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| Monsoon ragas in music and dance By a rasika / Delhi |   | |||
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 A 3-day fest of music and dance - 'Monsoon Festival' was held from 26 to 28 June 2003 at the Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi. It was put together by Art India and Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra.
The rasikas could listen to monsoon ragas like Megh and Amritavarshini and also see dance choreography on this theme. The fest commenced with the traditional singing of ashtapadis. The Deputy Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, S. Chakravarthy inaugurated the fest. The first day featured Hindustani vocal recital by Devaki Pandit from Mumbai, contemporary choreographic work by Rajkumar Sharma and Swapan Majumdar and Bharatanatyam by Priyadarshini Govind from Chennai. The second day featured Seraikela Chhau by Shashadhar Acharya, Kuchipudi by Vyjayanthi Kashi from Bangalore and a Bharatanatyam recital by Rama Vaidyanathan of Delhi. Former Secretary of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, Keshav Singh Kothari was the chief guest on this day. The concluding day saw five performances - Mohiniattam by Jayaprabha Menon from Kozhikode, Kerala (she presented a special monsoon item created by scholar Kavalam Narayana Panicker specially for this event), devotional songs by Chengannur Srikumar, a playback singer from Malayalam films, Bharatanatyam by Prathibha Prahlad from Bangalore and an Odissi recital by Ranjana Gauhar.
Also at the auditorium foyer was a photographic exhibition by well known photographer, Avinash Pasricha and well-known cartoonist Sudhir Nath sketched cartoons of the performing artistes. Contact: G.S. Rajan, Artistic Director, Monsoon Festival can be contacted at 20, Kala Vihar, Mayur Vihar Phase I, Delhi 110 091. Ph: o11-22711160. E-mail: malabarian@yahoo.com URL: http://raajan.tripod.com |
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