Rain threatened to play spoilsport, but the audience at Kamani Auditorium turned up nevertheless for the opening of the 30th Parampara Series earlier this month. Natya Tarangini’s annual festival of dance and music celebrated two themes – Kutumbh, bringing performing arts families together on stage, and Shishya, highlighting the guru-shishya tradition.
(L-R) Raja Reddy, Kaushalya Reddy and Radha Reddy
The opening evening began with a Kuchipudi recital, with dancers performing to live vocals and the sounds of tabla, mridangam, violin and flute.
On Day 1 of Natya Tarangini’s annual festival, the 30th Parampara Series, Kuchipudi dancers performed a Shiva Tarangam on the rims of brass plates
The presentation included an ode to Krishna before culminating in Shiva Tarangam. The finale saw the dancers combine intricate footwork with movements on brass plate rims.
The whole idea is to present and propagate the rich heritage of our country. It is an attempt to bring these different forms together while making them accessible to audiences beyond their traditional geographies
Kaushalya Reddy, Kuchipudi exponent and festival curator
Saskia Rao-de Haas and Shubhendra Rao
Ishaan Leonard Rao
‘Where three worlds meet through three instruments’The Kutumbh theme came alive with sitarist Shubhendra Rao, cellist Saskia Rao-de Haas and their son Ishaan Rao sharing the stage. They had initially planned to present a Malhar composition, an ode to the monsoon. With rain already lashing the city, Shubhendra joked they didn’t want the audience to “swim back”. Instead, they opened with their self-composed Trinity, based on Raga Hemavati from the Carnatic tradition. “We thought we would play a composition called Trinity, where three worlds meet through three instruments – the piano, the Indian cello and the sitar, of course, with the tabla,” Shubhendra said. It was followed by a composition by Ishaan, drawing from his idea of “creating music for the kind of world he wants to live in.”
Urvashi Rajya Laxmi Rana, Shiv Khemka and Raja Reddy
Lakshmi Puri and Shallu Jindal
Clockwise: K Mahesh, Rajiv Pratap Rudy with Neelam Pratap Rudy, Renu Hussain with Leena Singh and Sunit Tandon
