Noted Indian classical dancers to perform at Mumbai festival

Mumbai: An Indian classical dance festival featuring some of the most renowned names of Manipuri, Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Odissi genres will kick off at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) here on Friday.

The three-day Nakshatra Dance Festival, scheduled to run till Sunday, will see dance performances by Leela Samson, Sharmila Biswas, Rajendra Gangani, Rama Vaidyanathan, Vikram Iyengar and Bimbavati Devi.

The festival, currently running in its 10th year, will focus on group choreography.

The opening act will be "Ghana Baari Barikhata", a traditional ‘natasankirtanas' song in Manipur that eulogises the monsoon. Another dance presentation, "Shunya Se", will immerse the festival audience into the visual-performative grammar of Kathak.

Also scheduled is an Odissi dance performance "Murchhana: The Eternal Spirit of Music" which will essay Indian mythological narratives through dance gestures and movements.

A Bharatanatyam performance themed around ‘transformation' will also take place, a statement by NCPA said.

"Antarparva: A Journey Within" is another Kathak performance that will narrate the interplay between the outer world and the inner self.

The festival's closing presentation -- "Nadi: The River" -- will lyrically express poems from six Indian languages - Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Urdu, Hindi and Bengali.

It will also feature two dance workshops by Odissi performer Sharmila Biswas and Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Rama Vaidyanathan, along with a talk by noted Indian dance scholar Sunil Kothari on Bharatanatyam dancer Ram Gopal (1912-2003).