Art Atelier Presents Parampara at EZCC
He may dance along to popular Bollywood songs and music, but he is actually averse to how they are picturised using Western and vulgar gesticulations. Mumbai-based Kathak-dancer Devesh Mirchandani, a disciple of Pt Birju Maharaj, believes that Kathak and its related semi-classical forms and our indigenous folk idiom is enriched enough to portray Bollywood songs to make it entertaining as well as sober. He’s adamant about “indianising Bollywood choreography”, as he puts it, and aims to strive for it in the future, And this city is set to witness his unique presentation for the very first time at Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (EZCC), Salt Lake III, in a cultural evening (4 pm to 7 pm) this Sunday titled, Parampara organised by an Art Atelier, a dance academy.
His performance will comprise ‘Kahe Chere’, originally choreographed by Pt Birju Maharaj for the film Devdas; Dewani Mastani from Baji Rao Mastani, a Lavni interpretation of song ‘Chandra’ from Chandramukhi, a Ghoomar & Shree Krishna Govind number, and other classical traditional devotional and folk dances. He will be accompanied by his Kolkata students who he has been teaching for the last 11 months along with those from an ongoing workshop (April 1– April 8) and heads of different faculties of dance forms taught at Art Atelier, totaling about 130 dancers on stage.
While announcing the program, Mirchandani said, “Calcutta is a lovely city to teach classical dance because in Bengal they are aware of art from an early age and are already knowledgeable about the ‘laay’ and ‘taal’. Here, students, I can understand really loving and respecting an artist & that is very important. In many cities where I do workshops in, not many have great respect for the classical artists and the journey of a teacher. So teaching here is fulfilling.”
Mallika Sarkar, Creative Director of Art Atelier and a Kathak dancer herself, explained, “A Mirchandani workshop is very different because he’s very serious about Kathak teaching. It’s been known that many participants started loving Kathak from his workshop and have eventually even begun training in pure Kathak.” Nodding beside her Sandeep Sarkar, the MD added, “People have not only come from WB districts but also from Jharkhand and Pune as well. We’re overwhelmed.”
