Stories on stage through Indian classical dance with western shades

Odissi dance performed to Old MacDonald Had A Farm Thats right Tomorrow two dance institutions that have helped keep traditional art forms alive along with creating contemporary styles will showcase their works at NCPA While Jhelum Paranjpes Smitalay will tell stories of birds and animals with the theme From Farm To Jungle Dr Tushar Guhas Nrityanjali will showcase the theme Anurati love portraying stories of togetherness love for the almighty art and nature Each group will perform for an hourFrom Farm to Jungle by SmitalayOf birds and beesTheres a bit of Odissi in the performance which happens to be the base for my students Its mainly creative dance the Odissi bit is like the tel ka chaunk that we use in cooking You can call it seasoning says Paranjpe NCPA asked if we could create something for children So we chose to have a performance by children too All our performers are between seven and 14 years I was keen to do something about animals and birds The idea was to get inside the tiny brains and mighty hearts of our evolutionary ancestors and interpret universal emotions through their stories she addsWith over a dozen agile bodiesmoving to a choreography thats not restricted to any style the performance will use live music comprising Folk songs and some new ones by the legendary Pete Seeger and Mumbaibased Pop artiste Bunkim ParanjpeJhelum ParanjpeMy son Bunkim was keen to do something with Western music So we chose music from Pete Seeger a classic like Old MacDonald Had A Farm which everyone knows There are songs about a frog falling in love with a mouse a mule being good at kicking and about seeing a tiger The last one has been composed by Bunkim Live music gives it a new approach We have guitar percussion keyboard and vocals informs ParanjpeThere are 13 songs three to five minutes long performed by 19 dancers Taking a step outside their comfort zone the students of Smitalay will perform the new fused style to English music 50 per cent of my students are from the Marathi medium They couldnt relate to English lyrics easily They would connect to the rhythm and then I would explain she sharesMangala Gaur by Nrityanjali Initially there was a lot of inhibition especially from younger girl students When they saw me crawl on the floor and enact a cat pose they looked at each other and wondered what was going on Its new for me too I havent done a performance for children earlier she addsIn love with allNrityanjali the brainchild of dancer researcher and corporate trainer Dr Tushar Guha who uses the medium of dance for the holistic personality development of children will present a vibrant medley of Classical dances Kathak and Bharatnatyam along with a few Indian Folk forms We chose the theme Anurati as it allows us to showcase various forms of love including that for the almighty along with nature excitement at the arrival of the monsoon or the feeling of togetherness in community Folk performances using different styles of dance informs GuhaThe opening act will feature performances by three teachers of Nrityanjali including Guha The threeminute fusion performance will include Bharatnatyam Kathak and creative dances with 30 artistes on stageDr Tushar GuhaMost performances are by our students all between seven and 23 years We will tell the story of Lord Bal Krishna and his makhan chori especially for children in the Shabdam style that focuses on the words Guha says We will also perform the Mangala Gaur a dance performed by married Maharashtrian women to celebrate their marital status and Adivasi Kummi from Tamil Nadu performed by men women and children he adds Fiftyfour dancers will grace the stage to perform the 55minute act to recorded Bharatanatyam and Kathak music