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Yuvakala:
Celebration of Youth Dance
Dance
festival in Toronto, Canada, 5th-9th March 2003
The
snow-covered, cold, freezing white Harbourfront background of Toronto
Lake was the setting for the 6th Kala Nidhi Dance Festival, at the du
Mauriér (organised by the Kalanidhi Fine Arts of Canada), with
invited young dancers and choreographers from Canada, USA, Great Britain
and India.
The
festival focused on Indian dance with an emphasis on contemporary works,
offering performances, workshops, demonstrations and panel discussions.
A 10 day residency and master classes in Mohiniattam (a classical dance
form of Kerala) was being led by Pallavi Krishnan from India; she and
her group of dancers were also performing at the festival. Preceding
the festival a choreographic laboratory involving young dancers of various
cross-cultural dance disciplines from the UK and Toronto was taking
place in a local studio. This was mentored by Piali Ray from the UK
and Dr Menaka Thakkar from Toronto and the work in progress was shared
at an evening performance.
On
the evening of 5th March 2003, du Mauriér at Harbourfront Centre
was filled with dancers and dance lovers in anticipation of an exciting
five days of Indian dance festival. After the inaugural speech, the
evening began with a traditional Bharatanatyam performance followed
by contemporary work by artists from Toronto, India and the USA. A particular
feature of the festival was the after-show talks - 'Process Revealed'.
This allowed a dialogue between the audience and the dancers and choreographers
and was fascinating, with young choreographers explaining their drive
to create the performance piece and members of the audience questioning
and deconstructing their new methods of choreographing.
The
next four days brought a variety of dance performances from young artists,
emerging professionals and some established dancers. Each day ended
with the Process Revealed talk, which was always interesting and occasionally
even heated. There were some stunning performances of new and very fresh
and interesting choreography using pure classical tradition.
Lata Pada, of Sampradaya Dance Creations, who has been noted by the
Toronto star as 'a Canadian artist whose clear direction in dance makes
her one of the few who can successfully translate a thousand year old
tradition into 21st century realities', produced a group choreography
to Tyagaraja's 'Pancharatna Kriti'.
Dr
Menaka Thakkar, who has been identified by the Toronto Globe and Mail
as 'a rare jewel in the richly encrusted crown of Toronto's
dance community', had choreographed a special dance drama on Love's
Folly for the Yuvakala festival, centring around the stages of growing
up, especially on falling in love, dealing with rejection and never
loosing hope - and she successfully managed to create Hasya rasa (laughter)
for the audience.
Hari
Krishnan, a specialist in Bharatanatyam dance and music, Artist in Residence
at the Wesleyan University, Connecticut, USA, presented classical work
on a Sanskrit composition in a contemporary context together with an
exciting contemporary dance work, Black and White in COLOR.
Manohar
Performing Arts of Canada (Winnipeg), performed La Bayadere - the Temple
Dancer, using both Bharatanatyam and Kathak dance styles.
Lakshmi
Iyengar, a Bharatanatyam dancer from Los Angeles, USA, gave an amazing
solo performance of Varnam from the classical repertoire. Amrapali Ambegaokar
(a Kathak dancer from Los Angeles) presented a Kathak and Flamenco fusion.
Many
new and innovative works were presented.
There
was thought provoking work on women's issues by Ananya Chatterjee -
a dancer, choreographer, dance scholar and educator, who believes in
the identity of her art and her activism. She is Assistant Professor
in the Department of the Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis.
We
saw Obieter Dictum by a stunning Indian contemporary dancer and choreographer,
Natasha Bakht and Muzukura by 'bold and disturbingly direct' dancer
Nova Bhattacharya. These were followed by Omkar, by Anuradha Naimpally,
Artistic Director of Tanjore Performing Arts, based in Austin, Texas,
and Tara-Star by Gauri Varanase, a young Kathak-trained dancer, who
is a recent graduate of the professional training programme in Modern
Dance at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre.
The
Yuvakala Festival of Dance provided a platform for young artists to
present their work that ranged from the traditional to the contemporary.
It also provided choreographers with an opportunity to articulate their
thought processes and feelings to the audiences. Also, Toronto's dance
lovers were introduced to Mohiniattam and given a unique and exciting
experience of a choreographic laboratory process between dancers from
two countries. Certainly, five days well spent for any Indian dance
lover like me!
The
festival provided a wonderful opportunity for me, as a new Chair of
the South Asian Dance Faculty, to inform the Canadian South Asian dance
community about the ISTD exams. I promptly handed out the few syllabus
outline booklets in both Bharatanatyam and Kathak dance styles that
I took and sold Bharatanatyam Syllabus Specifications and videos to
two interested dance establishments. As the conference presented a busy
schedule it was quite hard to network with as many dancers as I wanted
to.
I
formally met the Artistic Director of Sampradaya School of Dance, Toronto,
Lata Pada, with another senior tutor of her school, who wanted to find
out more about the ISTD exams. They were very keen on introducing their
students to these exams. I have promised to find out details on running
the examinations in Canada.
On
my way back from Toronto, I visited Kala Bharathi Foundation, Montreal,
a foremost South Asian dance institute. I was invited to talk about
ISTD examinations and syllabus to the Foundation's senior dance tutors
and students. A very interesting question and answer session went on
for over three hours!
Chitraleka
Bolar
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