14 March 2024/

FESTIVAL OF MALE DANCERS BY GANESA NATYALAYA

SHIVAARGHYA    

Ganesa Natyalaya, New Delhi organises SHIVAARGHYA – festival of male dancers at Ganesa Natyalaya, C-16, Qutub Institutional Area, New Delhi on Sunday, 17 March 2024 (11.00 AM – 8.00 PM).   

“Brainchild of late Guru Saroja Vaidynathan, this initiative was started in 2019 to give opportunities to young male dancers who are talented and have taken dance as their full-time profession. Shivaarghya is a Swarna Saroja event, which is a year-long celebration to mark the golden jubilee of Ganesa Natyalaya, the Institution started by Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan in 1974. For the past fifty years the Institution has been relentlessly engaged in the propagation of Bharatanatyam specially in North India,” says renowned Bharatanatyam artist Smt. Rama Vaidyanathan, President, Ganesa Natalaya, New Delhi.

“Shivaarghya pays tribute to the first dancer Lord Nataraja who symbolises the genderless dancing body. This year we have invited artists from Kerala, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kolkata and Bengaluru.

The festival promises to showcase excellence, perseverance and the versatility of the male classical dancer. The dancers participating in the festival are Kathak: Vishal Krishna Mishra from Varanasi along with Bhava Gangani and Ashish; Akshar Tekchandani and Gaurav Bhatti from Delhi; Bharatnatyam: Anand CS from Kerala, Amrit Sinha and Gyanendra Dutt Bajpai and Syed Samsur Rehman from Lucknow; Nilay Mandal, Santanu Roy and Pankoj Singha Roy from Kolkata along with Dr S Vasudevan, Himanshu Srivastava, Vinay Tiwari and Nilava Sen and Pritam Das from Delhi; Varun Khanna from Chandigarh along with Shobit Ramesh from Bengaluru; Odissi: Krishnendu Saha from Kolkata; Kuchipudi: Washim Raja from Delhi; Kathakali: Sahil Suresh from Delhi, Pung Cholam: Shyam Singhfrom Delhi and Chau dance by Shubham Acharya from Delhi,” she added. 

Renowned Scholar Dr V R Devika from Chennai, will be delivering a keynote lecture titled ‘Nataraja and the Cosmos’, followed by a series of dance performances by talented male dancers across India. 

SWARNA SAROJA

Swarna Saroja commemorates renowned artist Saroja Vaidyanathan’s invaluable contributions and honours her legacy with the event, Swarna Saroja through various programmes, workshops and remembrances. This year, Ganesa Natyalaya celebrates its Golden Jubilee, and almost all the schools are joining to celebrate the SWARNA SAROJA both at their school level as well as along with the Natyalaya, preserving and promoting the rich heritage of our art and culture.

GANESA NATYALAYA

Renowned dancer, Choreographer, writer and Guru Padma Bhushan Saroja Vaidyanathan founded Ganesa Natyalaya for propagating and teaching Bharatanatyam in 1974, now became one of the premier Bharatanatyam institutions in Delhi which has trained over 1500 students and many studied and undertaken Bharatanatyam as a career and a full-time profession,  became acclaimed Bharatanatyam exponents both in India and abroad. 

Ganesa Natyalaya, New Delhi celebrates the month of Maha Sivaratri with the festival – ‘Shivaarghya’ participating 25 dancers across the country showcasing seven prominent Indian traditional dance forms curated by renowned Bharatanatyam artist of international acclaim Rama Vaidyanathan.