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 AttenDance Awards Photos courtesy: Nadam December 18, 2023 Today there are many awards and titles. In the December season, every Sabha in the South gives Natya this or Nritya that. Even when biodata are read on stage, so many new titles are added to even youngsters' biodata that there's no way to know the genuine from the not so. The two big national awards in performing arts are the Padma award and the Sangeet Natak Akademi award. Third is the state level titles like Gujarat Gaurav or Karnataka Kalashree or Tamil Nadu's Kalaimamani. One modest title and award function that's making a mark and being talked of with respect are the annual attenDance awards. These are ten years old and hosted by attenDance dance annual that is 25 years old. These awards are valued by the dance fraternity for its outcome and outreach. Young talents are given 3 shows in India to take their art further and seniors documented for posterity. Some also get to go abroad for internship and performance. Among the past awardees, NADAM went to Sweden, Praveen Kumar to France and Italy, Rahul Acharya to Brazil, Madhu Nataraj to Italy, Tushar Bhatt and Seshadri Iyengar to USA. The entire ceremony is meticulously planned and executed. A designer stole with attenDance logo is given done by Spring Rhythms of Sonali Kapoor.  Ashish Khokar A short film on attenDance and past awardees is shown. Then there's a short focus on awardees of the year so audiences can see who, what, where from these worthies come. Who selects the potential awardees, or who is on the jury no one knows. So when the announcement is made officially, there are lots of surprises. In the earlier years it was fashioned on film awards like Filmfare of India or Oscar. An envelope was given to the announcer and sometimes even the announcer itself was the awardee! This happened to Madhu Nataraj some seven years ago, then Murali Mohan Kalvakalva. Then the organisers realised that sometimes the awardees were not present in the hall because they didn't know that they had been chosen. So the surprise element had to be sacrificed and for the last few years the awardees and the award are known a month in advance. Basically, five awards are given celebrating the memory of five greats in five fields: Ram Gopal Award for best upcoming male soloist, Mohan Khokar Award for Dance writing / Documentation, Uday Shankar Award for Choreography, Rukmini Devi Award for significant contribution to a form, and Maya Rao Lifetime Achievement Award. This year a new one was added, the M.K. Saroja award for Goodness in Art. Couples were given the U.S. Krishna Rao-Chandrabhaga Devi award or Nataraj- Shakuntala Award. So seven in all, but each year not all seven are given.  Awardees of 2023 This year, awardees came from far and near, braving Chennai waters post cyclone like superstar of Bharatanatyam, Alarmel Valli, who in her acceptance speech said: "The genuineness of these awards cannot be estimated. It is a matter of pride to get one as it is well thought out, meticulously planned and given with heart in art." Guru Shama Bhate who came from Pune was overcome with emotion and said to get an award named after Uday Shankar in Choreography was an ultimate honour. Mysore Nagaraj said while awards are many this one means it is given by those who truly value art and artistes. Lalitha Venkat, also from Chennai, thanked her mentor Anita Ratnam and colleagues for their continued support in maintaining narthaki.com working for which as content coordinator had got her this award named after a dance icon Mohan Khokar.  Guru Shama Bhate being honored Acharya Vidya Passard of Paris who couldn't come all the way was given the first M.K. Saroja award (accepted by Anuradha Narayan, former Alliance Francaise's cultural coordinator) and for her to get the first award in memory of her own guru meant much. Acharya Deepa Krishnamurthy remembered her guru Govindarajan's long links with guru Saroja and was happy to get recognised for her art given by him and Jamuna Krishnan. Deepa Krishnamurthy's award actually was given to her seeing her student Aditya Nataraja last year! Just like seeing a 9 year old M.K. Saroja, the great Rukmini Devi Arundale hired Saroja's guru Vidwan Muthukumaran Pillai as the first teacher at Kalakshetra!  Laxminarayan Jena & Elisabeth Khokar Laxminarayan Jena being the youngest in the group of awardees was hurried in his speech but said his guru bhakti means most to him and this award means he has to work more. It was interesting that both his guru Mysore Nagaraj and he received on the same day, same platform and in the same year. This has happened only once before when guru Maya Rao was awarded with her student Syed Sallaudin Pasha. The senior-most awardee was Chiranjiv Singh, polyglot, patron and pride of Karnataka - A man of letters, servitor of arts and former chief secretary of the state, Ex Ambassador to UNESCO, Secretary to three CMs. To honour him another former chief secretary Sudhakar Rao was in attendance. He spoke like a saint, humble and simply surprised why he was getting an award for doing what he loves.  Murali Mohan, Chiranjiv Singh, Nandini Mehta, Elisabeth Khokar The award function on December 9, 2023 was part of the 24th Kalanadam festival held at ADA Rangamandira in Bangalore. Ashish and Elisabeth Khokar, attenDance editor and publisher, conducted the proceedings with NADAM's Murali Mohan Kalvakalva and Nandini Mehta. They reiterated NADAM's full logistical and practical help. All could bond over a simple dinner in the end. There was camaraderie in the air and hearts filled with goodness of and for art. |
