KEN MILLER RECREATION CENTER (Torrance Cultural Arts Center), 3341 Torrance Blvd, Torrance CA (Corner Madrona Blvd and Civic Center Drive)
SATURDAY OCTOBER 6, 2007 AT 6:00 PM
Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya (Santoor)/Arup Chattopadhyay (Tabla) - Santoor Ashram Performance - Musical School for Underprivileged Students: “One on One With The Maestro”
Sunday May 20th, 2007 at 6:30 PM
NDA Studios, 4425 Sepulveda Ave, Torrance, CA 90505
Phone: (310) 326-2668; (310) 872-7061
Nupur Dance Academy Presents "Kamayani" a Dance Drama on September 30th, 2006 (Saturday) 6:00 PM at the Redondo Union High School Auditorium, at corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Diamond Street; Parking on Vincent Street, Redondo Beach CA 90277. Please also see link Events
Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya Santoor Maestro and Sanchita Bhattacharya Phenomenal Odissi Danseuse at the Torrance Cultural Arts Recreation Center Auditorium, 3350 Civic Center Drive, Torrance CA 90503; ON SUNDAY JUNE 25th, 2006. Please see link for advertisement: Past Events
Nupur Dance Academy (NDA) founded in 2001 by Prachi Dixit is a school for Kathak and Folk Dance of India. Prachi Dixit is danseuse par excellence, performer, choreographer, and instructor from India, who has dedicated the past 20 years in promoting the traditional Indian Dances in USA, from Boston to Los Angeles. Some of her students are instructors in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee in this dance form. NDA is located in Torrance, California and trains many students from the age of 4 years of age and above. In the past 5 years NDA has performed in many venues in the greater Los Angeles area and even for Hollywood. NDA was invited in 2004 by Donna Mills (Hollywood Star on Knotts Landing) to perform a show on festival of lights representing India. NDA hosts from time to time a dance workshop and showcase for its students. This helps students in attaining confidence in dancing on stage, audience rapport, and understanding group dynamics.
“Kathak dominates as the most spontaneous and least structured dance styles of the Classical Indian Dance Tradition. It derives from the Sanskrit words “story making,” referring to one main feature: the art of telling a story by means of dance. It is said that Kathak was performed in ‘temples’ and ‘matths’ more than two thousand years ago, in its various forms and styles. Also, in ancient times the temple was the centre of village life, and people gathered there to hear stories from mythology told by bards known as “Kathaks”. A Kathakar would sing songs and use hand gestures and dance movements to make the account more interesting. Inspired by the Bhakti movement, devotees of art with their profound knowledge of scriptures gave expression to their love of God through the medium of song and dance. There is evidence to prove that Kathak is a dedicatory dance and the Bhakti movement heightened both its aesthetic appeal and spiritual dimensions. The main source of Kathak dance is “Natya Shastra” by Bharat Muni. To this day the Kathak has retained its tradition or interpretation of the sacred legend, folklore and mythology as a vital part of performance. Thus Kathak in its classical form has retained all the elements as detailed out in Natya Shastra.
Kathak performances consist of two parts, Nritta and Nritya. Nritta is the technical part. It is an abstract dance with tremendous sense of rhythm and joy of movement. The beauty of this part of Kathak lies in the exact rendering of the rhythmic patterns given by instruments, through graceful body movements and mastery of the artist’s intricate footwork. Nritya means abhinaya, the explanation of a story or a song through facial expressions, gestures of the hands and symbolic postures of the body. The artist uses variety of free movements, imagination, creativity, and draws the audience in flights of fantasy in conveying the story.
The first school of Kathak dance – the Jaipur Gharana – originated in the Churu-Bikaner belt. Being the richest form, the royal court of Jaipur attracted, patronised and supported it. During the regime of Rajputs, Rajasthan was divided into small provinces and the rulers of these riyasats were patronising the artistes including Katha vachaks, the wandering minstrels who sang and danced the lore of God and Kings. The Rajput or the Rajasthani dance tradition was divided into two themes. The centre of their dance was the ‘bhakti’ and ‘veer ras’ due to their warrior nature. Apart from their art, Shiv Bhakti, Devi and Krishna bhakti were also patronised by the Hindu rulers. The source of dance of the Rajasthani dancers was the “Natya Shastra” or “Abhinaya Darpana”. They interpreted emotions and feelings of dance according to the epic. In addition to differentiate between the nayak and nayika (hero and heroine) lasya and tandava were the subject matters of dance. Thus dancers, with their high technicality and practice, were executing the most important facets of Kathak: “Nritta” or pure dance, “Natya” or the combination of both song and dance and “Nritya” that form of the dance comprising movements of the body, hands limbs together with facial expressions and filled with rasa or flavour which may express a small episode or whole dramatic story through finer intricacies such as tode, tukre, paran, aamad with different layakaries. In the 16th century Vallabhacharya started spreading the Vaishnav cult and the theme of the dance and music suddenly become Krishna based. In the same time, compositions and verses of Surdas, based on Krishna leelas, gave a new dimension to Kathak. Apart from enacting stories – say, from the Radha Krishna legends – the dancers would also demonstrate to perfection the walk of a parrot or a peacock. The great poet Jaidev’s “Geet Govinda” and his compositions also became a vital part of the dance in India. By the time Kathak became a chamber art, one that is performed before a relatively small audience in a relaxed atmosphere where the artiste explains the different stages of the performance to the spectators. Bhanooji founded a branch of this gharana about 150 years back. He was a devotee of Lord Shiva and trained his sons Lalooji and Kanooji in Tandava Nritya. Thereafter, Kanooji moved to Vrindavan and mastered the Lasya Nritya. Kanooji also mastereed the lasya and tandava. Kanooji’s two sons Geedhaji and Shaijaji established themselves as the leading dancers of the Jaipur Gharana. Bringing forward the tradition, Geedhaji’s two sons – Hariprasad ji and Hanuman Prasad ji came to the dance arena. Hanuman Prasad’s three sons – Mohan Lal, Chiranji Lal and Narayan Prasad contributed a lot to the development of this gharana. In addition their cousin brothers, Chuni Lal, Shyam Lal and Durga Prasad also contributed in a major way to strengthen the Jaipur Gharana. Chuni Lal’s two sons, Sunder Prasad and Jay Lal spread the art throughout the length and breadth of the country. Of Narayan Prasad’s four sons, Pandit Charan Girdhar Chand is a leading dancer in the field of Kathak dance. The contribution of Gangani clan is also immense.
The precision of footwork, difficut tode and paran in the accompaniment of the tabla or pakhawaj, rapid turns, its patterned rhythms with many variations of bols, difficult layakaries, are hallmarks of the Jaipur Gharana. The dancer is concentrated on tatkars, palte, lagi and ladis. The clean chhakars, laya, bant, tatkars, are another distinguished characteristics of this Gharana. The chakkar of one foot, two, three, four, five and seven is making this dance form more enjoyable. The movement of leg is the most used part of the human body in Kathak dance than in any dance form, but that’s the beauty of Kathak. The Abhinaya part of Jaipur Gharana is another important factor of having captivating Abhinaya full of varied expressions and Bhawas. The beautiful Kavit based on Lord Krishna, Lord Shiva, etc. is unparalleled in comparison to any other dance form.
The Lucknow Gharana of
Kathak came into existence in the beginning of the 19th century. Prakashji came to the court of Nawab
Asaf-ul-Daula and was employed in the court.
Later Thakur Prasadji was also employed in the court of Nawab Wajid Ali
Shah. Kalka Prasad and Bindadin Maharaj
were also employed in the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. Wajid himself was a great poet, composer and
connoisseur of music and dance. It is said that Maharaj Kalka Bindadin was the
architect of the present form of Lucknow Gharana. The Kalka Bindadin family provided the form
with strength and generations thereafter nurture the style, with the
contribution of the Maharaj brothers (Achchan, Shambhu and Lachhu Maharaj)
being paramount. The Muslim patrons had
no patience with mere technical virtuosity.
They wanted to see an art which mirrored life in all its moods. So, the
Lucknow Gharana of Kathak came to be characterised as a dance which was graceful, decorative, suggestive,
expressive and sensuous. Bhava became the forte of the Lucknow Gharana. In this way their dance became capable of
expressing the subtlest nuances of emotion.
Banaras Gharana originated from Jaipur Gharana, but
due to somewhat different foot movements and pure bols of dance it became a
separate following.
“Kathak dominates as the most spontaneous and least structured dance styles of the Classical Indian Dance Tradition. It derives from the Sanskrit words “story making,” referring to one main feature: the art of telling a story by means of dance. It is said that Kathak was performed in ‘temples’ and ‘matths’ more than two thousand years ago, in its various forms and styles. Also, in ancient times the temple was the centre of village life, and people gathered there to hear stories from mythology told by bards known as “Kathaks”. A Kathakar would sing songs and use hand gestures and dance movements to make the account more interesting. Inspired by the Bhakti movement, devotees of art with their profound knowledge of scriptures gave expression to their love of God through the medium of song and dance. There is evidence to prove that Kathak is a dedicatory dance and the Bhakti movement heightened both its aesthetic appeal and spiritual dimensions. The main source of Kathak dance is “Natya Shastra” by Bharat Muni. To this day the Kathak has retained its tradition or interpretation of the sacred legend, folklore and mythology as a vital part of performance. Thus Kathak in its classical form has retained all the elements as detailed out in Natya Shastra.
The first school of Kathak dance – the Jaipur Gharana – originated in the Churu-Bikaner belt. Being the richest form, the royal court of Jaipur attracted, patronised and supported it. During the regime of Rajputs, Rajasthan was divided into small provinces and the rulers of these riyasats were patronising the artistes including Katha vachaks, the wandering minstrels who sang and danced the lore of God and Kings. The Rajput or the Rajasthani dance tradition was divided into two themes. The centre of their dance was the ‘bhakti’ and ‘veer ras’ due to their warrior nature. Apart from their art, Shiv Bhakti, Devi and Krishna bhakti were also patronised by the Hindu rulers. The source of dance of the Rajasthani dancers was the “Natya Shastra” or “Abhinaya Darpana”. They interpreted emotions and feelings of dance according to the epic. In addition to differentiate between the nayak and nayika (hero and heroine) lasya and tandava were the subject matters of dance. Thus dancers, with their high technicality and practice, were executing the most important facets of Kathak: “Nritta” or pure dance, “Natya” or the combination of both song and dance and “Nritya” that form of the dance comprising movements of the body, hands limbs together with facial expressions and filled with rasa or flavour which may express a small episode or whole dramatic story through finer intricacies such as tode, tukre, paran, aamad with different layakaries. In the 16th century Vallabhacharya started spreading the Vaishnav cult and the theme of the dance and music suddenly become Krishna based. In the same time, compositions and verses of Surdas, based on Krishna leelas, gave a new dimension to Kathak. Apart from enacting stories – say, from the Radha Krishna legends – the dancers would also demonstrate to perfection the walk of a parrot or a peacock. The great poet Jaidev’s “Geet Govinda” and his compositions also became a vital part of the dance in India. By the time Kathak became a chamber art, one that is performed before a relatively small audience in a relaxed atmosphere where the artiste explains the different stages of the performance to the spectators.
The Lucknow Gharana of
Kathak came into existence in the beginning of the 19th century. Prakashji came to the court of Nawab
Asaf-ul-Daula and was employed in the court.
Later Thakur Prasadji was also employed in the court of Nawab Wajid Ali
Shah. Kalka Prasad and Bindadin Maharaj
were also employed in the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. Wajid himself was a great poet, composer and
connoisseur of music and dance.
