CHENNAI:
In collaboration with The Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai, renowned dancer and choreographer Dr Ananda Shankar Jayant, an alumnus of Kalakshetra, will stage her critically acclaimed latest dance production, “Tales from the Bull and the Tiger”, on Friday at Bharata Kalakshetra Auditorium in the city at 6.15 pm.
‘Tales from the Bull and the Tiger’ has been praised as a riveting dance production, with excellent choreography, artistic brilliance and visual aesthetics.
“Every Indian dancer has God in his/her heart, seeks His blessings and will ascend stage only if He is alongside. We place Him at the core of our being, seeking His benediction in life and in dance. His blessings have written the script of five decades of my life in dance and in four decades of Shankarananda Kalakshetra — through 26 path-breaking dance productions, dancing across five continents, and training a multitude of students. My years of yearning to encapsulate Him in a dance production led to the ‘Tales from the Bull and the Tiger’,” pointed out Ananda, a winner of the Padma Shri and Sangeet Natak Akademi award.
‘Tales from the Bull and the Tiger’, choreographed by Ananda, has musical soundscape by Sathiraju Venumadhav, costume design by Ganesh Nallari, lights by Gyandev Singh, and digital design by Gunjan Ashtaputre. It is performed by a vibrant ensemble cast of 20 dancers, with brilliant Bengaluru dancer Mithun Shyam as Guest Artist in the lead along with Ananda.
Praised by noted art critic Sunil Kothari as ‘a riveting production’, the dance recital was earlier presented in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, to critical acclaim. After the Chennai show, it is scheduled in New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune over the next few months.
“The dance production is a result of years of painstaking research and months of rigorous rehearsals, and marks the year-long celebrations of the 40th anniversary of Shankarananda Kalakshetra,” said the acclaimed danseuse, who is also a senior bureaucrat with Indian Railways, an inspirational TED speaker and an arts entrepreneur.
In its 40 years of existence, Shankarananda Kalakshetra has emerged as a pre-eminent national institution for performing arts, taking Indian art to audiences across the globe. Its artistic body of work spans mythologies, historical chronicles, gender issues, poetry, abstraction, philosophy and humour, even as it continues to train young aspirants in Bharatanatyam in Hyderabad.
Shankarananda Kalakshetra is also a pioneer of the arts in the digital space by creating a first-of-its-kind Bharanatyam practice app named ‘Natyarambha’ (www.natyarambha.com ),which was launched in 2017 and is now followed across the world. The programme is open to all and seating is on a first come first served basis.
