Kalaikoodam was established in Delhi in 1983 for the promotion of arts, literature and culture. This is the silver jubilee year and events will be held from July 2008 to July 2009. The inauguration is planned on July 28.
On 1st, 2nd & 3rd of August there is a three day national seminar on ‘Arts and Culture for Indian Resurgence’. Eminent scholars from different parts of the country are participating.

This will be followed by 4 or 5 concerts by local artistes and about 10 concerts by solo artistes and groups from different parts of the country.
Other activities like a workshop on paintings, lectures and another seminar towards the end of the celebrations are being planned.

During the 25 years of its existence, Kalaikoodam has done a lot of work to project the integrated culture of India by taking themes of relevance without any regional or linguistic consideration, says its founder Komala Varadan.
Kalaikoodam organised a national seminar on ‘Culture – the Undercurrent’ to explore the underlying unity in the cultural mosaic of India. Another seminar on ‘The traditional influences on Indian Society’ and a series of lectures on ‘Urdu Opera’, ‘Sanskrit Drama in Ancient India’, ‘The place of Dance in the Tamil epic Silappadikaram’, ‘Modern Kannada literature’, ‘Modern Oriya literature’ and ‘Sangam poetry in Tamil’.

A workshop on the ‘Mysore School Bharatanatyam’ with a performance by the doyenne Dr. Venkatalakshamma and the participants of the workshop on the last day and a lecture on traditional performing arts of Assam with reference to Neo Vaishnava tradition followed by Natun Kamalabari Satra drew excellent response.

Kalaikoodam has presented two innovative choreographic compositions of Komala Varadan. One is the presentation of Sri Ramcharit Manas of Tulsi Das as a solo Bharatanatyam recital. The dance programme has been recorded by Doordarshan and telecast in different channels. The whole presentation has come out as a picture book with original verses from Sri Ram Charit Manas and the translation below each photo. Music Choreography was by S. Varadan.

The second one is ‘Prakritim Vande’- Salutation to Nature.
A programme dedicated to Nature, conceptualised, choreographed and danced by Komala Varadan, it won a ‘Certificate of Special Merit’ in the International Film Festival organized by WWF. It combines the skills of Komala both as a dancer and a photographer. The VCD of the programme has been released.

Kalaikoodam has presented many other artistes in its different programmes. Dancers and musicians from different parts of the country have been provided a platform by Kalaikoodam. To encourage young talent, open Music and Dance competitions were conducted.

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