BENGALURU : Bharatnatyam dancer and founder of Kalagangothri Foundation, Vidhushi Akhila Chethan has collaborated with Vidhushi Poornima Gururaj to bring dance and Dasa Sahitya together. Dasa Sahitya is the literature of Bhakti movement, composed by devotees in honour of Lord Vishnu.
After detailed research about Dasa Sahitya, Vidhushi Akhila Chethan and her husband Vidwan Chethan Hebbar merged the two art forms calling it ‘Dasa Margam’, in the form of an audio CD, where Dasa is related to Dasa Sahitya and ‘Margam is the dance form.
“Dasasahitya is an ocean and we wanted to do something innovative through dance structures that matched the richness of the Dasas, and chose Margam,” says Akhila. The Margam structure includes Alarippu, Varnam and Padam.This audio CD comprises of 10 Dasa compositions. It was released on January 16, 2018 by Suvidyendra Teertha, under TTD trust in Tirumala Tirupathi temple. And the performance to ‘Dasa Margam’ was organised in Bharitya Vidya Bhavan on January 27.
Vidhushi Akhila Chethan and her husband Vidwan Chethan Hebbar were always a vivid follower of Dasa Sahitya (compositions of Puranadara Dasa, Vijaya Dasa and other veterans). They were passionate about bringing dance and Dasa Sahitya together through a project. The couple started the Kalagangothri Foundation, a Bharatanatyam, Carnatic music and Yoga organisation that is based out of Edison, New Jersey and New York.
“We carefully selected compositions like Sharanembe Vani Poreva Kalyani, Aada Hodalle Ranga and others. Apart from performance in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, we have also toured in different cities such as Vellore (Sri Mahalakshmi Temple, VIT University), Chidambaram (Annamalai University), Karekal (Artist Forum), Puducherry (Auroville), Tirunellar (All India Adi Shaiva Shiva Cheriyazgal) and Chennai (BASA)” adds Akhila.
Her dance school, Kalagangothri delivers various innovative dance programmes and the school doesn’t believe in restricting the programmes only to Indian mythology, it loves experimenting with different dance forms. As a guru, she has always trained her students in performances that involve a blend of Indian, Chinese and African Classics. The blend has always yielded great results. This, according to her, gives a very good cultural exchange.
As part of the dance organization, Akhila also delivers a UNESCO project called ‘Involve and Evolve’ where dance performances are exhibited through unique concepts, this also involves introducing popular personalities such as Narendra Modi or Obama through the performances. “The school has a large number of students, and the American students enrolled also enjoy performing dance. They are always keen on exploring more of the art,” says Akhila.To contact Akhila, mail her at akila.chethan@gmail.com