Nrithya bharath day-2

Prateeksha kashi daughter of vyjanthi kashi performed to us two items on this evening. The first item was taranga neele mega shareera, in raaga mohana set to adi tala. This composition is taken from  Krishna leela tarangini. She danced on the rim of a brass plate. She used the stage very well before and after she climbed on the plate. On the plate also she managed to move in all directions.

Her second piece was Bhairavi who is mainly seen as chandi in raagamalika set to adi tala. The impact of the song was very strong so was her expressions. This item involved a lot of energy and she was up to the mark. Her anger and agression expression was strong .

Barathi divya bhushn and anjana bushan presented to us a piece in praise of lord Ganesha is raga sriranjini set to adi tala. Very bad sinchronisation, excellent foot work, smile wasn’t constant kept fading away often. Bhushan the grand son of the great film actor kalayana kumar was more stable in his postures and very good at abhinaya. But anuradha was nt that great.

Brocheva presented to us in raga kamach and set to adi tala. Bushan says “this item is very memorable to us because 7yrs back we performed the sam eitem exchanging garlands and few days later we got married. He adds everything began here as a dancing couple” audio quality was bad they looked very cute in the scene where they exchange garlands. Anurada looked extra pretty and expressed much better than the first piece. Bhushan was the same as good as the first item.

Shree krishna parijatha: presented to us by anupama mohan and troupe. A very huge dance ballet. They were lip singing the whole ballet and this is the first time im watching such a thing happening. There was a moment when all the lights went off but this never effected anupama she continued dancing. Every1 did a bit of solo and then joined one another this made the balet prolong even more. The costume and jewles were the highlight of this ballet it looked very apt and lovely. The stage utilization was just perfect they moved around every nook and corner, in all directons and angles. I just loved the part where krishna convinces satyabhama.

The last item of the day was the best and it was the kalari pyattu show. I was so eager to watch it but time dint permit me to, it was 15 min past 9 n I had to leave the auditorium at any cost. I really wish I could watch that.

Looking forward for Charls ma’s and prabal guptas perfromance in the day 3 cant wait to watch these amazing dancers who I always love to watch

Celebrating 25 years Nrithya bharath- Day1

Natyantharnaga is celebrating their 25^th year anniversary in ravindra kalakshtra with dance evenings spread across for four days the 5^th,6^th,7^th and 8^th. Bringing in various dancers together and cleberating is such a wonderful thing. Natyantharanga is a dance school held by Shubha dhanjaya the naatya saraswathi.

Delaying by an hour they started their first day of the celebration. In presence of S. Suresh Kumar the minister of law and order, Mahadevan babu, Mohan Suresh, Dhananjayan and shantha Dhananjayan the oldest dance couple and shubha dhananjaya herself. The program started with an invocation song by her own student Anunavya, who sang a song on lord ganesha and seeked his blessings for the successful celebration.

They started of with the Siricinchana- a dance ballet of ashta lakshmi presented to us by shubha dhananjaya and troupe. The 8 different lakshmies were present them self on stage as adi, dhanaya, veera, gaga, shantha, vidya, vijaya and dhana lakshmi respectively and the maha lakshmi shubha herself. The make up costume and stage setting was brilliant. The concept of each lakshmi sitting on the lotus was the part I loved the most. They looked like real goddessess themselves but they went a way too off sincronisation. Mistakes made were little obvious and shown clearly on the face of the little students. Shubha just outstood looked pretty and graceful.

A person in the audience says “there was a time when shubha wiped her sweat off the tissue on stage during the performance, which was very prominent even though she was sitting and the dancers were dancing in front of her”. This is something i dint notice may be i was involved watching the growing and up coming artists dancing.

Ranjana gauhar dancer from delhi took us to a totally different world by her different form of dance Odissi. She is a padmashree awardee and also trained in kathak, manipuri and contemporary dances. She started her piece with the prayer to lord shiva seeking his blessings.  She was graceful, energetic and pretty expressive. She discribed lord shiva on the whole and his attire, apperence and his character and his moods she also played the role of an devotee of lord shiva the expression chande and shift in the roles played was very good. The expression of anger and aggression hit like a spark. Liked the ending of the item with chakars

Kuru yadu nandana opted from the geeta govinda the eternal love towards the lord krishna. The nayika here is the vasakasajja. The person who waits and waits for her saka and while waiting she dreams/ gets reminded of the times spent together. This item was very pretty and cute.  The discription was very detailed and easy to follow whats happening.

A person in the audience said “An item of krishna always and that’s one thing I would love to watch. And I enjoyed this piece”.

Dancing footsteps in rain. Based on meer’s poetry which describes the love of the monsoon. The feel she had was amazing it was like she was really dancung in and with the rain.

The stage usage in all three pieces were bad, such a huge stage and she never moved away from the center of the stage.

The oldest dancing couple Padmashree Dhananjayan and Shubha dhanjayan presented to us the rama nataka keerthana in raaga malika and aadi tala. Firstly its very difficult to dance in that age on top of that they both had super balance, stretch and bends. They were no less than the youngest couples. They were filled with energy, enthusasism and smile; they danced throughout with complete enjyment and involvement.. the fight sequence was just excellent.

Gopal krishna barathi nanda a dance portraying lors shiva’s devotee and when he’s nt allowed to view the lord shiva. In raaga maachi set to mishrachapu tala. A solo piece by dhananjayan sir Im speechless about this piece it was just “perfect”. The involvement he had into the character was shown in his face.

"Its a honour to Kiran subramanium to play the natuvaanga for his own gruru's performance". said a person in the audience. 

An amazing show looking forwared for the next shows. Spread across the next 3 days.

KAVI

Kavi was held on the 4^th november in ADA rangamandira. Kvi was a dance evening of contributions of the poests. Where various dancers came together to perform various styles of dance. They choose composition of different poets. Kavi was organized by the Indian dance alliance and Padamalaya dance foundation. In presence of the chief guest Radika surjith, a deciple of dhananjaya. The is the founder of taka dhimi tha and educational and entertainment programs based on dance on jaya tv which has successfully completed over 400 episodes introducing and recognising around 4200 artists.

“poetry is music of the soul” a compostion by subramanya barathi was gthe first item presented to us. It started of with introducing the item as a voice piece with no one on stage, continued with a small dute performance of the shloka and the continued with the main piece of it where there were 2 more dancers joining in. it was a combination of two short girls and two tall girls which added beauty to the stage. A small drawback in the perfermance was one of the tall girls aramandi she had to put in more effort and sit to match the others level. One more minute thing was they all sat for tapas chnting om mantra and one gal was with her eye open. They protrayed a story of the mother and daughter it was very naturalastic, cute and affectionate.

Speaking to a dancer next to me in the audience this is what she had to say “Mistakes do happen and even the minute of minute mistake stands out and becomes obvious to a dancer in the audience”.

Bringing in the Jayadeva’s compostion which existed during the 16^th century in kerala stepped in Probal gupta and mythili anoop. Presenting to us a jugal bandi of rada and krishna in two different forms- mohini aatam and kathakalli. Shree krishna geetha. They made use of their own props and brought in extra stage settings. The whole piece was very expressive and a expression explosion. Both of them were very expressive and Prabhol’s expression out stood. His expressions are so amazing that it strikes the last person in the auditorium. Mythili looked extra pretty with the amazing combination of red and white costume. I was so into the dance that I was swaying myself with their movements.

A person in the audience said “I love prabal’s eyes and expression I just want to see him once without costume and make up to kno how his eyes really are and wonder how he can express so well and bright”

Sharmila mukarjee and troupe presented to us a a compostion by the buddhist monk called Chandikala. It’s a story of a small untouchable  girl called prakurthi who always aked her mother why she gave birth to her? Seeing the way the world treats her. This was presented to us by a group of odissi dancers from the tiny tot’s to teens to adults. This was a ballet more than a dance I can say. Very emotional and touching with a messgae to the audience. Each and every one did a very nice job with lovely smile, emotions and expressions.

A composition of vadiraja presented to us by Praveen kumar and sneha. They had four different slots or stages of their act.

1)      The diff between vishnu and shiva was more like a jugal bandi each one took one person and portrayed.

2)      how a father plays with krishna and takes care of him. This is one of the rare concept its because we hve only heard of the mother and krishna stories. But this was a brilliant concept. This is the second time I saw a father and krishna relation. The first time I came across the same concept in World’s dance day. The portrayal and expressions were very classy.

3)      Rada waiting for kroshna and describing feelings to her saki was very like a normal behavious of a girl and how she explains things ot her saki. This was more of a abhinaya piece and the abhinaya was perfect.

4)      krishna’s dance and beauty this was a duet performance wad the foot work here was the best part of the piece.

The best part of this whole composition was the trancisition between the slots. Just loved the way they entered and exitted. Thia was a energy blast performance.

It was totally a bliss to see various artists of different forms to come together and dance. This wouldn’t have been possible without Padma the founder of Padmalaya dance foundation and sucessful without Nokia and TVS motors who sponsored the program.

Conetmporary dance team from Brigham Young University

Brigham Young University (BYU) contemporary dancers in association with International Music and Arts Society began their journey to showcase their talents in Mumbai, Hydrabad, Chennai, New Delhi and now they were in Bangalore on the 2^nd August. BYU contemporary dance team presented to us “Rhythms of life” in Chowdiah memorial hall (malleshwaram). They were a 16 member troupe who took away the hearts of the audience and impressed the crowed. 

Their theme was divided into 10 different pieces of dances where they showed different rhythms of life and how things go about in life. Each and every piece began with a small video which explained what they will be dancing, so there is no room for a compere here! This was something i loved in this show very professional and neatly done without any technical problems or errors.

Looking into each and every piece of theirs
1) All in a day- Explores the commonality of work in evryones daily lives. Be it man or woman, child or adult, we are all workers. We are all moving through the world, working and defining ourselves. In this piece got in a concept of village workers to common man, where farming and the animal part of farming was depicted in its best.

2) Fling Flang Flung- captures the nostalgia and lure of partner dancing from days gone by, with clever twists and surprises for modern times. You will find yourself tapping your toe and bouncing in your seat as the dancers "fling" and are "flung" around the floor. The chairs were used as props here. 8 dancers managed the four chairs and played with the prop in a brilliant way. This was a pretty and cute item. it was more of a lovy dovy dance. the partners looked cute together. As the dance i was off my seats.

3) Dance of remembrance, from woman, the pioneer- A tribute to women of faith and courage everywhere, "dance of remembrance" opens hearts to the struggle and emotional torment women and parents experience when they lose a child. Moving between the hope of life and the reality of death, a mother resolves with faith to finish her earthly journey in spite of the loss of a child she leaves behind on the windswept plains. The costumes in this dance were classic. The woman uses her costume itself as a prop to depict the child and the death of the child. This item particularly reminded me of one of my performance as a mother and i see my child raped by her own father. Was moved by this performance.

4) Life's a bench- whether it's a party on the bayou or western hoedown, "life is a bench" celebrates what it means to be a community. Though intricate rhythms and interviewing floor patterns, the dancers meet, greet and "set a spell". Playfully the enjoy each others company, ducking, rolling, and jumping in highly orchestrated free for all that's filled with surprising moments. I just love the way they used and managed the props. The jaw drop part of this dance was four dancers rolling together with one bench. Amazing floor work. Here is a small glimps of the part of the dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFVe21ba7TY&feature=youtu.be

5) Chakra- is based on the tantric and yogic traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism. The whell-like vortices in the body are explored as energy centers of the body, central to the transmission of energy. The imbalances of modern society serve a sthe frame of reference for this work, making a commentary on the disequilibrium that is systematic to our modern world. I have nothing to say about this dance sequence. Im out of words this was the best until now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4OWVBvVQ-g&feature=youtu.be

A member in the audience says "This is the first time im watching something like this and i feel its very difficult to understand what they are depicting as the movements are pretty fast. I like their concepts and they are doing it well but i feel instead of the video before every performance a compere explaining would be easier for us to understand"

6) Do not remove under penalty of law- a proven, laugh out loud romp performed to dvorak's hungarian dancers. You will never look at your mattress the same way again. Here they used materessess as props and danced with it. they formed shapes out of it, and used it as a chair etc. The also stood behind it danced with funny faces which gave audience a gag. Here is a small glimps of it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZHP8n9FNYk&feature=youtu.be

7)Thought of you-  You may have seen this animated youtube phenomen. "thought of you" is a pensive love story beautifully expressed by two figures, a man and a woman dancing to express the complexities of relationships. This was a wonderful clip which will touch our hearts in a way.

8) Upon the mountain the grip of poverty- Reflections of the black Diaspora from their original homeland and the community formed in the new world a celebration of life in all aspects. The whole sequence was danced by just two guys. The managed the stage so well that such a huge stage never looked empty even for a minute.

9) Steppin- all groups have dance steps that they perform together for the pure joy of celebration of life. This dance blends the unity and power of a military corps with urban sensibilities of African-American community. This was in the form of a tap dance and the synchrony was eye catch. its so hard to do this with 16 people. Ther had been a lot of practice and energy put into this as they dint use any music and they were their own music. In such a huge auditorium of a 1000 audience capacity imagine the energy it takes to reach the audience sitting in the last row. A bow down to them. Super realistic performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg-NicjmdHI&feature=youtu.be

 10) Excerpts form pilgrimage- In this exuberant dance dancers move and grove to the nostalgic sounds of Neil Diamond. It started of with a duet and slowly after time passes all the 14 joined on the stage and moved. In the duet part the lifts were eye catchy, clean and smooth. She looked so happy and light on top there.

A member in the audience says "i have seen a lot of American contemporary dancers, specially in Belgium they were amazing and are the same now i dont find any difference. The only difference i find is that something like this is taking place for the first time in bangalore and im proud about it. Loved the show."

This show would not have been a great success without the splendid lighting effects. Also the Sponsors FASTRACK and WORLD OF TITAN.
 

Rangapravesha- Rajini Pramod

Rajini Pramod a student of Divya Prabhakar (a student of Revathi Narsimhan) presented her rangaprevesham on the 8^th July 2012. She begined her first item of the day with pushpanjali and ganesha stuthi which is a principle of every rangraprevesham. There were a series of dance she presented on this day. Looking thru the items she did this is what i felt.

Pushpanjali with Ganesha stuti in raga Arabhi set to Aadi taala. in this item she had a clean lifts and clear balance. The best part in the item was the way she exited out of the stage with a sholkattu where she walked like Lord Ganesha. I felt this was a nice innovation for an exit.

Alarippu set to kaanda chaapu taala. The spark of her eye was way too prominent it was so bright that it could hit the audience. The transition of stand to sit went a little off but it was well covered with her beautiful smile. This tiny off could be observed only by a dancer and not a normal audience. The bends, aramandi was maintained in the same level and were neat.

“The continuation of the encouragement to continue the career in dance from their husbands started from Revathi Narsimhan to Divya Prabhakar and now to Rajini Pramod.” Says Srinivas the compere.  

Kruthi in Raaga Sindunamakriya set to Aadi taala. In this item she was filled with extra energy. Loved each and every pose and stands she took. There were no repetation of poses and each pose was different. The roudra avatara was depectied excellently.

Varnam in raga Shankrabhaana set to Aadi taala. A  very new piece for me not seen in any dance performances till now. A brilliant show of the concept. It was like a movie scene by scene clearly hit the audience. The jump in each and every aradhu was maintained at the same level and energy. This item was a expression + foot + energy blast. Excellent work.

“Rajini is the first Student of Divya to give her rangapravesha.” Said Srinivas the compere.

Devarnama in Raaga Raagamaalike set to Aadi taala. The playful part was very cute and cuddly. There was maximum involvement into each character here, may it be Krishna or snake.

Javali in Raaga Mohana set to Rupaka Taala. Very expressive i liked the starting and ending part of the song which had a link to how she meets her beloved and how she sends him off using the door.

Tillanna in Raaga Kandanakutuhala set in Aadi tala. Even though this was the last item it dint seem like the last item as the energy was same as the first item. It was very catchy and flowing i was moving my feet to the music she drove me into the mood of dancing.

Overall i can say it was a mindblowing performance form Rajini with the simle which never faded away, the energy which never dropped down and the enjoyment while she danced, her footsteps such a bang that i wont be surprised if the stage has cracks. She did "BREAK THE STAGE" and it was a bliss for me to watch her dance.

This day would not have been a grand success without the musicians, costume and stage.

Naatuvanga: Smt Divya Prabhakar.

Vocal: Vidushi Smt Bharati Venugopal.

Mridanga: Vidwan SriLingaraju.

Violin: Vidwan Dr Nataraja Murthy.

Flute: Viswan Sri Mahesh swamy.

Compere: Sri Kaladegula Srinivas.

Costume: Sri Manjunath.

Lighting: Sri Sai Venkatesh.

Make up: Sri Ilangivan

Stage design: Sri H.V. Vasu (M.V. Events)

Photo & Video: Sri Foto Murthy & Sri Shivaji Rao

Digital Printing: Sri Pawan

Illustrations & brochures : Flowergraphic.

“I am so happy that she blessed with such a nice and sweet inlaws and husband who have been encouraging her to grow upto what she is today. They have been just like parents to her encouraging her to continue dancing. Such inlawas are one in a million. For all that her Husband, parents and inlaws have done she rewarded them with her dance today.” says Shubhashree an audience.

I conclude by wishing her all the luck, health and energy to continue dancing.

Celebrating world dance day!

World dance day is celebrated on the April 29^th every year. This is the day dedicated to dancers and dance lovers. This is the day when all dancers and dance lovers come together and celebrate. Also remember the great dancers who are no more with us but have contributed a lot to the field of dance, art and culture. There will be various events conducted in various places like dance-a-thon: where various dancers of various institutions and age groups come together and dance their way. Dance shows in various auditoriums.

Here is one such program i would love to talk about. The dance day celebrations held at Alliance francaise de Bangalore, organized by Mr Ashish Khokar. Here we could dance groups from senior to junior artists under one single roof. It was a 12hrs program from 10am to 10pm where various styles of dances were performed by the artists. I was present there as a dancer, dance lover and a mini journalist.  I watched few performances there and im here to share my experience and feelings about my time spent watching those performances.

Kavya Shanmugam: Persented a Padam set to Adi tala. She was graceful and had a very good balance while she took poses. There was one particular pose which impressed me that was a pose of a bird where she balances on one leg with a flat back and takes a turn on one leg. Her stretches were impressive and something a dancer could grasp from her. But her smile faded in few places where balancing was happening.

Parshwanath upadhye: a student of Guru Kiran Subramanium.  He was amazing at his dancing. His energy was equal throughout a performance which is very difficult task to maintain. Each step was like a energy packet coming out. It was as powerful as Gamma rays. He did a brilliant job.

“I personally feel happy to see a male classical dancer, and a female western and street dancer.”

Kaustavi Sarkar: presented to us Varsha a dance. Her speed and brisk movement of each and every part of the body was clear and made the dance lively. I was drawn into her movements and joined swaying with her.

Nrithya Pallai: a dancer from the ancestor’s family. Presented to us a tillanna in raga kalayana vasantham. She had a composition of her very own grandfather in her item. Costume she wore was very pale and not appealing to the audience. She had a very expressive eye and the features of her face were good which added a colour to her expressions. Her smile was not constant and clear to the back of the audience. The depiction of lord Krishna was not to what it has to be. When Krishna is so jovial and fun she did not match the expectations.

Samanya Gururaj:a student of Praveen Kumar presented to us Natesha kouvtham and dance piece on Lod Nataraja a lord of dance. An item very femilar to me and which i have also learnt from my Guru. Her smile was pretty and energy was very good. Balanced pretty well.  Nava rasa naikai another item she presented expressions were better in this item compared to the previous item.

“when an item is familiar to me i try to see the difference in the choreography and try to learn so that i will have two options of choreography for the same song”

Shishir Shashtry: a student of Praveen Kumar again presented a song on Lord Nataraja. When shishir was dancing it seemed like Praveen himself dancing. His body posture was perfect in all stands and poses. This was also a femilar item to me and an item which i have learnt so i enjoyd it.

Deepa Sashidharan, Rekha Satish and Avijit  Das: kuchipudi performance of Deepa Sashindran and Rekha Satish, the item is called as Shivashtakam a classic item choreographed by the legendary Guru Vempati chinna satyam. Avijit presented a jathiswaram set to adi tala. Looking at his lean body with bones i was surprised to see the energy he had while dancing.  Shivashtakam in raga mohana set to kanda chapu tala. The audio was pretty bad. And synchrony between the two ladies missed. Expressions were good.

Probal Gupta: a male dancer in a female version. Danced to the episode from maha baratha in raga kandal. I was baffled with his performance. The grace he had was no less than a female’s grace. His expression in his eyes and face was outstanding. The stage usage was perfect. He used the full stage and managed so well. The use of his hair as a prop was a nice n unique idea. Brilliant performance! He being a male dancer to dance like a female is not a easy task but he did it with such an ease that he deserves a hats off. He said “its a tribute to a dancer like me to dance on this day.

Manasa rao: a student of Lalitha Srinivasan presented a item on goddess Chamundeshwari. Her expressions were perfect and nice. Her foot steps were strong.

Guru raju: a student of Vyjanthi kasha: a male dancer again. He was pretty good with his dancing and the usage of stage was the best part of his performance.

Padmini shreedhar and group: a teacher in Jain university and her students. They were so well trained that they never missed synchrony. They were amazing looked like a terrific Trio performing.

Manasa joshi: astudent from Naatya stem. She was so graceful and expressive. Her chakars were so clean and well defined.

Jyotsana Jagannathan: A doctor at Manipal hospital. She presented an item which involved only expression and no foot work. Her abhinaya was upto the mark that the missing of footwork made no difference.

“Dancers like Jyotsana are the best example to prove the dedication, interest and passion towards dance never dies.”

Madhulita manopatra: peresnted an item called yehi madava yehi keshava. A depiction of virodkanditha naiyaka- were she waits for her beloved. She was outstanding in this intem. She was so much involved into the character that her expression were a blast. A wonderful performance! The eye catchy expression for me was the part where she cries, it was depicted so well.

She later was joined by Anjali Raj Urs: anajli is a person i know personally. This was an item where the rada explains to her friend about her lord Krishna. I could not move my eyes of anjali. She was so graceful and expressive.

“It so happens to me that if a personally known person is dancing in a group i cant move my eyes of them. I tend to see only them.”

Natya stem: “where stem means Space Time Energy Movement. And they need no introduction”  they perfomed sargam: by manasa rao and other two dancers. Amazing synchrony. Kalari was by the men. they were at their best as usual.

Anuradha Vikranth and Shama Krishna: they presented and item on lord Krishna Baro Krishanya a composition by kanaka dasa. A very familiar and basic item. The speciality of this item was that it was bharathanatyam by anu and kuchipudi by Shama at the same time. They were goin on so well, accidently Shama fell and could not dance further but Anu managed it so well that the absence of Kshama was nt felt.

“Wishing Shama a speedy recovery.”

B.P Sweekruth: presented to us then taal,  Which comprises only of foot work. I was off my seats to watch his foot work. His foot matched so well to the beats. Madhurastasm where he shows his love and devotion to lord Krishna. It was more of a abhinaya more than foot work. The depiction was so good felt like i was watching a movie.

“i myself am a lover of Lord Krishna. I was floating and so much involved into the item that i never even blinked.”

Sreedevi Unni: a mohiniattam performance. Involved only expressions and no foot work.

A person in the audience said “ till now all the performances was so lively but this performance almost put me to sleep.”

Aishwarya Nithyananda: student of Smt Rada shreedhar performed an item on lord nataraja and parvathi with the involvement of the 9 rasas and the 14 panani sutras in raga fars set to adi tala. The depiction of the 14 sutras as a jathi was the best part of the choreography. And her expressions was the nava rasas were brilliant.

Ashish kokhar says “she was nominated for the top 10 dancers not only of Bangalore but all over india”

Vyjanthi kashi : I have no words to describe her dancing it was that good. Its so difficult to b filled with such amount of energy and enthusiasm at this age. The dance on the plate was classic and the best part. It was a real treat to the eye.

Ashish Kokar says “vyjanthi just finish perfoming elsewere and has dropped in to perform for us”

Nritarutya: a performance bye Mayuri upadaya students. Two group dances they performed and out of words i am to explain their performance. All i can say is the deserved the standing ovation we gave. Their alignments, cuts and steps were well defined and finished, the girls in this group equalled the guys.

“I was so happy to see my choreographer Akshay D Mandlik dancing for nritarutya. The excitement i had when they were performing could not stop me wooing for them, Even though it ended up with an audience shouting at me for wooing.”

Shridhar and Anuradha Shridhar: performed with their student Kshiti scenes from mahabaratha a moving episode where kunthi meets Karna. It was a ballat. The recording was good and gave more effect to the ballet. Shridhar’s expressions outstood and was the best.

Ashish Khokar  a person without whom this event would not have been possible says “Dance is truly divine art..let us not spoil gods gift with ego, politics, games and one upmanship. 40 main dancers came together and with group art they added upto 125!! So many on one day, in one stage, without delays or mishaps, is amaing. Gods and gurus blessed us all and it was nice as 8 to 88 year olds were there! A full-house for stars is geneally seen, ocasionally but to have no standing space left most of the day, shows Bangaloreans are starved for good dance and organisation and presentation in professional way.....all credit to Alliance Francaise and our core team of dancers Madhulita Mohapatra, P.Praveen Kumar, Murli Kalva, Mohd. Imran, Deepa Shashindran, Smriti Srinivasan and Jyotsana Jagannathan. I was just the connecting link.”

“The dance was more effective with the million dollar stage. The speciality of this stage was that the footsteps ecoed.”

I conclude by saying “this was the best dance day ever i have celebrated in my whole life. It feels so good to be a dancer, dance lover and a mini journalist. I thank my parents who have been supportive to me always and not only let me attend the program at alliance francaise they also were with me in the auditorium as a dance lovers.”