CHENNAI : The December Margazhi season is an absolute delight for art aficionados and enthusiasts for it brings art, artistes and rasikas together to keep the classical arts thriving. One such consistent platform for artistes has been the Natya Kala Conference (NKC). After the grand success of its previous outings, the conference is back with its 38th edition ‘Aneka’, and was inaugurated on Wednesday at Yagnaraman Centre for Performing Arts, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha Trust, by convenor Srinidhi Chidambaram in the presence of VP Dhananjayan and Shanta Dhananjayan, who presided as the chief guests, and guest of honour, Vasanthalakshmi Narasimhachari.
NKC has been unparalleled as a single platform showcasing the varied dance forms of India through annual lectures, presentations, demonstrations and live performances. It has also played the role of an educative and interactive avenue providing ample opportunities for people to understand and learn artistic journeys and the changing diaspora of arts.
Delivering her keynote address, Srinidhi said, “I feel proud and happy to be here as the convenor for the third consecutive year. As I reflected on the conference, I was keen that the thought and ideas should be different from the last two years. I felt that with the dance world so diverse, NKC should provide a 360-degree kaleidoscope experience, and thus ‘Aneka’ was born. We will be discussing a multitude of subjects and have thoughtful conversations that reflect the ‘Timeless, Transformative, and Trending’ nature of Natya during the 5-day event.”
Sangeet Natak Akademi award recipient VP Dhananjayan said he was privileged to inaugurate the Natya Kala Conference. “I have been harping on the subject, to call and address our performing arts as Natya because it gives it more divinity and dignity. I am glad that this conference is named as Natya Kala and not merely dance conference,” he said.As part of the inaugural ceremony, the award ‘Natya Kala Visaarada ha’ was conferred upon S Janaki and ‘Yagnaraman Award of Excellence’ on Kalaimamani Sri Yoga.
The ceremony was followed by the NKC’s first session, ‘The Karanas decoded’ where Mahathi Kannan, the disciple and grandniece of Padma Bhushan Padma Subramaniam gave the audience an insight into the 108 Karanas of Natya Sastra, their significance and their connections with different dance styles, from the basis of her guru’s research. The first day of NKC also hosted other sessions such as ‘Manodharma in Kathak and Dance Theatre’ by Sanjukta Wagh, A panel discussion on ‘Jathis — The Long and Short of it’ and a special session on ‘The Landscape of Healing: A psychological primer on handling sexual misconduct’.
Nalli Kuppuswami, former finance minister P Chidambaram, Sudharani Raghupathy, Sunil Kothari, Leela Venkataraman and Padma Subrahmanyam were also part of the event.(Natya Kala Conference will be held till December 30. For details, visit their Facebook page Natya Kala Conference)