The year, 1838. The city, Paris. Would you believe it if informed that a family of dancers from Tiruvendipuram were performing authentic traditional South Indian dances in the city renowned to be the center of European art and culture? Not only Paris, the family performed in London too. In a fascinating feature for Drishti, with rare illustrations, Vincent Warren, a noted ballet dancer and dance historian, traces the influence of India on Western Dance.
Join us, dear readers, in greeting Maya Rao, on her birthday, as the reputed Kathak exponent turns 75 this May. Ashish in his inimitable style writes about her for Drishti.
A series of dazzling cultural events in the past few months demonstrate that Bangalore is turning out to be the favorite haunt for artists we have had so many stalwarts enthralling us, from Zakir Husain to Pt Ravi Shankar to John MacLaughlin to Shubha Mudgal. It keeps us at Drishti on our toes as we do our best to keep pace with the events and cover them all for you in Round-up.
Are you over 45 and a classical dancer? No, we are not carrying a feature on age and dance. We hear that the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) will no longer sponsor foreign performance tours for dancers over 45. A controversial stance raising the issue of whether creative expression can be stifled by arbitrary age limits. Do we tell Kelucharan Mahapatra or Birju Maharaj that they are too old for dancing abroad? You will hear a lot more about this in our next issue.
The last few weeks have seen many musicians from the city staging performances abroad our next issue will carry some highlights of these events featuring our cultural ambassadors.
Signing off for this issue, we, at Drishti, thank each and every one of you for the enthusiasm with which you have received this magazine, the first one from Karnataka focusing on Art, Dance and Music. The response being honestly much much more than expected, our responsibility to deliver has increased many-fold. We are confident of living up to our promises and your expectations, with your continued support.
T. M. Vikranth