Chhatarpur, February 24(HS): The fourth day of Khajuraho Children’s Dance Festival was dedicated to Odissi and Kathak dance performances. The way the child dance artists are bringing their guru’s training and sadhana to life on stage, it seems that many jewels will be added to this golden journey of Indian culture in the future. The first presentation of the festival on Sunday evening was of Odissi. Which was presented by Sneha Mishra. Sneha started her dance with Navdurga. She showed the beauty of the acting part very well in her dance. After this, she ended the presentation by presenting Noja Yamuna.
After this, the next presentation was of Kathak. Vidhi Gajare, disciple of famous dancer Suchitra Harmalkar, showed her guru tradition through dance. She started her performance with pure Kathak. Which included Aamad, Thaat, Parne, Pramila, compositions from the tradition of Raigarh Gharana and Chakkar. In the end, she ended her performance with the song Jhula.
The fourth day of the 51st Khajuraho Dance Festival was very special. The great dancer whose life and artistic contribution is being focused on the Pranaam exhibition, lecture cum dialogue being organized for the first time, was meeting the dance students. Senior dancer and Padma Vibhushan Dr. Padma Subramanyam is a name in the world of dance that needs no introduction. The first lecture cum dialogue of Pranaam was organized on Sunday.
Dr. Padma Subramanyam said, while talking that an activity focused on my life and artistic contribution was organized in a great festival like Khajuraho Dance Festival. This is not just a respect for a person but also for art, tradition and artist. In today’s era, when people of our age look at western culture, then the existence of Indian culture seems to be the best. Our dramatic art is so vast and rich that we can give it to them, we do not need to take anything from them. The basis of our drama is our traditions. It is not just for entertainment, but a medium to connect with God. Knowledge and wisdom are necessary for drama. Wisdom provides skill, but practice is necessary. Bharat Muni wrote Natya Shastra, it is such a wonderful thing that a sage wrote Natya Shastra. Because drama is related to religion and without knowing religion, drama cannot be written. Art is also for religion.
After this, Jayashree Rajagopalan and Anuradha Vikranth gave a lecture on various aspects of Dr. Padma Subramanyam’s dance compositions.
Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
