Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Live
GHAZAL FUSION WITH KATHAK
To mark the culmination of a month-long kathak workshop, ‘Kathak Pallav’ was organised by Kathak Kendra Lucknow and Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Academy at Sant Gadgeji Maharaj Auditorium on Saturday.
Shruti Sharma and Nita Joshi, the instructors at this workshop, directed this presentation. The special guests at the occasion were bureaucrat Devendra Chaudhary and Bhatkhande Music University former vice-chancellor Purnima Pandey. Other guests included Cultural Department secretary and UP Sangeet Natak Academy director Jagat Raj, UPSNA secretary Vandana Verma and Kathak Kendra director Tarun Raj.
The participants ranged from ages four to 40. Most of them were completely new to the dance form and learnt everything from scratch. Kamla Kant, the vocalist whose sonorous voice accompanied the dancer’s moves said, “This workshop has been organised year-after-year for quite a while now. Every year, that I’ve performed, we try something new and working with kids proves to be a delightful experience.”
The first performance ‘Guru Naman’ was a homage to the guru. Other performances include a retelling of Shri Rudrashtakam from Shri Ramcharitmanas, a depiction of Krishna’s Leela, the retelling of the tale of Ganga’s descent from the heavens. Of particular interest was the novel fusion of ghazal and Sufi vocals with kathak.