Celebrating the variety and beauty of 11 Indian dance traditions and showcasing nearly 100 performers from 10 countries, the second edition of South Asian Classical Dance Festival will be underway in the USA from September 19 being hosted by the Colorado Fine Arts Association (CFAA) based in Denver, the capital city of Colorado state.
The thematic annual event, launched last year, has Prakriti (nature) as its focus. Bhoomi (earth) was the theme of the first edition of the festival.
The countries featured in the festival include India, Singapore, Canada, France, UAE and the USA.
CFAA was founded in 2008 by Ajay Chankramath as an organization exploring options to promote classical fine arts originated in the Indian sub-continent.
Its patrons include passionate promoters and connoisseurs of Indian classical arts like Haricharan Reddy, Sridhar Babu Thummalapenta, Ram V Nathan and Anand Kumar apart from the founder.
While Bollywood dance has been a major attraction in North America, Indian classical dance shows are yet to be popular. CFAA has been striving hard to highlight the rich cultural heritage of India and South Asia by hosting a series of classical dance and music events, the hosts have explained.
In view of the ongoing pandemic, the festival this year would be presented online.
The festival features a number of celebrated and young but acclaimed dancers, especially from across India. It has also included a number of local talents in a bid to encourage the budding talents to carry forward Indian cultural practices.
Performances apart, the four-day event, slated over two weekends, will have interviews with two world-renowned Indian classical dancers – Alarmel Valli and Priyadarsini Govind.
The dancers slated for the inaugural day on September 19, Saturday, include Anita R Ratnam, Neha Mondal Chakravarty (Bharatanatyam), Anwesa Mahanta (Sattriya), Swathi Ashok (Bharatanatyam), Prathyusha Aparassu (Kuchipudi), Medha Hari (Bharatanatyam), Sarah Morelli (Kathak), Swagata Banerjee (Odissi), Prateeksha Kashi (Kuchipudi) and Kalamandalam Prabhakaran (Seethangan Thullal).
The second day on September 20, Sunday, will showcase Vidhya Subramanian (Bharatanatyam), Amrita Lahiri (Kuchipudi), Rujuta Soman (Kathak), Rakesh Sai Babu (Chhau), Vinod Kevin Bachan (Odissi), Sooraj Nambiar(Kutiyattam), Maya Kulshreastha (Kathak), Thavarajah Mohanapriyan (Bharatanatyam) and Janaki Rangarajan (Bharatanatyam) among others.
The festival schedule for the next weekends features Ananda Shankar Jayant, (Bharatanatyam), Nrityagram Dance Ensemble (Odissi), Vinitha Nedungadi (Mohiniyattam), Sreelakshmy Govardhanan (Kuchipudi), Shweta Prachande (Bharatanatyam), Janmejoy and Rajesh Sai Babu (Chhau), Shinjini Kulkarni (Kathak) and Kalanidhi (Kuchipudi) on September 26, Saturday.
The fourth and final day of the festival on September 27, Sunday, will showcase performances by Bala Devi Chandrashekar (Bharatanatyam), Pranamya Suri (Kuchipudi), dancer couple Renjith Babu-Vijna Vasudevan (Bharatanatyam), 4Arushi Mudgal (Odissi), Neena Prasad, (Mohiniyattam), Rajashree Warrier (Bharatanatyam), Shijith Nambiar-Parvathy Menon (Bharatanatyam), Sujata Mohapatra (Odissi), Divyaa Unni (Bharatanatyam) and Shantala Shivalingappa (Kuchipudi).
