Ganesa Natyalaya, a prominent Bharatanatyam dance institution of Delhi celebrates the month of Mahasivaratri with a festival dedicated to male dancers titled ‘Shivaarghya’ on Sunday, March 17, 2024, from 11 am to 8 pm at Ganesa Natyalaya, C-16, Qutub Institutional Area.
This year, 25 dancers from across the country will be participating in the festival showcasing seven Indian traditional dance forms curated by Rama Vaidyanathan.
The 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.
Speaking on the festival, Rama Vaidyanathan, President, Ganesa Natalaya, says, “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 the excellence, perseverance, and versatility of the male classical dancer. The dancers participating in the festival are Kathak: Vishal Krishna Mishra from Varanasi along with Bhava Gangani & 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 Pritam Das from Delhi along with Shobit Ramesh from Bengaluru; Odissi: Krishnendu Saha from Kolkata; Kuchipudi: Washim Raja from Delhi; Kathakali: Sahil Suresh from Delhi, Pung Cholam: Shyam Singh from Delhi and Chau dance by Shubham Acharya from Delhi.
Sivaarghya will be held at the Ganesa Natyalaya premises at Qutab Institutional area. The festival begins with a very revealing lecture titled “Nataraja and the Cosmos” by scholar Dr VR Devika from Chennai, followed by a series of dance performances by talented male dancers from across India.
When: 11 am to 8 pm; March 17, 2024
Where: Ganesa Natyalaya, C-16, Qutub Institutional Area, New Delhi
