Dhirana Movement | innovating, expanding, evolving…

Stigmas & Sexuality – Valli Uses Poetry and Dance to Challenge Norms

Featured image credit: Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University and Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography A winter storm in the Washington D.C. area does seem like a good time to reflect and think deeply. On that note… Here are two separate excerpts from an academic essay written by Medha Swaminathan (author info below) about a recent performance…

Performance Ready: Advice from the Artists

To round out our Performance Ready series ( how-to videos on preparing for a Bharatanatyam performance – hair, make-up, etc), we decided to collect and share performance advice and insights from prominent artists in the field. Of course technical skill and doing justice to the choreography are of primary importance. Yet, while watching performances ranging from…

Elevating Indian Classical Dance in the U.S. – a Q&A with Anuradha Nehru

In our latest Q&A series, we spoke with Ms. Anuradha Nehru, a highly-accomplished U.S. based Kuchipudi dancer, choreographer and educator, and the founder and director of Kalanidhi Dance. Kalanidhi Dance is an organization committed to elevating Indian Classical Dance in the U.S. though training and presenting high quality dance productions. We spoke with Ms. Nehru recently…

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Ascending the Stage: Students in America Speak on Arangetram

Hope all of you have been having a wonderful summer. Below is our second interview with a student from the U.S. as they prepare for their Arangetram. Preethi Ramamurthy, a student of the Srishti School of Dance and Smt. Vani Ramesh will actually be having her Arangetram in India. Preethi offers some special insights into…

Falling In Love with Indian Dance & It’s Evolution with Indira Kadambi – Part 2 of 2

Here’s the long awaited PART 2 of our Q&A with Indira Kadambi, a brilliant and delightful Bharatanatyam artist, choreographer and educator. She was recently back in the Washington, D.C. area working with the Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Company. So the perfect time to once again highlight an expert in the field and a wonderful spirit!…

Ascending the Stage: Students in America Speak on Arangetram

Its not too difficult to find wonderful articles, interviews, videos, etc. on the many renowned and highly accomplished Indian Classical dancers and teachers out there in cyberspace now. We are lucky to have access to the wisdom and insights of such stalwarts in the field, and we are grateful that they are willing to share their…

Falling in love with Indian dance and its evolution with Indira Kadambi – Part 1 of 2

It was an absolute pleasure to have the opportunity to connect with the esteemed, elegant and gracious Bharatanatyam exponent – Indira Kadambi. For those of you who may be unfamiliar, she is an outstanding performer, choreographer and teacher having received her Bharatanatyam training from Smt. Usha Datar, Natyavisharada Narmada and Padmabhusan Smt.Kalanidhi Narayanan. She had her…

Every Dancer is Different – A Q&A with choreographer, performer, Viji Rao

Tighten your core to sustain a pose. Give attention to your body and though adavus must be done correctly, its possible to adjust your movements in subtle ways to suit your unique form. These are just a few examples of helpful insights that I (Malini) remember from my training during my time in Philadelphia, PA…

We will overcome. Our moment has arrived.

This Dhirana Movement experiment using the popular “We shall overcome” refrain and setting it to Bharatanatyam movements, came to us somewhat out of the blue or maybe not so much… Thinking about African American history month and the civil rights struggle but also other struggles for liberation around the world including India, where women are…

Aswathy & N. Srikanth on choreography

Happy New Year to all! It’s been a while. To start 2014 off with a spark, we wanted to share a Q&A that we recently did with well-known Bharatanatyam artists and husband and wife team based in India – Aswathy & N.Srikanth. In telling us more about their recent production – “Amritavarshini – A…