Bharatanatyam dancer and actress Shobana presents 'Sampradaya - From Myths to Modernity' a thematic dance feature this season.

Along with four of her students, Archana Ganesan, T. Bhavani, Ashwini Arun and V. Seethalakshmi, she toured the U.S and Canada the past two months with this production and has just returned.

The dance presentation is set in the traditional ‘Margam’ format of classical Bharatanatyam.

Schedule:
Dec. 22 - Narada Gana Sabha - 7.30 pm
Dec. 23 - Kartik Fine Arts (at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan) - 7.15 pm
Dec. 27 - Krishna Gana Sabha - 7.30 pm
Dec. 29 - Bharat Kalachar - 7.30 pm

For more info, visit: www.shobana.org

Vishakapatnam dancer performs at Music Academy

Kuchipudi dancer Vidya Murthy from Vishakapatnam gives the inaugural performance at The Music Academy on 18 December. She won the MGR award at the Spirit of Youth dance fest hosted by the Academy in 2002. A student of medicine, Vidya has trained in Kuchipudi under Bala Kondala Rao of Kuchipudi Kalakendram, Vishakapatnam.

A senior scholarship holder of the Dept. Culture, New Delhi and an empanelled artiste of the ICCR, Vidya has won several prizes and has performed widely in Andhra Pradesh.

Contact: E-mail: vidya_murty@hotmail.com

The Indian Fine Arts Society will host its 71st South Indian Music Conference and festival from December 17, 2003 to January 4, 2004. Click here to check out the awardees.

Dancer Srinidhi Chidambaram presents two thematic shows this Season.

On Dec. 16 at 7.30 pm at Narada Gana Sabha, she presents 'Vainava-Th-Thamizh', depicting the literary and poetic content of the Nalayira Divya Prabandam.

The other is 'Nritya Shakti', themed on the various form of goddess Shakti. This will be performed for Brahma Gana Sabha on 19 Dec. at 7 pm at the Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium.

Contact : e-mail: srinidhichidambaram@vsnl.net

A study of the history of Madras, would be incomplete without a study of the history of Carnatic Music and those involved in it.Like in any art form, it is the individuals, the artistes, the composers, the patrons and the organisers who have moulded and shaped Carnatic Music into what it is today.

Sangeetham and Charsur, two organisations dedicated to Carnatic music, have joined hands to bring about an awareness of our musical past, an awareness that will enrich our present and contribute to the future. The two organisations are planning heritage walks around Mylapore, Santhome,George Town & Triplicane, areas that have contributed significantly to the treasure house of Carnatic Music. This trip will cover the residences of many music ‘greats’, venues of past performances and site that changed the course of Carnatic Music.

Mylapore route on 13 December 2003. Triplicane Route - 20 December 2003. George Town - 21 December 2003 Mylapore route - 2 & Santhome route – 25 December 2003

All walks end with breakfast. Participants get a book on the area covered as keepsake. For registrations, please email sangeetham@sangeetham.com or contact 28411520. Registration forms will be available on the website from 25 November 2003. The walks are ticketed and participants need to pay Rs 300/ head.

Charsur, the music company based in Chennai, has a special promotion during the December season. Tucked away in some of the CDs and cassettes of Charsur that you may buy during the 'season' at any shop, is a surprise promise of a genuine gold coin. Says Charsur's Charubala, "This is Charsur's way of rewarding its customers.

Those who get the notice of the gift will have to mail the note to us to redeem the coin. Because of security, we could not have the coin inserted inside the album packs!"

The offer is applicable to CDs and cassettes of the Charsur label.

Prakriti Foundation presents "Tillana Mohanambal", a talk on Kalaimani's 1957-58 novel.by Dr.Indira Viswanathan Peterson at 7 p.m. on 24th December 2004 at Sundara Mahal, Jeypore Colony, off Gopalapuram.

There will be a display of drawings of Gopulu that accompanied the Tillana Mohanambal serial in Ananda Vikatan.Indira Peterson will focus her talk on the way in which Kalaimani (an alias of Kottamangalam Suppu) uses novelistic writing as a way of reimagining and rewriting the history of the culture of the performing arts in Tamilnadu. She will speak mainly about the novel, making some comparisons between the novel and the movie using video.

"Kalaimani's Thillana Mohanambal was one of the most popular Tamil novels of the 1950's, and was made into a popular film in 1968. TM's plot charts the course of love and artistic competition between 'Thillana' Mohanambal, a devadasi dancer from Tiruvarur, and nagasvaram player Sikkal Shanmugasundaram. However, Kalaimani's principal aim was to reconstruct for his readers the culture of sadir (later Bharata Natyam) dance and the periya melam (nagasvaram) in late 19th and early 20th-century Tamilnadu, and especially in the Kaveri delta.The film owed its popularity mainly to to the author's success in evoking for mid-20th-century Tamil readers a past that epitomized for them the indigenous classical tradition of the performing arts. Says Indira,"In this talk I show that Kalaimani presents a historical vision of the periya and chinna melam traditions that places the hereditary performer communities at the center, offers a reconstruction of the repertoire of these communities, and shows how the artists' art was accessible to and appreciated by a much wider public than the one created by the Madras-based commercial concert culture."Indira Viswanathan Peterson has Ph.D.degrees in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Harvard University. She specializes in Indian literature in Sanskrit and Tamil, Hinduism, South Indian cultural history and Indian classical music.

Formerly Professor of Asian Studies at Mount Holyoke College, Indira Peterson is Professor of Sanskrit and Indian literature in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. She has many books to her credit and she is now completing a book entitled "Imagining the World in Eighteenth-century India: The kuravanci fortune-teller dramas of Tamilnadu", focusing on a south Indian literary genre in social historical and comparative contexts.

Radel is presenting 'Sunadavinodini' a Digital and Electronic Veena Festival during the 'season'.

It is on from Dec 24 to 28, 2003 at the Culture India Gallery, K.B.Dasan Road , (Opposite SIET College, Chennai) there will be a digital veena recital daily starting 6.00 pm

Radhika Raj Narayan will play on the Digital veena on all the days of the festival, prior to the electronic veena concerts.

Music Education Trust, Chennai chapter will conduct its 'Year-End Music Festival 2003' from Dec. 15 to 26, at Naada Narthana Vedika on Lloyd's Road, Gopalapuram. There are 3 concerts everyday from 2.30 p.m.

Part two of the festival will be held from December 27 to 31, themed on 'Eka Raga Sandhya'. Here, only one raga will be explored in full detail for over two hours with different compositions in the same raga. Following the concert, there will be an explanatory talk on the ragas. The venue is Sastri hall, Luz, Mylapore.

Carnatic vocalist T.V.Ramprasadh presents 'Thyagaraja Ramayanam', a special audio-visual concert at 9.30 am tomorrow morning (18 Dec.) at Vidya Bharathi auditorium, Mylapore. The concert is held under the auspices of Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha.

Thyagaraja Ramayanam is a string of compositions of Saint Thyagaraja based on incidents from Bala Kandam to Uttara Kandam of the epic, 'Ramayanam'.

Script and direction for this concert has been done by musicologist T.S.Parthasarathy. He has also composed Tamil verses to link the various Kandams.

Accompanying Ramprasadh in this concert are Mysore M. Manjunath (violin) and Vellore Ramabhadran (mridangam).

Contact: Website: www.tvramprasadh.com email: mail@tvramprasadh.com

Dancer Malavika Sarukkai presents 'Srotasvini' a thematic recital in Bharatnatyam this December Season. From cosmic energy and Nataraja's dance to Shringara, grief and hope, the presentation focuses on contemporary issues. Lyrics are by S.V. Seshadri.

Schedule:
Dec.18 - Bharat Kalachar - 7.30 pm,
Dec. 21 - Krishna Gana Sabha - 7.30 pm,
Dec. 27 - Narada Gana Sabha - 7.30 pm

Dancer Malathi Iyengar presents ‘Dreams and Visions’, a lecture - seminar at 2 pm on Dec. 18 at Dakshinachitra. The venue is a heritage centre on East Coast Road, on the outskirts of Chennai. A Bharatanatyam dance performance by Malathi Iyengar and her disciples Lakshmi Iyengar and Shaheen Sheik will also be held.

The lecture covers topics like: Inventing Self, understanding how to be motivated and driven, discovering one’s own leadership potential and finding a style of leadership, mission, purpose, direction & vision; setting clear objectives and priorities, integrity, trust and communication; being inclusive or exclusive; Realizing goals through action; risks, challenges, & rewards; Widening the circle, diversity; openness to change; Being an astute professional in all areas; presentation skills; High performance culture and empowerment. For more info contact: Ph: 44 2491 8943

Madras Craft Foundation: www.dakshinachitra.org, www.rangoli.org

Shanthi Arts Foundation and Endowments (SAFE) will host its 8th annual music fest from 11 to 19 December in Madras. On the inaugural day, musicians K.R. Kedaranathan, T. Rukmini and A. Kanyakumari will be honoured. Concerts will be held at Sastri Hall and Raga Sudha Hall, Mylapore.

Click here to find out what the sabha plans for the December Season. This year's festival is dedicated to Rukmini Devi.

Narada Gana Sabha, will host its annual music festival from December 14, 2003 to January 2, 2004. Arts scholar Kapila Vatsyayan will inaugurate the festival. Click here to check out the awardees.