NRITYA NAIVEDHYAM - A DANCE OFFERING (see flier at the bottom)

The upcoming Shakti Fall Festival, Nritya Naivedhyam – An Offering of Dance, celebrates the beauty and grandeur of Bharata Natyam in a unique way. The festival inaugurates Sunday, Sept 10, 2006 at 6:00 pm, with the distinguished and much celebrated dancer Priyadarsini Govind of Chennai. She will present an exciting array of new solo choreography. At 4:00 pm, a preceding program showcasing the potential of an emerging young dancer in the community, will feature Uma Kadekodi, a senior soloist of the Shakti Dance Company, Los Angeles. On day two of the festival, October 8th, 2006, leading soloist from Delhi Rama Vaidyanathan will be featured at 6:00 pm. Prefacing Ms. Vaidyanathan is a performance at 4:00 pm by Kanti Charugundla, also one of Shakti Dance Company’s finest. On October 1, 6:00 pm, to celebrate Vijaydashmi of the Dassera festival, a unique student choreographed group performance entitled Numbers and Images will include guest performances by students of Guru Sudha Chandrashekhar, of Hindu Temple Rhythms from Detroit, Michigan. This program will also be prefaced by a Shakti soloist, Neela Moorthy, at 4:00 pm.

Nritya Naivedhyam features soloists Priyadarsini Govind and Rama Vaidyanathan; they hail among the finest of Bharatha Natyam soloists in all of India. Ms. Govind, trained under Guru Sri Rajaratnam Pillai, has won some of the most prestigious of classical dance awards, such as “Nritya Choodamani” from the Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in Chennai, India. Critics praise her for exquisite grace in lasya, impeccable precision in nritta (pure movement), and rare subtlety in abhinaya (facial expression). Ms. Govind is now the pioneer in introducing her popular DVDs on Understanding Bharata Natyam., explaining and performing the repertoire of Bharata Natyam as a learning tool to students of dance. Ms. Vaidyanathan, trained by Gurus Yamini Krishnamurthy and Saroja Vaidyanathan of New Delhi, has also been celebrated in a number of dance reviews. Constantly exploring new avenues in Bharatha Natyam, she is praised for her creativity.

Senior Shakti Dance Company soloists Uma Kadekodi, Kanti Charugundla, and Neela Moorthy have all learned Bharatha Natyam for over twenty years, under Guru Viji Prakash. Each an educated professional in her own right (a speech therapist, doctor, and healthcare consultant, respectively), the three dancers find time for Bharatha Natyam in their busy daily schedules. Ms. Kadekodi has had a number of solo recitals in India and Los Angeles, but she has won most acclaim for her passionate portrayal of Arjuna in Shakti’s magnum opus Bhagvad Gita. Ms. Charugandla has won equal praise for her range of character portrayals in Shakti dance ballets such as the Nutcracker, Moha Mudgara, and most recently, the portrayal of Duryodhana in Bhagvad Gita. Ms. Moorthy just performed a solo recital for Yuva Bharati in the San Fransico Bay area and flies in from Switzerland where she is on assignment with Amgen.

“If classical Bharata Natyam is to grow in America as an art form, organizers, donors who support the art and audiences must come together to encourage and foster young talent who have shown the commitment to stick with the art,” says Ms. Prakash, Artistic Director of Shakti Dance Company. Ms. Prakash has organized this festival and many others in an overall effort to encourage young dancers in America. These endeavors have given the local community numerous opportunities to interact with and be exposed to the best of Indian performers.

Although Bharata Natyam has gained vast popularity in America, for the most part solo performances are few and far between. Visiting artists are usually encouraged by organizers to present group choreography and opulent dance productions to entertain their rasikas. An appreciative audience for a solo Bharata Natyam performance is very limited and even when the events occur, they adhere to one of the following formats: 1) a visiting artist from India accompanied by live or recorded music 2) an arangetram extravaganza of one of the local dance students in the community 3) or a fundraiser by a post-arangetram performer, seeking a platform to continue his/her solo dance growth.

Nritya Naivedhayam presents a refreshing and different picture. While showcasing the great masters from India, it also grants an equal opportunity to the young emerging artist who has seriously pursued dance for several years. “This unique interactive performance platform is vital for the development of the performer, connoisseur, and student of Bharata Natyam in the American diaspora,” believes pioneer dancer, teacher, and choreographer Viji Prakash.

Over the past three decades, Ms. Prakash has presented innovative performances in Southern California, essentially popularizing Bharata Natyam in the region. Commencing with the sellout performance “Dance of the Immortals” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ms. Prakash paved the way for taking Bharata Natyam into bigger and state of the art auditoriums. She has also brought artists and art forms from various communities together, most recently Basant Utsav (2006 B-Fest), Aum Sho Namah (Sacred festival 2006) and the dance ballets: Purandara Dasa, Meera, Shyama, Bhagvadgita, Prince to Buddha to name a few. Each of these programs involved guest performers and granted committed young artists opportunities to pursue this art form.

Ms. Prakash has also arranged performances, master workshop and camps of internationally recognized Indian Bharatha Natyam soloists, such as C.V. Chandrashekhar, the Dhananjayans, Indrani Rehman, Alarmel Valli, Guru Kalyanasundaram and his son Harikrishna Kalyanasundaram, Srilata Vinod, Ajit Bhaskaran Das, Sudha Chandrasekhar, Father Francis Barbosa, Kiran and Sandhya Subramaniam, all to provide role models to emerging classical artists in America. A firm believer that viewing ‘good’ dance, and interacting with leading professionals is a vital aspect of learning the art form, “Viji Aunty,” as she is affectionately known, expects her students to attend these programs in order to improve their own dancing.

All festival programs will occur at James Armstrong Theater, Torrance and will begin promptly at 4:00 p.m. The tickets are $35 and $25 students with ID $15. For tickets, contact the Theater Box Office at (310) 781-7171. For information, contact Viji Prakash at (310) 837-5875.