TAA TALK – 30^th April 2011:

History and Evolution of Indian Classical Dances: Bharatnatyam, Kathak and Odissi

The new Technology Alumni Association (TAA) Executive Committee 2011-13, arranged their first event on Apr 30. History and Evolution of Indian Classical Dances : Bharatnatyam, Kathak and Odissi presented by eminent Dance Critic and Scholar Mr. Ashish Mohan Khokar through his troop.

There couldn’t have been a better start. On this summer evening in the idyllic Indiranagar Club, 75 people had gathered – IIT-ians and their family members. The hall was packed, the spectators were spell-bound for a full two hours and the programme ended with tremendous standing ovation to the performers. The members wanted more and more variety in the future programmes of TAA TALK.

 About 30^th April 2011 Event:

Mr. Ashish Mohan Khokar is a St Stephanian, a former dance critic of Times of India, founder-publisher of the dance magazine ‘Attendance’ and writer of many treasured volumes on Indian dance. Dance DISCourse, his monthly presentation on dance, accompanied by video at Alliance Francaise draws houseful audiences. He is among the most articulate, knowledgeable and audience-friendly speakers on dance.

The artistes demonstrating the finer points of the three dance forms are three young and very talented dancers, Mr. Sathyanarayan Raju (Bharatnatyam), Mr. K Murali Mohan (Kathak) and Mrs. Madhulita Mohapatra (Odissi).

 Ashish went about describing the three original Indian dance forms, our ‘dharohar’, explaining with finesse the concept of the ‘hasta’, ‘pataka’ and ‘chari’ – the words, phrases and grammar which create the full language of Dance. The expressive element is called the ‘abhinaya’. He also brought out the subtle nuances of the various forms and their evolutionary paths.

This basic exposition was followed by three short but complete performances by the three artistes

• Kathak (Ram, Sita, Lakshman crossing the river in Kewat’s boat)

• Odissi (Radha waiting for Krishna one day)

• BharataNatyam (Shiva nrityam)

Dance is a complete art form existing only in time and space. It cannot be captured to its true essence unlike other forms like paintings, music and sculpture. Greater awareness amongst general public will be the only way by which these ancient and yet delicate heritages can be kept alive for posterity. In return we get the enrichment of feeling, rhythm, aesthetics, and balance in our lives like we did in that one hour on that evening.

We hope our audience also enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed arranging for it. The standing ovation that the performers received stands testimony to that.

Some of the moments of this event are produced below:

Alumni Spotlight:

It is a well known fact that alumni from IITs have excelled not just in the corporate and the research world but they have chartered many diverse territories such as journalism, movie direction, politics etc. We at TAA (Technology Alumni Association) recognize and admire the IITians who have taken the unconventional route. With our first 2010 event, we started a new segment that we call “alumni spotlight” through which we give platform to such distinguished alumnus to talk about 5-10 minutes on what they are doing and how it is impacting the world. In our first event, we had a very interesting talk by Mr. Shashikant Joshi, author of the famous book “Attitude Shift””, a collection of Sanskrit maxims for contemporary life and leadership. He captivated the audience with his extensive knowledge of Sanskrit shlokas and explained how the seemingly old wisdom is still very relevant in today’s corporate world. It was a great start to our alumni spotlight section and we promise to bring you many such unconventional talks in future.

Feedback/ Catching up with TAA Executive Committee:

If you would like to send your feedback, appreciation, scope for improvement or general catch up related queries to us at the following e-mail id: kgp-taa-cc-blr@googlegroups.com

A Request to all the Alumni Members from President Sam

Dear members, remember the old adage to spread the membership, i.e. “Each One – Bring One”. The Alumni Association is as good as the membership profile. Hence, please do bring in your alumni fiends (who are not yet members) to join our rejuvenated Alumni Association.