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NEW YORK, NEW YORK, April 4, 2005: For two months in 2005 (April and May), Celebrating India will be travelling nationwide to showcase Indian artists with emphasis on Indian dance. The performers had their debut in the first week of April at Symphony Space. The news release explains, “There was a production called Masters of Kathakali followed on by Priyadarsini Govind as the sole dancer in a Bharata Natyam performance. Bharata Natyam and Kathakali claim an ancient lineage, but were codified in the mid-late second millennium. Both fell into decline by the late 19th century (HPI adds: under British pressure) and enjoyed a renaissance in the 20th. Today, young performers are trained through a network of schools based in the southeastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu for Bharata Natyam and the southwestern Indian state of Kerala for Kathakali. Bharata Natyam, traditionally for a solo female, is more purely dance. Kathakali, for an all-male ensemble playing both male and female parts, is dance drama: the performers do not speak, leaving the narration to the singers; instead they act and mime and move, with the interest concentrated on the upper body, hand gestures and facial expressions. Bharata Natyam dancers are dressed relatively simply, in silk pantsuits with pleated aprons and modest jewelry. Their subjects, derived from Hindu temple dances, are almost exclusively devoted to Hindu deities. Kathakali performers wear elaborate makeup and headdresses and costumes consisting of bell-like skirts with dangling doodads. Their stories are drawn largely from the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana.”



John Rockwell, writer for the New York Times, adds, “Of the two generous Symphony Space programs, the Kathakali evening seemed the more authentic. The main compromise was the reduced scale a touring ensemble enforces. The performance was of a 300-year-old drama called Nala Charitham, based on a portion of the Mahabharata. The performers were terrific, particularly Sadanam Krishnan Kutty as Hamsam, the swan. The Kathakali musicians were good, but Bharata Natyam music is less raw and direct, closer to the sensuous subtleties of North Indian music. Ms. Govind’s musicians were top notch: a beguiling singer and an emphatically rhythmic chanter, a lovely violinist and a drummer. Ms. Govind has a brightly energetic style and an earnest manner in her little lecture-demonstrations before each dance.”

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