A DAILY FREE NEWSPAPER ON THE MUSIC & DANCE FESTIVAL

l December 23, 2019

DAILYSEASON’s

SEASON’s PHOTOSKutcheriBuzz is shooting photos of special events of the Season daily. You can see them at - www.kutcheribuzz.com

THIS NEWS SHEET IS ONLINE TOO.This publication is circulated at 10 sabhas across the city every evening. A copy is posted online at www.kutcheribuzz.com (please look for the weblink in the right far bottom corner of home page)

There are two dance conferences that classical dancers look for-ward to in the Season - Natya Darshan and then, post Christmas, Natya Kala. Some parts of each are engaging, some are standard. But dance students do not attend them in large numbers and this is not a positive sign; for, there is a lot of learning that can happen at these two conferences.

Anyway, the two-day Natya Darshan conference hosted by Kar-tik Fine Arts at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore and curated by dancer Priya Murle got off to a start last Friday evening with an awards event. Honoured on stage were dancers Malavika Saruk-kai, Varsha Shankar, Padmalaksshme Suresh and Gopika Varma.

Sangeet Natak Akademi chairman, Shekar Sen did the honors.Later, Bharatanatyan dancer Uma Satyanarayanan performed.Saturday morning started with lec-dems from 8.30 a.m.

onwards. Sasirekha Balasubramaniam and later, A. Lakshmanas-wamy held the first set of the lec-dems; on adavus.

Then followed five artistes sharing their ‘viewpoints’ on what classical dance meant to them. The sharings were snappy and were made by Roja Kannan, Aiswarya Ananth Kartik, Manasvini Ramachandran and Vijay Madhavan.

Learning sessions for dancers

‘Melattur’ Natarajan, using video clips and with ‘live’ dance excerpts highlighted Bharatanatyam in the Bhagavata Mela performance tradition. The lec-dems continued on Sunday morning. Three dance recitals were held on both evenings.

SEASON’s DAILY

l RASIKAS REPORT

About UsKutcheriBuzz is a website for classical music and dance with a focus on South India. It covers the ‘season’ 24 x 7.

How to contact us! 77, C.P. Ramasamy Road, Alwarpet, Chennai-18. Phones : 24993767 / 24994599email : kutcheribuzz@gmail.comwww.kutcheribuzz.com.

The five day Natya Kala conferences start on Dec. 26 at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, 20, Maharajapuram Santhanam Road, T. Nagar. The curator of this conference is Rama Vaidyanathan. Below is the schedule for Dec. 26, 27 & 28.

(You can get compelete schedules of conferences and concerts of this Season at www.kutcheribuzz.com)

l 26 December 20199:15 am – 10:15 am - Inauguration of the

39th Natya Kala ConferencePrayer: O S Arun Inaugural Address by Chief Guest: Dr Sonal

Mansingh, Member Parliament, Rajya SabhaKeynote address: Rama Vaidyanathan10.20 am - 11.10 amDance Buddies: Re-creating the Kuravanji

StorySudharani Raghupathy, Dr Padma Subrah-

manyam and Chitra Visweswaran11.15 am - 12.05 pmThe Expanding CanvasMalavika Sarukkai12.10 pm - 1.00 pmDance Curation: Concerns and Challenges; a

discussion. Panelists: Y Prabhu, Sridhar Shan-mugam, Harishankar Krishnaswami, Natarajan Ramji, Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, R V Raghaven-dra, Rajeswari Ramachandran. Moderator: Akhila Krishnamurthy

1:00 pm – 1:30 pm Lunch1.30 pm - 2.45 pmNibandhana - By Vaibhav Arekar and

Sankhya Dance Company. As part of Torch Lights (Premiers of trend-setting ensemble work)

l 27 December 20198.00 am - 9.15 amThe Bani of Dr Vyjayantimala Bali.

By Dr Sridhar VasudevanAs part of Legacy Lights (Solo showcas-

ing of ageless tradition)at Kamakoti Hall, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha9.30 am - 10.20 amAlarippu Adventures Dancers: Christopher Gurusamy, Harinie

Jeevitha, Radhe Jaggi, Preethi RamaprasadComposer: Ramamoorthy Sriganesh10.25 am - 11.05 amCultural Graft(ing): An Early History of Indi-

an Dance in USADr Arshiya Sethi11:05 am – 11:15am Tea11.15 am - 11.55 amUnchained: Odyssey of the Nouvelle Racon-

teurs

Savitha Sastry and A K Srikant12.00 pm - 1.00 pmArrangetram: A Boon or Bane; a hot debatePanelists: Rathna Kumar, Dr Saroja

Vaidyanathan, Meenakshi Chitharanjan, Leela Samson, Sheela Unnikrishnan, Sujatha Ramalingam, Dr Padmaja Venkatesh Suresh, Deepak Mazumdar

Moderator: Chitra Visweswaran1:00 pm – 1:30 pm Lunch1.30 pm - 2.45 pmTanjavur Nrutya PrabandhaSucheta Bhide-Chapekar & GroupAs part of Torch Lights (Premiers of trend-set-

ting ensemble work)

l December 28, 2019 8.00 am - 9.15 am Lineage of Kittappa PillaiNarthaki NatarajAs part of Legacy Lights (Solo showcas-

ing of ageless tradition)at Kamakoti Hall, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha9.30 am - 10.20 amShrama Vidhi: An insight into the Adavu codi-

fication of King Thulaja’s Sangeeta SaramrutaUma Nambudripad Sathyanarayanan and

Lakshmi Parthasarathy Athreya10.25 am – 11.05 amOf Bharatanatyam Then & Now: Tracing

changes in its content and performanceA lecture with visuals by Rajika Puri11:05 am – 11:15am Tea11.15 am – 11.55 amKaranas in Contemporary Expression:

By Dominique Delorme 12.00 pm - 1.00 pmGuru-Cool: A Discussion on Emerging Trends

in New Age TrainingPanelists: Priyadarsini Govind, Bragha Bes-

sell, Urmila Sathyanarayanan, Indira Kadambi, Sreelatha Vinod, Jai Govinda

Moderator: Aravinth Kumarasamy 1:00 pm – 1:30 pm Lunch 1.30 pm - 2.45 pmNokkam Leela Samson & Spanda Dance CompanyAs part of Torch Lights (Premiers of trend-

setting ensemble work)

Jaggi Vasudev enjoys a concertAt Sandeep Narayanan’s concert at Sri Krishna Gana

Sabha on Dec.16 evening, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev walked in quite informally with his dancer-daughter Radhe just before the start of the concert and sat through the entire recital. Maestro Umayalpuram B. Sivaraman who played a masterly tani for the main kriti (Kartikeya - Todi) toled rasikas that he dedicated it to the guruji.

Even as some rasikas leaned to have a close glimpse and take photos of Jaggi, he greeted them and left the venue swiftly.

- Report by Sivaramakrishnan

Natya Kala conference:Dec. 26 to 30

The December Season spirit has caught on in spaces away from the city sabhas. A hotel has curated weekends of Carnatic music for its guests. The Grand Hotel of the GRT group in T. Nagar is or-ganising concerts in one of its halls on the weekend evening while it promotes its Indian restaurants.

The hotel says that it hosts guests every year who fly into the city for the Season and they appreciate the idea of concerts being held in the hotel.

The busts of two men who founded, nurtured and oversaw the growth of Narada Gana Sabha in Alwarpet were formally exposed at the opening evening of the festival of this sabha.

These were of R. Suryanarayanan and R. Krishnaswamy, both no more.

Their services were recalled by guests who spoke at the function, of the days when a large acre of what used to be fields was pur-chased, of times when there was hardly any funds in the sabha’s bank account to fund the construction and of the special shows presented by artistes like Sivaji Ganesan and Hema Malini to raise funds.

Sabha secretary Harishankar says the busts, sculpted by famed artists of the Nagappa company will be permanently placed in the lobby of the auditorium.

REMEMBERING SABHA STALWARTS

CONCERTS IN A HOTEL

Date-wise time table of all leading concerts at leading sabhas are posted online at www.kutcheribuzz.com. Use web link on home page of this website.

CHECK DAILY CONCERT SCHEDULES