Published: March 10, 2019 7:36:55 am
The Story so Far
Bharatnatyam and Dastangoi will come together to create a new expression.
IT is an evening that promises coming together of two varied art forms to tell unusual stories and create new connections. For decades, Triveni Sangeet Sabha in Chandigarh, associated with renowned vocalist Primila Puri, has dedicated its space to promote classical dance and music, inviting artists from the across the country to present their art in personal and intimate baithaks. As part of this ongoing endeavour, the organisation is presenting a visual offering of Bharatnatyam and Dastangoi, the art of storytelling. At first, the artistes will present separate compositions, and in the end they will come together in a jugalbandi of dance and storytelling.
Valentina Trivedi and Askari Naqvi will present Dastangoi , which in Persian translates to “dastan”, meaning a long tale, and “goi” means to tell it. It is the ancient, oral art of storytelling that developed in the 7th century, with the Dastan of Amir Hamza and Amar Ayyar being told in Arabic and Persian. Dastangoi relies on two factors, beauty of the language and the skill of the narrator, the dastango. In recent years, new dastans have expanded to include folktales and the language has widened from Urdu to include Hindustani and Hindi as well.
Trivedi, an accomplished dastango, has also used her storytelling talents as a scriptwriter for television shows and short films. She has scripted and directed the film Leap of Faith, based on the life of the famous yoga guru BKS Iyengar. She is also an educator, who specialises in approaching the learning process from a child’s perspective and has co-founded Kaleidoscope, an organisation which makes learning a pleasure for both children and adults. Trivedi has also written, adapted and narrated old folktales in many performances and is committed to promoting storytelling as an art form as well as mentoring budding storytellers. Naqvi is an acclaimed performing artist, human rights lawyer and social activist. The dastango is a widely admired exponent of Sozkhwani, a lyric recounting the tragedy of Karbala, recited in the month of Muharram.
Dastangoi will be followed by a dance recital by Kalashree guru Lata Surendra, who will present the munificence of Lord Shiva, through Shivanubhuti. Surendra is a renowned Bharatnatyam dancer, teacher, choreographer, curator and writer of repute and has been groomed in dance by TS Kadirvelu Pillai. In her career, Surendra has performed in and curated mega dance festivals across India and is the recipient of several awards. Her institution, Anjali Bharata Natyam Research Trust, has trained many accomplished dancers and she has also written books on dance, In Transit and Dancing Between Then and Now.
Surendra says, for her, dance is not merely an art form, it is a medium to connect with her inner self. “Dance is communion at its highest peak. We all communicate with words, but when you empathise with mudras, dance becomes the mediator and the body becomes the bridging metaphor that connects the internal and external world,” says she.
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