BENGALURU : Spending hours on makeup and dressing up, feeling the spotlight shine down and the excitement of stepping onto a stage for the final show after weeks of rehearsals... These are just a few of the many things that performing artistes have missed dearly in the last seven months. “It’s things like these that make the whole experience of performing a thrill,” says Nirupama Rajendra, a classical dance exponent based in the city. This is what prompted Nirupama and her partner T D Rajendra to organise Kala Dwaraka 2020 under the banner of Abhinava Arts Centre.
The idea, they say, came when Sudha Murty, chairperson of Infosys Foundation, reached out to them and expressed her interest in supporting artistes who were facing a setback due to the pandemic. “That’s when we thought of this digital festival. On one hand, both musicians and dancers needed to be supported financially. On the other, we wanted to give them a platform to express the passion they had kept locked up for months,” says Rajendra.
Recording for Kala Dwaraka 2020, which is dedicated to Rajendra’s father, theatreperson T V Dwarakanath, is currently ongoing at K H Kalasoudha Auditorium and the festival will be streamed for free from Nov. 1 to 14 on shaale.com. The 24 dance concerts -- showcasing different Indian classical dance forms like Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi and Odissi -- feature 50-60 performing artistes and 20 individuals as part of the organising crew.
“Though concerts and classes had been taking place online, they lacked a proper stage setup. And in most of those, the artistes aren’t dancing to live music. We wanted to bring back the human interaction between dancers and musicians again,” says Nirupama. Agrees Rajendra, who adds, “We hope this festival will be like a doorway towards normalcy for classical artistes.” Kala Dwaraka 2020 will be streamed on Shaale.com from Nov. 1-14.