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 The soulful gatherings: Baithak Series - Bijoy Shivram e-mail: bijoyshivram@gmail.com Photos: Vidhi Shah June 18, 2025 "Art has the power to transform, to illuminate, to educate and to inspire." These words form the heartbeat of a quiet yet potent movement slowly shaping the artistic ethos of Ahmedabad - intimately felt within the sanctum of the Sanjukta Sinha Dance Company (SSDC). Through the deeply personal and carefully curated Baithak Series, Kathak exponent and choreographer Sanjukta Sinha offers the city's art lovers and practitioners something rare and precious - the gift of presence, of unfiltered artistic creations and of deep listening. In the classical Indian tradition, baithaks were revered gatherings held in private courtyards - sacred spaces where music and dance were not performed for spectacle, but offered as communion. A conversation. A surrender. Sanjukta reimagines this intimate format in a contemporary context, weaving it into the very fabric of SSDC. Here, dancers - both her disciples and invited guests - find a space to not only perform but also be. To evolve. To connect. To be witnessed in truth. For Sanjukta, curating is not about filling a calendar with events. It is about gathering energies, nurturing potential and fostering an ecosystem of dialogue and discovery within and beyond the studio. In this atmosphere of compassionate rigour, the Baithak Series has emerged as a luminous crucible for learning - especially for SSDC's students. While classes refine their form, these evenings refine their spirit. The closeness to the performance, the immediacy of expression, the vulnerability of the artist - all become part of a visceral education. The evening unfolded with three distinct voices in dance, each steeped in training yet marked by individual vision - a quiet celebration of discipline blossoming into authenticity.  Shantanu Gosavi It began with a striking performance by Shantanu Gosavi - a designer by profession and a dancer by soul. A dedicated student of Sanjukta for over seven years, Shantanu's artistic evolution reflects the delicate alchemy of Sanjukta's mentorship - one that honours both structure and intuition. His presentation of Chaturang, choreographed by Sanjukta herself, was an elegant interplay of Thumri, Bandish, Bol and Tarana, set to Raag Yaman and Ada Chautaal. As Shantanu rose to make his entry, his lean frame, crowned by long cascading curls, evoked the very image of Shiva- poised at the threshold of creation and dissolution. In his movement, tradition did not stand still; it shimmered with freshness. The rhythmic precision of Kathak met a contemplative fluidity of expression - as if movement itself were prayer and emotion, its offering. Shantanu's dancing became a meditation - on aesthetics, on surrender, on being.  Nirali Samani The baithak then welcomed guest artist Nirali Samani, an alumna of Kalakshetra and a Bharatanatyam dancer-scholar whose life reflects a seamless synthesis of performance and pedagogy. Currently pursuing her doctoral research under the guidance of Guru Sheejith Krishna and actively performing with the Sahrdaya Foundation, Nirali brought with her a quiet fire, an intensity anchored in years of discipline. Her deeply internalised approach, the clarity of lines, the stillness between phrases - all conveyed the maturity of someone who has lived with the art form not as ornamentation but as a daily practice of becoming. One felt the absence of the ghunghroos - an essential element of aharya abhinaya in Bharatanatyam - but even in their silence, the resonance of Nirali's dance lingered, filled with quiet conviction and strength. Her performance was less about form and more about essence.  Vihanga Rukshan The final presentation was a compelling excerpt from Meherbaan by Vihanga Rukshan, a Kathak and contemporary dancer from Sri Lanka who has made India his artistic home for the past decade. A postgraduate in Kathak from JG College of Performing Arts and a devoted disciple of Sanjukta for the past five years, Vihanga embodies the luminous duality of strength and vulnerability, shaped by a deep-rooted sense of belonging and inquiry. Meherbaan, choreographed by Sanjukta, is a delicate, aching invocation of love and longing - a narrative of touch, voice, memory and silence. Set to raag Jaijaivanti and a rhythmical blend of Teentaal and Dadra, the work seamlessly wove together nritta, nritya and natya, drawing the audience into a shared reverie. As Vihanga moved - from resolute strength to silken grace, from expansive spins to subtle side glances - there emerged a haunting coyness, an internalized dialogue, a body remembering love like a fading scent. It was as though the dance was not being performed but remembered through the body. His transitions were like sighs, audible only to those listening with the heart. Each artiste, in their own way, illuminated the underlying philosophy of the Baithak Series - to create a space where art does not perform, but breathe; where the distance between artist and audience dissolves, and what remains is truth. In a time where performance often equates with production, where stages are grand but distances vast, these in-house evenings offer a rare intimacy. A soft return to the roots - where art is not spectacle, but sacred offering. The Baithak Series has become not merely a platform, but a hearth - a quiet, glowing circle of artistic exchange. A place where the flame of tradition is not preserved as relic, but kept alive - breathing, evolving and ever-beckoning. This is what true art does. It does not demand applause. It awakens presence.  Son of journalists K Shivram and Amni Shivram, the first Malayali woman English journalist, Bijoy Shivram is an accomplished Indian classical dancer trained in Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. A passionate promoter of the arts and a skilled graphic designer, he currently serves as the Vice Principal of JG College of Performing Arts and the Assistant Director (Operations) overseeing 17 JG colleges. He is also the founder of Preksha, an organization dedicated to the promotion of art and culture in Ahmedabad. Since 2020, Bijoy has curated the YouTube series 'Gurudakshina - An Ode to our Gurus,' celebrating the legacy of mentorship and tradition. |
