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NEW DELHI, INDIA, January 23, 2004: Five American dancers, including an Indian American, have come to Delhi for a kathak dance performance Saturday with the Chitresh Das dance company. Chritresh Das, a renowned master of kathak dance has performed internationally, featured in India’s celebrated festivals and tours as a solo artist. Das runs five kathak schools in California with 300 students in 40 groups and 15 teachers. “Blondes and brunettes is all I had when I went there, but the Indian diaspora is growing. Today, many Indian Americans are also joining my school,” said Das. Said Joanna Meinl, 27, one of the dancers: “I completely fell in love with the art form. I have learnt many dances but kathak is the most fulfilling dance form because it is physically, emotionally and mentally very challenging, I love the story telling and the facial expressions.” Though most of the dancers have visited India before, this is their first visit to India as performers. “We can’t study an art form without coming to its origin,” said Farah Yasmeen Shaikh, another dancer from the group. “Guruji forced us to look deeper into our beliefs, he has moulded the Indian culture in us and we are instilling it in other students,” said dancer Rachna Niwas. In 1971, Das was invited to establish a kathak dance program at the renowned Ali Akbar College of Music in California. In 1980, he started his own school, Chhandam, which now has branches in the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Toronto and Calcutta, India.

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