| Friday, 4th July, 2003 |
| Dziennik Zachodni “An exotic final” Bytom, Saturday, 7.00 p.m. |
The X Annual Contemporary Dance Festival And Dance Art is almost finished. The final performance is the most exotic one; the performance starts at 7.00p.m. on Saturday in the Silesian Dance Theatre. The performance will be given by one of the most famous hindu dancers, Alaknanda Dasguphta and Kathak Dance Group. Kathak is one of the oldest performance arts in India. The word can be translated as ‘the one who tells stories’. In the old times kathak people recited the holy hymns. Nowadays, kathak is highly professional form of dance. |
IN Tchew, people stood in the rain to watch her performance on a giant screen as the auditorium could not accommodate more than 450 people. In Switzerland, she enthralled an audience with her rendition on Krishna Leela. Noida-based Kathak dancer Alaknanada is back,' me after almost a month-long Europe tour sponsored by Indian Council of Cultural Relations. She also performed in Praha, Warsaw, Bytom, Karkow and Stschein.
"Never before have I experienced such a craze for Indian culture. I got the best compliment of my life when a French lady told me that my dance reminded her of the idols of Indian temple," gushes the director of Alaknanda Institute For Performing Arts, Sector 20.
During the tour she also participated in the Silesian International Dance Festival at Bytom. The highlight of the festival was a seven-day Kathak workshop held by Alaknanda. "Thirty-seven international students participated in my workshop out of which I selected seven to perform an opening item Just before my performance This was the first time these Polish girls were exposed to an Indian dance form. Now 17 Polish girls are planning to come to lndia to learn Kathak from me under the guru-shisya parampara. That, I think, is a great achievement," smiles the dancer. Her special composition on Polish rain was another feature that was well appreciated by the Polish audience. "It was raining everywhere I went and it just came spontaneously," says Alaknanda. -
Nilakshi Bhattacharyya.
The Hindustan Times ..
A fine dancer from the Kathak Kendra, Alaknanda, at the IIC this week, pin-pointed these very lacunae in her dance. Take ghazal danced by Alaknanda, a fine-tuned youngster who is now training under Guru Munna Lal Shukla after initial work with Reba Vidyarthi and Bharati Gupta. A fragile, bone-china-thin vehicle of a poetic idea, a ghazal is no longer the pariah that is was in a traditional times.
Of course, in the conventional opening stuti "Ya Devi Sarva Bhuteshu, Shanti Roope Samasthita..." she was evocative in summoning the myriad forms of the goddess. And in the nritya that followed, the Aamad was controlled, the Parmelus and the Parans, both chakradar and plain, were replete with angshuddhi, something that many dancer, more seniors do not necessarily have.
Shanta Sarabjit Singh
The Hindustan Times ..
The artist of the evening Alaknanda also give indications of blossoming into something more than the usual pretty performer. The Durga stuti had its expressions of the Devi, serene one moment and roused in the next stances. The tihais, the paran amad incorporating the Tandave and lasya ang, the Chakradar and the Khandajati paran were rendered with clarity. The 'nazar andaz' in the Gat nikas and the Ghunghat sequences have maturity. Still anchored to tailored bandishes.
The Hindu ..
Sarachandrika's annual festival in Delhi this year brought together an exquisite group of talented artists who danced their way into the audience's hearts. Leela Venkataraman writes... Alaknanda Dasgupta, and Israt Jahan Tabassum of Bangladesh - both disciples of Munna Lal Shukla of Kathak Kendra - acquitted themselves creditably. Alaknanda has a regal bearing and the "Padasanchalan" in the ladhis with intricate toe-heel manipulation and shifting of body weight saw her at her best and the Chautal presentation was full of bristling alacrity. The virahini portrayed in the expressional item also came off convincingly.
Leela Venkataraman
The Times Of India ..
Spring is in the air and talents sprout. The 10th Yuva Mahotsava of the Sahitya Kala Parishad has proved to be an enduring event, having featured over a thousand young artists in the last decade. An important initiative on the part of the Delhi administration since the young have so few opportunity. Alaknanda is proving herself a worthy disciple of Munna Lal Shukla, who has given the world of Kathak a lot of freshness. The Guru conducted the proceeding and his student undertook choise tatkars and tukde with aplomb. Alaknanda has an appealing stage presence and the courtly atiqueftes sit well on her frame. Especially delectable were the types of ghunghats.
By Ashish Khokar
