SATHIR DANCE ART

NARTAKA 2009 PREVIEW/REVIEW

2009-11-23T08:44:00.000-08:00

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Male-dancers-find-the-going-tough-in-a-womans-world/articleshow/5237956.cms

http://kutcheribuzz.com/video/NatyanjaliTrust2009/video.htm

NARTAKA DANCE FESTIVAL 2009

2009-11-01T09:16:00.001-08:00

Nartaka is a yearly dance festival in Chennai, especially to showcase male Bharatanatyam dancers who have made dance their profession.
Presently, there is considerable increase in the number of male Bharatanatyam dancers which is encouraging. But for most male dancers, who wish to pursue Bharatanatyam as a professional career option, it is without a doubt a challenging career choice.

Dancers have to face a lot of ordeals, in terms of getting opportunities to perform, more so for male dancers aspiring to perform solo. They get few invitations to perform during the high season, or any season for that matter.
For that reason the Natyanjali Trust, Chennai has initiated an all male Bharatanatyam festival to create a platform and encourage passionate young male dancers to showcase their talent.

Every year the festival is inaugurated by presenting a cash award to a eminent Bharatanatyam exponent for his contribution to the field of dance art.

Natyanjali Trust, Chennai is proud that Padmabhusan Alarmel Valli has accepted to inaugurate the festival and that Shri Ramli Ibrahim, Odissi and Bharatanatyam exponent from Malaysia, has graciously accepted to be the recipient of the Nartaka 2009 cash award for his outstanding contribution to classical and contemporary dance forms.

This year Nartaka promises to be a very exciting 3 day festival with 7 accomplished and creative artists of great acumen from Malaysia, USA, France and India who will surely capture the audiences attention and keep them spellbound throughout the performances.

The festival will held at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore, Chennai

November 18th 2009 at 6:00PM

Award function (Inauguration and felicitation by Padmabhusan Alarmel Valli)

Dance by Shri Ramli Ibrahim
Dance by Shanmuga Sundaran (Disciple of Guru K.J. Sarasa) and L. Narendra Kumar (Disciple of Guru V.P. Dhananjayan & Smt. Shanta Dhananjayan)

November 19th 2009 at 5:45PM

Dance by Shri S. Jayachandran (Disciple of Guru Leela Samson)
Dance by Shri Thang Win from France (Disciple of Prof. C.V. Chandrashekar)

November 20th 2009 at 5:45PM

Dance by Shri Ganesh Vasudeva from U.S.A. (Disciple of Guru Shreelata Suresh)
Dance by Shri Shafeequdeen (Disciple of Guru V.P. Dhananjayan & Smt. Shanta Dhananjayan)

For Further Information: sathirdance@gmail.com

NARTAKA DANCE FESTIVAL 2009

2009-11-01T09:16:00.000-08:00

Nartaka is a yearly dance festival in Chennai, especially to showcase male Bharatanatyam dancers who have made dance their profession.
Presently, there is considerable increase in the number of male Bharatanatyam dancers which is encouraging. But for most male dancers, who wish to pursue Bharatanatyam as a professional career option, it is without a doubt a challenging career choice.

During the yearly December dance season in Chennai, only a few of all the dance performances are by male dancers. They get few invitations to perform during the high season, or any season for that matter.
For that reason the Natyanjali Trust, Chennai has initiated an all male Bharatanatyam festival to create a platform and encourage passionate young male dancers to showcase their talent.

Every year the festival is inaugurated by presenting a cash award to a senior most Bharatanatyam exponent for his contribution to the field of dance art.

Natyanjali Trust, Chennai is proud that Padmabhusan Alarmel Valli has accepted to inaugurate the festival and that Shri Ramli Ibrahim, Odissi and Bharatanatyam exponent, from Malaysia has graciously accepted to be the recipient of the Nartaka 2009 cash award for his outstanding contribution to classical and contemporary dance forms.

This year Nartaka promises to be a very exciting 3 day festival with 7 accomplished and creative artists of great acumen from Malaysia, USA, France and India who will surely capture the audience attention and keep them spellbound throughout the performances.

The festival will held at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore, Chennai

November 18th 2009 at 6:00PM
Award function (Inauguration and felicitation by Padmabhusan Alarmel Valli)
Dance by Shri Ramli Ibrahim
Dance by Shanmuga Sundaran (Disciple of Guru K.J. Sarasa) and L. Narendra Kumar (Disciple of Guru V.P. Dhananjayan & Smt. Shanta Dhananjayan)

November 19th 2009 at 5:45PM
Dance by Shri S. Jayachandran (Disciple of Guru Leela Samson)
Dance by Shri Thang Win from France (Disciple of Prof. C.V. Chandrashekar)

November 20th 2009 at 5:45PM
Dance by Shri Ganesh Vasudeva from U.S.A. (Disciple of Guru Shreelata Suresh)
Dance by Shri Shafeequdeen (Disciple of Guru V.P. Dhananjayan & Smt. Shanta Dhananjayan)

For further about the Nartaka festival or for applying for any of the other dance programs held throughout the year e-mail: Shri Jitindra, at sathirdanceart@yahoo.com

PANDANAINALLUR HERITAGE

2009-10-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

The Pandanainallur style of Bharatanatyam refers to the village where it has originated. Pandanainallur village is a suburb of the city Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu in South India.
The earliest temples in the Thanjavur districts were centers of spirituality through art-science.

In the 19th century the Thanjavur brothers (Thanjavur Quartet), attached to the Thanjavur royal courts, with comprehensible understanding of sampradaya, re-edited and re-designed the temple and royal court practice of ‘Sathir’, transforming it into a presentation for the modern stage. They systematized the existing temple and court dance and re-designed it into the ‘Margam’ (solo dance repertory).
The Thanjavur Quartet dance compositions are lyrical and musical masterpieces, which still form the life force of the present day Bharatanatyam repertory.
The greatest compositions of the Thanjavur Quartet are the varnams, which often contain ‘Vipralambha Sringara Rasa’ (separation of lovers), as well as depictions of being carried away by overwhelming emotions of spiritual bliss, interspersed throughout with abstract dance sequences.
In the beginning of the 20th century ‘Sathir’ was given its present name ‘Bharatanatyam’(Although at the time of Sathir, and even long before that, it was already a custom to refer to sathir as bharathanatyam)

As far as recorded dance history goes the primary Pandanainallur family has been specializing in classical dance and music for over 350 years.
The leading teacher of the Pandanainallur school of Bharatanatyam was the legendary Minakshisundaram Pillai, he was an ancestral nattuvanar descended from the Thanjavur Quartet.
It was Minakshisundaram Pillai who made a standard for the interpretation of the poetic lyrics of the exceptional Thanjavur Quartet music, through abhinaya and commanding exact footwork.
After Minakshisundaram Pillai, his son-in-law Chokkalingam Pillai and his grandson Subbaraya Pillai became the next leading guru’s of the Pandanainallur style of dance.
These highly accomplished dance musicians excelled in creating choreographic designs for Bharatanatyam, with understanding that tradition is ever changing and never static.

The Pandanainallur style of Bharatanatyam, with its hereditary teaching methods, emphasized on the mastery of tempo, precision of dance technique through combined adavu’s and abhinaya or poetry expression through mind and body.

In the Pandanainallur style of teaching, the nattuvanar or dance master always taught his students in the seated position.
If the dance master were himself to dance, to demonstrate and teach the disciple at the same time, his foremost energies in maintaining the prescribed dance lines would be at the cost of the undivided attention on how the student was performing.
The dance master seated in front,of the student,exactly shows what is needed from the student in an adavu or abhinaya demonstration. There was no uniformity in choreography; it was all done on the spot.
Today the non performing nattuvanar is rare and the student copying the performer/teachers movements becomes more of a clone.
Art was only taught and practised traditionally through 'guru mukha' or face to face, each student followed the guru’s instructions in one’s own individual style and did what came naturally to her; hereby creating imaginative dancers.

The contribution to this incomparable art form by those Pandanainallur masters of dance is eminent through the many prominent dancers/teachers they have groomed, now known the world over.
Those masters of art instilled their dance students with not only powerful precise dance techniques but also subtle and elegant understated abhinaya, which is the real beauty of the dynamic, but never static, old Pandanainallur Bharatanatyam.

Excerpts of 'Pandanainallur Bharatanatyam' - lec-dem and text by: Shri Jitinder, Artistic director Sathir Dance Art, Amsterdam/Chennai

MUSIC PRODUCTION

2009-09-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

In production to be released soon. Jathiswaram's in 5 beautiful raga's and 5 very challenging tala's. Produced and released by Sathir Dance Art. In the music section listen to Jathiswaram Ranjani Chatusra Druva.

NARTHAKA

2009-08-29T11:38:00.000-07:00

Today the fine art of Bharatanatyam has truly become one of the greatest cultural heritages of India. The dance has evolved from a temple art form, to a court dance, and then to modern stage, not only in South India, but also all over India and the world. The evolution, however, has left the Nartaka (male dancer) behind in terms of getting stage performances because of a gender bias.

Presently, there is considerable increase in the number of male Bharatanatyam dancers which is encouraging. But for most male dancers, who wish to pursue Bharatanatyam as a professional career option, it is without a doubt a challenging career choice. During the yearly dance season in Chennai, only a few of all the dance performances are by male dancers. They get few invitations to perform during the high season, or any season for that matter. They face difficulties in the performance circuit in Chennai, as most theater organizers and connoisseurs of the art still see Bharatanatyam as an art form only to be performed by females.

For many male dancers, visibility as a professional performer, means resorting to ensemble works or performing the “masculine” roles, i.e., Shiva, Ravana or Hanumana. Most of the teachers of the art discourage male students/dancers from performing the sringara/nayika centered Bharatanatyam repertoire pieces. The reason is unclear, except maybe for the fear of being labeled “effeminate” or social/societal constraints, such as men should not dance. Because of the fear of being labeled “effeminate”, most male dancers have limit themselves to “masculine” choreography, resulting in the loss of layered abhinaya with crisscrossing sanchari bhava. Everything remains black and white when portraying characters.

Male composers penned the traditional Bharatanatyam repertoire, i.e. varnams, padams or javalis, to reflect a woman’s (nayika) experience. Of the Tanjore Quartet brothers, Cinnayya and Sivanandam, besides being nattuvanars in the truest sense of the word, were also accomplished dancers. They encouraged men to learn and perform the art of dancing.

At the palace of the Thanjavur kings, Raja Serfoji and Sivaji-II constructed a separate dance hall so that men could learn and practice the art form. There were several male dancers attached to the Thanjavur courts. As well as to the Mysore and Travancore royal courts.

The challenge of the present day male Bharatanatyam dancer lies in creating perfect characterization of balance while shaping the design choreography for the sringara/nayika centered pieces. The erotic sahityam or text of the Tanjore Quartet savukka varnam, ‘Mohamana en Midil’, if executed with depth of thought necessary for this item, does not challenge the masculinity of the dancer. Nor do any of the graceful executions of the adavus have anything obviously feminine. The way the adavus and lyrics are presented by the dancer makes them feminine or not.

The Nartaka never has to feel out of place while moving through the world of intimate sringara, considered feminine repertoire, if executed with pure grace, open attitude, true emotion and sheer beauty. The male dancer has to create rasa -- leading the spectator on a spiritual journey where the personal and intimate expression of dance art defies gender boundaries or stereotypes. There lies the true power and integral beauty of the fine art of Bharatanatyam: to see the dancer not as male or female but as an artist portraying different roles. For all Bharatanatyam dancers, male or female, the challenge lies in leaving their off-stage personality behind while performing on stage.

Excerpts of the workshop ‘Nartaka’ - or male Bharatanatyam dancer
Workshop and Text by: Shri Jitinder,dance choreographer, dance teacher and Artistic director Sathir Dance Art, Amsterdam/Chennai

MASTER CLASS JATHISWARAM

2009-08-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Understanding the beauty and nuances of the Jatiswaram

After the preliminary item of a Bharatanatyam margam, the element of raga or melody is introduced in the Jatiswaram. Jathis set to a rhythmic time measure which is beautifully matched to sol-fa notes or swaras of a raga.

In the ancient counter part of the present day jathiswaram, sollukattus were recited on the pattern of the musical setting. In the present day jathiswaram the rhythmic sequences are not performed to the sollu vocalized but are executed to the musical rendition of the swaras by the vocalist.

Jathiswarams begin with beautiful eye glances and at the same time employs rhythmic beating of the feet. This is the cue for the commencement of a brisk tirmanam, which imparts rhythmic brilliance and sets the tempo and pace for the chosen jathiswaram.
The tirnamam is followed by korvais for the pallavi set in the slow and medium tempo followed by the anupallavi set in medium and fast tempo.

The beauty of the jathiswaram korvais bespeaks of the choreographers competency in exploring and improvising within the range of pure dance to bring about artistically conceived dance sequences that are aesthetic and arresting in nature.

In the present day Bharatanatyam recital the jathiswaram is rarely seen and even in the arangetram it has lost its significance.

Jathiswarams are often underestimated but are very challenging to dance as it testifies to the artistic potential and technical virtuosity of a Bharatanatyam dancer. They are indeed most important for every Bharatanatyam dancer to have in their repertory.
Understanding the jathiswaram will create insight and appreciation of how more challenging items like the varnam are musically set.

The most beautiful jathiswarams are musical masterpieces, set to different ragas usually in tisra eka or rupakam tala, composed and set to dance by the Tanjore Quartette.

For this master class we have chosen for a very challenging jathiswaram in raga Ranjani and Chatusra druva tala.

Chatusra Jaathi Druva Tala (srikare) is 1 lagu, 1 dritam, 2 lagu = 4+2+4+4 = 14 beats

-Understanding the beauty and nuances of the Jatiswaram-
(A class only for advanced dance students with knowledge of tala)

A three day master class, which will be held throughout September 2009, with a maximum of 5 dancers in each group. For more information on starting dates, cost and venue please contact:

SATHIR DANCE ART
sathirdance@gmail.com

AMOUR

2009-06-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

"Passion scorches everyone like fire. Youth and vigor act as incense to passion. Who can prevent this condition? This person by my side fell a victim to that fiery passion. When I saw him I was also affected by the same feeling. My life became a prey to that fire. Our fiery hearts united and no obstacle could control that flaming sensation. The end was obvious. Our hearts got locked and we could not leave each other. We became one in love, lived love and died in love."

-Dante's The Divine Comedy -

Sathir presents as part of the June pride events in Chennai, 'Amour' inspired by the sculpture's of Rodin. Read the complete press release on www.sathirnatya.blogspot.com

NATTUVANAR

2009-05-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

Nattuvanar

The most important member of a Bharatanatyam orchestra is the nattuvanar. This is the musician who plays the set of cymbals also known as talam.

A pair of talams consists of two cymbals made of iron and brass. Of the two cymbals, the larger one that produces the bass sound is made of iron while the treble sound comes from the smaller cymbal, made of brass.

Traditionally cymbals were made of the five metal alloy used in creating statues as of Nataraja.

As in all musical instruments, the talam should adhere to a particular pitch to help it blend mellifluously with the rest of the orchestra. Cymbals are a non-tuned percussion instrument and cannot be tuned themselves, but the pitch of the set can be altered by changing the smaller cymbal.

Talams are used in classical and light music the world over, talams used in Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi are heavier and have a greater responsibility.

This can be said because the sounds produced by tapping the cymbals at various angles represent the different sounds of the dancer's feet when they make contact with the ground.

For example – striking the ground with a flat foot creates a particular sound, while placing the heel on the ground creates almost no sound. When these two movements (thakadimi) are alternated, the resultant sound pattern alternates hard and soft beats.

These beats create syncopated patterns and all are accurately reproduced by the nattuvanar.

Traditionally, the nattuvanars were the Bharatanatyam guru's. They were well versed in the art of dance, music and choreography for dance and were treasure troves of knowledge. Nattuvangam demanded training from a young age and more taxing than that of a dancer. Their lifestyle and art did not belong to different compartments and they had a direct everyday exposure to the best of music and other art forms.

In this approach the nattuvanar was in the best position to provide nattuvangam for a dancer and was considered the orchestra conductor of the dance program and is still referred to as such.

Today, however, nattuvanars often work with dancers in the same manner as other accompanists. Since they are not familiar with the compositions, they follow the dancer's footwork rather than guide it.

SATHIRDANCE

2008-10-16T06:43:00.000-07:00

A new series of 2 Cd's with masterpiece compositions from the Bharatanatyam repertoire. Produced by Sathir Dance Theatre Amsterdam-Chennai
Released officially on December 1st 2008

SATHIR DANCE ART

2008-10-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

Shri Jitinder is the founder and artistic director of Sathir Dance Art, established in 1997, an production house for imparting excellence in classical dance, based in Chennai (South India) and in Amsterdam (the Netherlands). Besides his technical and creative mastery of Bharatanatyam, Shri Jitinder also is a dance teacher, dance choreographer, dance researcher and producer of music for Bharathanatyam.

Disciplined in the fine art of Bharatanatyam, Choreography for Bharatanatyam and music for dance by Natyacharya Pandanainallur Shri Subbaraya Pillai, Shri Thanjavur Kittapa Pillai and R. Muralidaran. Shri Jitindra has also been trained in the fine art of Nattuvangam (a non-tuned percussion instrument)

Sathir Dance Art produces classical dance projects and produces music for Bharatanatyam.

Sathir Dance Art has produced several contemporary dance productions within the framework of classical Bharatanatyam and collaborates on a regular basis with Bharatanatyam artists from India and other parts of the world.

From 1996 Sathir Dance Art has produced over 55 audio Cd's with music for Bharatanatyam dance in the margam format of Bharatanatyam.

Traditional Jathiswarams, Thillanas, Savukka or Pada Varnams and dance repertoire of more recent composers which have enriched the Bharatanatyam repertoire. The audio Cd's are used by dancers and teachers all over the world.
Besides the regular music productions Sathir Dance Art has (re)recorded dance repertoire for many dancers outside of India.

Shri Jitinder is also the Artistic director of Sathir Natya, school of Bharatanatyam, an institure for imparting excellence in Bharatanatyam dance and music.

2008-04-17T10:57:00.000-07:00