11Th Dance Festival
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The Music Academy Madras 11th Dance Festival 3rd to 9th January, 2017 Mr. Phillip A.Min, Consul General, Consulate General of the United States of America, Chennai Inaugurates the Dance Festival THE MUSIC ACADEMY MADRAS 168, T.T.K. Road, Chennai 600 014 • Tel : 2811 22 31/2811 5162 E-mail : [email protected] • Website : www.musicacademymadras.in DANCE FESTIVAL 2017 3rd to 9th January 2017, at the T.T.Krishnamachari Auditorium Mr. Phillip A. Min Consul General, Consulate General of the United States of America, Chennai Inaugurates 5.30 p.m. Tuesday, January 3, 2017 Kum. Malavika Sarukkai Receives the award and the title of ‘Natya Kala Acharya’ Date 10.00 a.m. – 11.15 a.m. 11.30 a.m. – 12.45 p.m. 6.00 p.m. – 7.30 p.m. 7.45 p.m. – 9.15 p.m. Leela Samson Jaikishore Mosalikanti 3.1.2017 Bharatanatyam Kuchipudi R. Jai Quehaeni P. Praveen Kumar Vaibhav Arekar Kalakshetra 4.1.2017 Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam Choodamani Pradanam Dakshina Vaidyanathan Vishal Krishna Mythili Prakash Sheela Unnikrishnan 5.1.2017 Bharatanatyam Kathak Bharatanatyam Leela Taranga Margam Christopher Gurusamy Anjana Anand Malavika Sarukkai Sujata Mohapatra 6.1.2017 Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam Odissi Harinie Jeevitha Pavithra Srinivasan Srikanth & Aswathy Neena Prasad 7.1.2017 Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam Mohiniyattom Sukanya Kumar Meenakshi Srinivasan Rama Vaidyanathan Rajendra Gangani 8.1.2017 Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam Kathak T. Reddi Lakshmi Renjith & Vijna A. Lakshmanaswamy Nrityagram 9.1.2017 Kuchipudi Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam Odissi Main Sponsor : Associate Sponsors: In Memory of Late Sri. P. Obul Reddy & Late Smt. P. Gnanamba By Sri P. Vijaykumar Reddy & Smt. Preetha Reddy In Memory of Shri. P. Obul Reddy & Smt. P. Gnanamba Season and daily tickets will be available from 2nd December, 2016 at the office of the Academy between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sri N. Murali President The Music Academy Madras The Executive Committee, Dance Festival Committee The Music Academy Madras Sri. N. Murali (Ex – Officio) President Sri. N. Murali Sri. C.V. Karthik Narayanan Dr. Malathi Rangaswami Vice Presidents Sri. R.T.Chari Sri. R. Srinivasan Sri. C.V. Karthik Narayan Dr. Malathi Rangaswami Dr. Chithra Madhavan Smt. Prabha Sridevan Ms. Kala Ramesh Rao Sri. R. Seshasayee Smt. Kami Vishwanathan Sri. R. Srinivasan Smt. Sujatha Vijayaraghavan Secretaries Sri. K.V. Krishna Prasad Sri. S. Raghavan Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao Sri. K. V. Krishna Prasad (Ex-Officio) Sri. N. Ramji Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao (Ex-Officio) Sri. V. Srikanth Treasurer Sri. R. Ramakrishnan Sri. V. Srikanth (Ex–Officio) Sri. R. Ramakrishnan (EX-Officio) Members of the Executive Committee Sri. N. Ramji - Convenor Dr. Chithra Madhavan Sri. N.Gopalaswami Ms. Kala Ramesh Rao Editorial Committee - Smt. Kami Viswanathan Dance Festival Brochure Smt. Kripa Subrahmaniam Dr. Chithra Madhavan Dr. Meenakshi (Sumathi) Krishnan Ms. Kala Ramesh Rao Sri. S. Raghavan Dr. Meenakshi (Sumathi) Krishnan Sri. V. Sriram Sri. S. Raghavan Smt. Sujatha Vijayaraghavan Sri. N. Suresh Visit Academy’s website Sri. S. Swaminathan Sri. P. Vasanth Kumar www.musicacademymadras.in 11th Dance Festival 5 THE MUSIC ACADEMY MADRAS Malavika Sarukkai Natya Kala Acharya 2017 Malavika Sarukkai was born on 15th Her choreographies characterized by an June 1959 in Mumbai to Saroja Kamakshi insightful mind reflect the effortless coming and Vasu Gopalan Sarukkai. Under her together of the incandescent beauty of mother’s guidance she had the privilege dance and the energized articulation of a of training in Bharata Natyam with contemporary mind. In recognition of her renowned gurus- Guru Kalyana Sundaram, intellectual depth, she was invited to deliver Guru Rajarathnam and Guru Kalanidhi the prestigious Coomaraswamy Memorial Narayanan. Lecture in Mumbai. A film entitled ‘The Unseen Sequence’ directed by Sumantra Intense and extraordinary are the qualities Ghoshal has been made celebrating her that distinguish Malavika Sarukkai‘s distinctive intellectual and path breaking dancing. With her artistic mastery and approach to dance. technique she commands a presence on the world stage. Malavika Sarukkai has received many accolades and awards. Padma Shri from the She is acclaimed for her creative dance President of India in 2003, SNA Award 2002 choreographies, which transport the viewer from the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi, to the heart beat of dance, taking dance Delhi, Kalaimamani from the Government beyond specific geographies. of Tamilnadu in 1994, amongst many Over the last three decades Malavika others. Sarukkai has contributed a large body The Music Academy, Madras takes pride in of original work. This is a result of her conferring the title of Natya Kala Acharya sustained and passionate investigation to for 2017. expand the vocabulary of Bharata Natyam. THE MUSIC ACADEMY MADRAS 6 11th Dance Festival Natya Kala Acharya Award Instituted by Drs. Engikollai Krishnan and Leela Krishnan in the memory of Smt.Meenakshi and Mysore Asthana Vidvan Engikollai Chidambara Ganapatigal. Recipient January 2012 – Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam January 2013 – Smt. Sudharani Raghupathy January 2014 – Smt. Chitra Visweswaran January 2015 – Kum. Leela Samson January 2016 – Smt. Alarmel Valli 11th Dance Festival 7 THE MUSIC ACADEMY MADRAS Spirit of Youth 2016 28th Annual Spirit of Youth Festival of Music and Dance held at Kasturi Srinivasan Hall. Music Academy from 2nd August, 2016 to 11th August, 2016 Sl.No Category Name of Artistes Endowed by Donor 1. Best Dancer Kali Veerapathiran Sri Gutty Vasu Memorial Prize nd 2. 2 Best Dancer Divya Ravi Endowed by Srinivasa S. Yogesh Kumar Prasad International Foundation for the performing arts 3. Dance Guru Award (for Smt. Nirmala Nagaraj Late P. Obul Reddy Guru of Best Dancer in Spirit of Youth) Mid Year Dance Festival 2016 23rd June, 2016 to 25th June, 2016 Sl.No Category Name of Artistes Endowed by Donor 1. Best Dancer Dr. Methil Devika M.N. Subramaniam Memorial Award 2. Outstanding Dancer Pavithra Srinivasan Instituted by the 3. Outstanding Dancer Dakshina Vaidyanathan M.N. Subrahmanian Trust THE MUSIC ACADEMY MADRAS 8 11th Dance Festival Padams and Balasaraswati Dr. Jon B. Higgins, York University, Toronto, Canada Balasaraswati and her family are the these artists’ vocal production and stylistic consummate exponents of the music of detail. Bharata Natyam, and it is for this reason The main reason this family is so well that when an Indian thinks of padams, he known for imaginative and beautiful thinks of Balasaraswati. Few musicians, let melodic improvisation (especially in ragas alone dancers, understand this music the such as Kambhoji, Todi, Varali, Bhairavi and way she does. To watch Balasaraswati sing is Sankarabharanam) is that they carry in their to begin to understand a padam. Although ears, phrases from Kshetragna’s padams, an she may not be performing abhinaya in unparalleled resource for raga material. It any formal sense, her body leans into each is generally recognized that the best Telugu musical phrase as if to coerce it; each syllable padams are those of Kshetragna, a 17th of sahitya is allowed to find its level, its own century poet-composer of great renown. unique “sound value” (to use her term). His pieces are composed in the “style and Thus in a dance performance, Balasaraswati diction known as kaisiki vritti, soft, flowing breathes with the music, and the music and seductive.” (Srinivasa Ayyangar. p.107). breathes life into Balasaraswati’s gestures. Kshetragna was highly influenced by the The Natyasastra stipulates that a dancer Gitagovinda, a celebrated account of the should herself sing the music to which loves of Krishna, written in Sanskrit verse she performs abhinaya, yet Balasaraswati by Jayadeva, almost 500 years earlier. The is practically alone today in her ability to subtle depiction of romantic episodes as an do so with style and confidence. She owes allegorical expression of spiritual devotion this distinction in part to the extraordinary provides an eloquent poetic vehicle, for household in which she was raised, one held which Kshetragna is heavily in debt to in high esteem by the greatest musicians of Jayadeva. But the aspect of composition her time. Her famous grand-mother, Vina which relates more to the musical content of Dhanammal, and her mother Jayammal padams (and is shared alike by Kshetragna bequeathed to her the very essence of and Jayadeva) is the profound gift for Karnatak music, a prodigious repertoire of blending poetic and musical phrases to Kshetragna padams and Dikshitar kritis, and create a unity of meaning. “...in the case of the profoundly expressive style of singing the Gitagovinda the art of wedding sound for which the family is justly renowned. and meaning is carried out with such These musical gifts, inherited and developed success that.. any translation (is) useless as by Balasaraswati and her musical brothers, a substitute for the original” (Keith, p. 195). Viswanathan and Ranganathan, are related The reference here is to the sound of poetry in a very special way. This unique repertoire, rather than phrases of actual music; but the with its unusually stringent demands “songs are given to us in the manuscripts upon musicianship and technique, has with precise indication of melody (raga) undoubtedly influenced the development of and time (tala) of the music and dance 11th Dance Festival 9 THE MUSIC ACADEMY MADRAS which they were to accompany, and the poet responsibility, for, each phrase requires definitely bids us think of songs as being a complete focus of physical and psychic performed (in temples and at festivals) energy. Yet the consummate performance, before our very eyes” (Keith, p. 192). “The toward which the singer forever aspires, ragas he (Kshetragna) has chosen for their takes him beyond the hurdles, the exertion, expression are most happy, in that ‘the sound the strain, into an exhilarating motion of as an echo to the sense’ is portrayed in its fluent expression which transcends effort fullest possibility” (Srinivasa Ayyangar, (loc.