"I have been invited to perform at the National Theater in Zagreb, Croatia, on March 28, 2004. This performance has been organised by the Indian-Croatian Society in cooperation with the National Ballet. And it will be attended by the Ballet director and dancers.

In an effort to launch a studio for Indian classical dance in Croatia, where I have been invited to conduct the classes in Bharatanatyam, the Society has oganised this performance, which is my second performance there (the first being in 1997 organised by the Indian Embassy) in cooperation with the Croatian Govt. A three-day course will follow and with the resonance thus created, regular courses will be conducted during the year. My French student Karen Taguet will accompany me to represent the abilities of a non-Indian dancer who has been trained in this South Indian art.

Meanwhile, we also staged an audio-visual play of Ramayana recently. Newspapers in the city of Chemnitz, Saxony in Germany have been talking about this production. For the first time in the history of German Theater, an Indian epic has been presented as an audio-visual play.

The premiere on 21 February 2004 and the repeat performance on March 13 were sold out and the third performance is scheduled in April.

The German audio play - with voices of the Theater Chemnitz Ensemble - was staged as a multi-media production with video projections, surround sound, theatre and dance. I was invited to choreograph the production together with the German choreographer Michael Sternkopf of the Theater under the direction of Carola Wiesener and Steve Wohlfahrt.

While I choreographed the main characters of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Kaikeyi, Dasharatha, Bharatha, Shurpanaka, etc. with Indian artistes from Berlin, the Vanaras and Rakshasas were German artistes choreographed by my colleague.

Music was composed by Berlin-based Indian Santoor player Nandkishor Muley and was played by the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie of Chemnitz. Since the audio part of the production was to be the dominant factor, the movements on stage had to be set to the spoken dialogues and as shadows within the video projections. A challenging assignment, considering the amount of movement we have in Indian dance forms, especially Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. Nevertheless it is amazing to see how effective even just hand gestures, postures and slow-motion movements could be in shadows. Costumes were a combination of Indian and European elements."

Rajyashree Ramesh had her initial training training Bharatanatyam under Gurus Rajalakshmi and Vidwan Lokkaiah in Bangalore and later under Guru Savitri Jagannatha Rao, dancer Padmini Ravi, Guru Kalanidhi Narayan and Kuchipudi under under Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam and his disciple Vedantam Ramu. She conducts dance classes at Atelier de la Dance, Stubenrauchstrasse 72, Berlin-Friedenau, Germany.

Rajyashree Ramesh can be contacted at e-mail: natyam@aol.com
Website:www.rr-dance.com

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