‘The farther the river runsThe more its waters riseIn the distance the banks disappearThe eyes are tricked into losing directionThe flowing water turns blueAnd tastes salty in the mouthWe can no longer plumb the ocean floorAs sky and water blend together’¹ It is said that the mere utterance of the triptych phrase “Bhūr-bhuvah-svah – the…

You wouldn’t think that a school production of Tagore’s dance-drama Chitrangada would be a significant event, would you?  But, as I sat through the extremely artistic presentation by the students of Sunnydale School on an April day this year and saw a performance choreographed by a young dancer who is a generation younger than us,…

Setting itself free from a millenia old linear narrative style, classical dance in India has broken new grounds and is now more and more about describing space through body movements driven by an inner impetus.  Interestingly, this change has been spearheaded mostly by women, all of them dancers trained in the strictest of traditions. An…

The history of the arts reflects the ever-changing dynamics and flow of cultural metaphors between people and nations. Looking at recent changes in the development of dance in Bangladesh, for instance, we come across interesting exchanges with neighbouring lands. Thus we can trace the effects of Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathakali, and Manipuri styles on our…