KOCHI:
Shri Guruvayurappan Dharmakala Samuchayam Trust (SGDKS), a noble initiative to preserve our rich heritage and ancient art forms has officially announced the re- launch of the much acclaimed ‘Ashtapadiyattam- A Dance drama based on Jayadeva’s glorious ‘GeetaGovindam’. The trust spearheaded by Padmavibhushan Dr. E. Sreedharan and Dr. Chennas Dinesan Namboothiripad will be conducting the first shtapadiyattam event on 21st May 2018 at Poonthanam Auditorium, Guruvayur. The event will be officially launched by M. Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India.
The event will be graced by the presence of Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister of Culture, Government of India, Kerala Governor, P. Sathasivam and KadakampallySurendran, Devaswom Minister, Kerala State Government along with other dignitaries and eminent personalities. The event will be first of its kind and will be a coming together of crème de la crème of art, culture, traditions and history.
Speaking at the press conference in the city, Dr. E. Sreedharan, Founder Trustee, SGDKS, remarked, “The re- launch of ‘Ashtapadiyattam – a dance drama based on Jayadeva’s ‘GeetaGovindam’ underscores our commitment to our age old art forms and rich heritage. This is a cause very dear to all of us at SGDKS and we are extremely delighted to give back to our people an enthralling experience of Ashtapadi, which will appeal to even the most discerning art connoisseurs. We are sure under the impeccable expertise and guidance of Dr. Venugopalan Nair, Head of the Department of Dance, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, this art form will revive itself and will be back in all its glory as a standalone and nationally recognized dance and art form.”
We believe that such an initiative will help us to empower future generations to master Ashtapathi Attam in its purest and truest sense and stay fully aware and informed about our inimitable art and culture.” added Dr. Sreedharan.
Commenting on the occasion, Brahmasree Dr. Chennas Dinesan Namboothiripad, Managing Trustee, SGDKS remarked that “ The event, curated in close association with the best of what we have in the space of arts and culture is for sure set to be an exquisite and unique initiative and will make ‘Ashtapadiyattam’ a compelling proposition when it comes to our age old art forms. Though it took us several months of intensive research and development, at the end of this period, Dr. Venugopalan Nair and his expert team were able to come up with a stunning dance narrative of Ashtapadiyattam, which is at its most basic sensibility, a classical paean celebrating the life of Lord Krishna as described in the famous GeethaGovindam, a romantic poem written by the renowned poet Jayadeva.
With this launch, we are hoping to establish a deep and sustainable connect between the art form and our genuine art lovers which will redefine the conventions about similar art forms. We are also looking at taking this one step further by making this a nationally recognized art form by the creation of an institute and fully developed curriculum in order to empower future generations to master Ashtapadiyattam in its purest and truest form.
The style of teaching will remain as true to substance as possible, the curriculum will be distilled to perfection, and the institute itself will be set up in Guruvayur. We believe this will be the beginning of Ashtapathiattam coming into the limelight as a national and global classical art form worthy of pursuit, practice, perseverance and reverence.,” added Chennas Namboothiripad. The core team of dignitaries from SGDKS, Shri Poomully Narayanan Namboothiri, President, K G Premjith, Vice President, T K Rajeev, Secretary, P R Jayaram, Treasurer, K.G. Sunilkumar, Trustee and Sreedhar Balakrishnan, Trustee were also present at the press conference.
