to take their art further and senior ones get platformed in seminars, books or even a film or documentation. One lucky of five gets to travel abroad to perform in many countries or intern with a professional dance or theatre company to learn about stagecraft or new techniques or presentation.  attenDance turns 25 in 2025. On the eve of this milestone, this year's annual honours are given to veteran, pioneering Odissi guru Aloka Panikar, 82, who has been a true representative of guru Mayadhar Raut style of Odissi in Delhi. She has had a full and active career, till a road accident in 1985 proved a setback. Her abhinaya was under-stated and angashudhi, immense. She took to teaching and has taught many quality disciples over 40 years. Martha, Sukanya, Devayani, Ambika Paniker, Tiziana Barbiero, Luigia Calcaterra, to name a few. Although some seniors, who also initially trained with her have won national honours like the SNA and Padma award, guru Aloka Panikar was bypassed by the system and the state. attenDance values and respects such stalwarts more. In honouring them, attenDance feels it honours itself and the dance field.  Young India needs mentoring. Driven by extreme sense of insecurity, reality of competition and unrealistic goals of being famous overnight, each one is trying to outdo the other. Here too the selection of awards goes to the genuine not mere popular, long distance runner in the field and possessing material and meaning. This makes the young Kuchipudi talent Washim Raja a worthy recipient, as he has shown good values, and full need to develop under guru's grace and guidance.  Such a guru too then gets honoured. Vanashree Rao, a senior Kuchipudi dancer of repute who is excellent in composition and choreography too, married to guru Jaya Rama Rao, Padma Shri and SNA to boot. She looks after her shishyas like a mother hen. Normally, attenDance awards don't go to those who have got national awards. Sometimes, in exceptional cases, like last year to Alarmel Valli or previously to Sonal Mansingh and Padma Subrahmanyam, it was bestowed because they were beyond dance. They had become institutions.  Young, professional writers in dance are far and few and not one with staying power or stamina can be found in India today. Neha Muthiyan has proven in the last ten years of writing and publishing Loud Applause that she can show the way. Her recent guest editing is attenDance Pune issue, also won her additional points for diplomatically handling many egos and talents and yet delivering a handsome yearbook.  Earlier, senior writer, Ranee Kumar, also a hard-core journalist by profession had guest edited two years of seminal issues of attenDance. One on a very esoteric topic - Dance and Mysticism - and other on mothers of dancers and how they helped shape careers. She is an epitome of good grace and no-nonsense in editing and receives the coveted award named after the founder of attenDance, Prof. Mohan Khokar.  Aishwarya Nityanand represents old world Bharatanatyam with modern sensibilities. A chartered accountant by profession, she has maintained the true guru shishya parampara tradition by sticking to one guru Radha Shridhar and not wanting to teach even. Her art is unsullied and she remains true to herself and her muse.  Vishwakiran Nambi is a son of the soil and soul of Karnataka and international in his outlook. No two works are the same and he has reached out, while training and grooming many young ones. He represents a freshness in Indian contemporary dance and no one gets bored after five minutes. AttenDance values ancillary arts inputs like those who help dance reach out. Designers like Akhila Venkat, who not only brings new aesthetics to graphic design but makes excellent short films and swell photos. Geetha Bhat, a crafts expert, brings to hall her hallmark ikebana arrangements, each an exceptional dancing motif. Her work in Chittara art of the region is also selfless, hence celebrated. The awards function will be part of the 25th Kalanadam Festival.  Info: khokar1960@gmail.com |
