Nineteen talented young male dancers would participate in Shivaarghya, exclusive festival for male dancers, organised by New Delhi’s premier dance institution Ganesa Natyalaya, as part of the Swarna Saroja series of events to mark the golden jubilee celebrations of the internationally acclaimed Ganesa Natyalaya. Dancers from varied parts of the country, pertaining to different styles would perform on 23rd February at the auditorium of Ganesa Natyalaya, C-16, Qutub Institutional Area in New Delhi. Former minister of education Dr Karan Singh would be the chief guest and inaugural address will be delivered by the esteemed Ashok Jain.
Dr Saroja Vaidyanathan established Ganesa Natyalaya in 1972 in Qutub Institutional Area in New Delhi and affiliated the institute to the University For Formal Education in Dance. For more than five decades, Saroja has taught to several dance aspirants and its interesting to note that thirty five such students have become professional dancers and teachers with their own academy of dance in various parts of the globe. The legacy moves forward with her daughter-in-law, Rama Vaidyanathan, renownwed Bharata Natyam exponent and mentor and grand daughter Dakshina Vaidyanathan Baghel.
In 2002 Dr Saroja led her cultural troupe to South East Asian countries to coincide with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s participation at the ASEAN Summit. For her invaluable and outstanding contribution to the promotion and propagation of classical dance at the international platform, she was conferred with several awards, Padma Shri in 2002, SNA award in 2008, Padma Bhushan in 2013, she was awarded the Dlitt degree from Indira Kala Sangeet Viswavidyalaya in Khairagarh(Madhya Pradesh).
The Shivaarghya festival is organised mainly with the intention to promote and encourage male dancers and the platforms for male dancers are rare and far between. As usual Bharata natyan and Kathak would dominate the festival but other styles like Mohiniattam, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Sattriya and Marga Natya would also be performed. Bharata Natyam would be performed by Binesh Mahadevan, Poojith Menon, Dr Himanshu Srivastava, Vinay Tiwari, Nailava Sen, Pritam Das, Dr S. Vasudevan, Vidhun Kumar and Bharat Gangadhar Devanpalli. Kathak would be performed by Vishavdeep Sharma. Gaurav Bhatti. Tribhuvan Maharaj and Akash Dwivedi. Odissi by Sanjeev Kumar Jena, Sattriya by Dr Bhabananda Barbayan, Marga Natya by Akash Mallick, Kuchipudi by Venkata Deekshitulu, Manipuri by Dr Sinam Basu Singh and Mohiniattam by Ajeesh Menon. Its interesting to note that “lasya” oriented styles like Odissi,Mohiniattam and Manipuri would also be performed by male dancers, hence the festival would be a fine combination of elegance and masculine vitality. Do not miss this unique festival of male energy and vigour.
