Misrana
The South Asian Faculty celebrated a milestone for Indian classical dance in Britain with a dance gala at London’s Southbank Centre
To celebrate its tenth anniversary of the launch of examinations in Indian classical dance forms, the South Asian Dance Faculty of the ISTD organised a dance gala entitled Misrana on 22nd February at the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Hall in London’s Southbank Centre.
Over 450 people including teachers and students of South Asian dance, their parents and well-wishers as well as dance enthusiasts from the wider community attended the joyous celebration. The ticketed show provided them the opportunity to watch dance performances by around 60 young talents from around the UK who had excelled in their ISTD examinations at various grade levels, as well as two acclaimed professional dance productions. The event marked the 10th anniversary of the inclusion of Bharatanatyam and Kathak within the ISTD’s internationally recognised dance examinations.
South Asian Dance is one of the society’s youngest Faculties and it is possible for students of Bharatanatyam and Kathak worldwide to achieve international recognition for their achievements.
Jon Singleton, past Chief Executive of the ISTD, said: “South Asian dance has become an important part of the British cultural landscape, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the effort to secure globally recognised proficiency certifications in South Asian dance began here in the UK.”
It began with the pioneering vision of Mira Kaushik, Director of Akademi, the London-based South Asian dance organisation, which is celebrating its own 30th anniversary this year. Mira said: “By 1995 – 1996, South Asian dance was beginning to flourish and bring many South Asian qualifications. (They were) imported systems [which] suffered from outdated syllabi irrelevant to the British education system, and incoherent assessment infrastructures.”
In order to create a homegrown alternative, under Mira’s direction, Akademi decided to shut down its own dance classes, and diverted the money to fund a three-year syllabus research and development pilot project. It drew input and consensus from over a hundred Bharatanatyam and Kathak teachers in the country, as well as in India. In 1998, the pilot syllabus and project were handed over for further development and implementation to the newly created South Asian Dance Faculty at the ISTD, where David Henshaw was persuaded to become the first Chair of the Faculty.
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Above and Left: Bharatanatyam dancers performing at the South Bank Centre for the Misrana.
There were also 60 dancers, who had excelled in their Grade exams performed at this prestigious venue
All photos: ?Simon Richardson |
The Faculty, currently chaired by Chitraleka Bolar, includes a number of established dance teachers, choreographers and performers committed to the UK. Now, it offers certification examinations in Bharatnatyam and Kathak not only in Britain but also in Canada, the USA and Europe.
Entitled Misrana, the exciting, and efficiently produced, evening featured a range of dancers, some well experienced having participated in their dance school’s productions and some as young as under-10.
Organised into groups by dance school, they performed well rehearsed, short and crisp Bharatanatyam and Kathak ensemble works choreographed by their teachers based on a brief and guidance provided by the Faculty.
The presenting teachers, many of them known and respected internationally, were: Padmashri Pratap Pawar, Pushkala Gopal, Chitraleka Bolar, Sujata Banerjee, Kiran Ratna, Nilima Devi, Nina Rajarani and Gauri Sharma Tripathi as well as Swati Raut, Kajal Sharma and Lakshmi Samarakoon. They have established their training bases in towns and cities as widespread as London, Leicester, Northolt, Cardiff, Wigan, Birmingham, Edgware, Hillingdon, Wembley, Ilford, and Osterley.
The large audience applauded the dancers heartily and remarked especially on the high production values, the seamless and quick changeovers of so many groups, the students’ technical and presentation prowess, and their poise
on as large a stage as the QEH’s in a vast auditorium. The student dancers delightfully held their own alongside the star professional attractions Ekatra (Akademi) and QUICK! (Srishti – Nina Rajarani Dance Creations). The audience also enjoyed the engaging visual and musical dynamic in the presentation order put together by the Faculty. Expressing the sentiments of many others, one viewer who had just chanced to be at Southbank Centre that Sunday, exclaimed: “I loved all the colour, rhythms and different musical modes. Yes, I would come again!”
Off stage, the participating students and teachers uniformly agreed that, apart from the value the platform provided to the individual student’s CV, they were excited about the learning and affirming experience of the fun and camaraderie in sharing and appearing with other groups.
Encouraged by Misrana’s success and the enthusiasm of the participants and audience, the South Asian Dance Faculty may like to make this a more frequent and regular fixture on the ISTD’s and Britain’s dance calendars!
Chitra Sundaram a member of the ISTD’s South Asian Dance Faculty. A version of this report first appeared in the print publication Confluence.
Chitra Sundaram |
