| New
Year, New Agenda
2005
seems to have brought a new agenda in the South Asian Dance
Faculty. The first International examination took place in
Canada on Tuesday 1st February 2005 and a second is scheduled
for July in the USA.
 |
| Students
of Lata Pada |
Looking back, the first Kathak and Bharatanatyam examinations
took place in July 2000. It took the faculty
a few years to train competent examiners, produce sufficient
resources and fine-tune the syllabus. 2004 was an important
landmark - the Primary and the Vocational Grade syllabi were
written and also with the QCA approval, the Grade examinations
reached a different category altogether.
The
committee members are all reputed dance teachers and educators,
who take an active role in promoting the Grade examinations
internationally. A few established dance institutions and
schools in India, Germany and the USA have shown interest
in the Kathak and Bharatanatyam syllabi.
2005
also saw the international opening of the Sampradaya Dance
Academy, a reputed Bharatanatyam school in Toronto. It was
Lata Pada, the Artistic Director of the academy, who was highly
impressed with the Bharatanatyam syllabus and took the decision
to hold a private examination session. Chitraleka Bolar was
the examiner for the session. Seven candidates were entered
for the Grade 1 examination. Chitraleka commented that ‘all
candidates showed good training and demonstrated a level of
practical knowledge much higher than required by the test.’
Lata Pada is an experienced teacher, who is well aware of
most Bharatanatyam courses which are available in the dance
world. She thought that the ISTD syllabus will suit their
high standard of teaching and the assessment will be an encouragement
to their learning and future development.
The
organisation also took the lead in planning a skill sharing
session on Primary and Vocational Grades for the teachers
of the academy. Sampradaya Dance Academy is very happy to
have established an important connection with the ISTD and
would like to develop it further.
A
further international examination has been pencilled in for
July in Seattle where Kathak Grade examinations will take
place for the first time in the USA. The candidates are following
the syllabus and their teacher, Manisha Chainani say that,
‘it has given everybody a goal’. The teacher herself
is also training to take the higher grade at the same time.
A
Kathak school in Berlin has expressed a serious interest in
holding a private examination session and the teacher, Ioanna
Shrinivasan, is also planning to attend a skill sharing session
in London so that she can be confident about the demands of
the syllabus.
The
faculty is very proud that within five years of its start,
one international examination has already taken place. It
is also reassuring for the faculty that the syllabus is appreciated
internationally. The faculty hopes that this international
interest will grow further and the dance world will see more
accomplished Bharatanatyam and Kathak dancers with ISTD qualifications.
Sujata
Banerjee
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