Confluence of Dance Forms

I shall be posting each dance form series as each post, starting with Chitra Aravind's Contemporary dance form.

Apsaras of ODISSI - Behind the Scenes

Practicing the poses. Now WHAT is it? You will know. PATIENCE.

Jotting down the poses.

Grooming kick starts!

Get...Set...Go!

Candid!

FOOTNOTE: Look out for 'THE' photoshoot very soon!

Apsaras of ODISSI - The story

Shifting to Bangalore from Mumbai was a relief which I cannot express through mere words. Alright alright! You can curse me all you want for leaving behind the 'city of dreams' for Bangalore. But I have my own satisfactory reasons for wanting to settle in the 'green city';  

1. To get away from my parents.

2. The active art culture here. 

3. I was not fit for Mumbai. 

4. I like to get to know new places and people.

5. Most of the artistic friends I know via social networking are here!

So here I am finally in Bengaluru, doing what I love, exploring life to its fullest and having a ball with lovely people I have newly made friends with! The 'Apsaras of Odissi' is definitely one of the many means of enjoyment. Ashwini Raghupathy and Kristina Jones are the 2 lovely souls who I met in Nrityagram in the year 2011. Ever since then, I kept in touch with Kristina. From her, I learnt that Ashwini had started ARPAN, an organisation where she devoutly grooms people interested in learning the dance that is "Poetry in motion"- ODISSI. Presently, Arpan consists of 6 dancers and they are ready to expand their horizons and nurture the art they know and love the most. I got in touch with them within a month of moving to Bangalore. To my pleasant surprise, Ashwini came forward asking for a photo-shoot of them all. I agreed immediately and oh boy did we hit it off!

(From left) Devina Wallang, Ashwini Raghupathy, Kristina Jones, Smitha Patil

My next post will consist of the 'Apsaras' pose for me with utmost patience and passion. For now, I leave you all wanting for more with a fun picture I clicked of them on our way to the Cubbon park; the place of photo-shoot.

TRICHUR BROTHERS - Firing Missiles

LOCATION: UNNATI CENTER, BANGALORE, KARNATAKA

DATE: 08 AUG 2012

TIME: 6.30 PM - 9.00 PM

What if Luv and Kush of Ramayana manifest in today's times and present themselves in front of you? What would you do? What would any 'girl' do? That would possibly be the worst situation of a dilemma for her. Now that I have justified my dilemma, I developed a slight fissure on my heart when I reminded myself of them already being married. If you think that is all it is to them, then you are highly mistaken. Their magical voices in unison dominated their dashing looks and expurgated every single soul in that auditorium. Sadly these photographs cannot speak for their voices. But their emotions and expressions I managed to capture, should hopefully speak for their dedication and surrenderance to their passion.

FIRING MISSILES - That was what they were referred to as by the event organiser. I TOTALLY second that.

CHEMISTRY

RAAM KUMAR MOHAN

SRIKRISHNA MOHAN

LOST in the hypnotising melody of TAMBURA

Tuning themselves to the tune of the TAMBURA

   

HUMILITY PERSONIFIED

Dance is beyond the Physical

FOOTNOTE: Dr. Dasappa Keshava is a Bharatanatyam dancer from the Mysore school of Bharatanatyam. The differences it holds from main stream bharatanatyam is trivial yet noticeable if one knows the depth of the art. He had performed at Alliance Franchaise, Bangalore with one of his 3 daughters, Sumitra Keshava. I shall soon post the dance photo series with crisp explanations. This picture got published in THE HINDU today ( i.e 02.08.2012). Another proud event gets added to the HONORARIUM page. I have started counting my blessings.

Mehendi

Mehendi - every girl's dream art!

 

KALAGHODA FESTIVAL 2012- part 2

LOCATION: MUMBAI. MAHARASHTRA, INDIA

DAY OF VISIT: 09.02.2012, 6.00 PM-10.00 PM

After PART 1 series that covered the art installations, this series shall speak about the performances and the way people interact with the space and other people that I found very interesting and peculiar.

  

 

Valentine's day is around the corner (to be precise, in 3 days) and this lovely couple seemed to celebrate it already.

KALAGHODA FESTIVAL 2012- part 1

LOCATION: MUMBAI. MAHARASHTRA, INDIA

DAY OF VISIT: 09.02.2012, 6.00 PM-10.00 PM

In my 7 years of life in Mumbai, never have I made it to the most celebrated festival of the city KALAGHODA FESTIVAL until the 9th of this month. KALAGHODA FESTIVAL is so called because its held in the place called KALAGHODA ( literally translates to a 'black horse'), which got its name because it housed the majestic black horses during the British rule in India. The festival celebrates the bustling 'Art and Culture' of Mumbai in a very lavish and extravagant way for 2 weeks every year. With my days packed with internship and an eternal struggle with my thesis, I never thought I would get to attend the festival. Somehow, destiny stepped in and stimulated the 'spontaneous' avatar in me which I had put to sleep for a while. I 'informed' my mom that I would be at the festival for at least a few hours and make the most of it. before she could react with open mouth and a fierce frown, I picked up my equipments and rushed out my home. 

I strongly believe that I could have clicked more 'candids' and 'events'. But as time was a constraint, these are he few significant captures I managed. As the title reads, this 'part 1' which is about the installations there. I shall very soon publish the 2nd part too.

A maze was formed with the use of disposed plastic water bottles as the partition.

A conceptual tensile roof was created which attracted a large number of people for its flexible and abstract nature. I clicked this in order to show how much it has an impact on the 'skyline' of the place.

LEFT: An installation promoting 'NO SMOKING' cause.
RIGHT: Disposed plastic bottles were again used in a different way as mini chandeliers hung from the banyan trees.

Handmade puppets and a few other dolls appeared to be straight from the 'Harappan civilisation'.

these adorable birds are made out of disposed aerated plastic packets. Most of them had 'lays' and other popular chips production companies' names on them.

This installation needs to be taken very seriously by Mumbai. As its evident here, it promotes anti-noise pollution.

This is an attempt to manifest the famous 'cutting chai' (half glass of tea is served in this very glass) culture of Mumbai.