Showcasing The Arts
The performing traditions in India are diverse and numerous. Sudhaaya Dance Foundation has always endeavoured to present these in a manner that highlights their significance in the living culture of India. To bring the beauty of our performing traditions to the fore and to reconnect people to their timeless relevance is the main objective of the many performances, festivals, collaborative works that the foundation has supported. The fact that these have been appreciated and applauded by many has been our only reward.
THE MAGIC BLUE
Sudhaaya Dance Foundation commenced its journey in January 2006. This was celebrated with a delightful production called The Magic Blue. Conceptualized, scripted, and choreographed by Shagun Butani in collaboration with famed puppeteer Anurupa Roy.
Little dancers aged 8-12 years performed with puppeteers of Kat-Katha to enact the magic of Krishna’s childhood years. It enthralled the audience, both children and adults, in the inaugural show and in subsequent performances done to full houses in 2007 in Delhi and Gurgaon.
Venue
- Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi, January 2006 and September 2007.
- Apparel House, Gurgaon, October 2007.
LEELAYITA...Playing in Grace
The Grace of the guru pervades the dance of the dancers. This performance brought together two legendary Gurus in the field of Odissi: Guru Banamali Maharana and Guru Gangadhar Pradhan in a performance by Shagun Butani.
Traditional compositions from the Odissi repertoire were presented with renewed energy in both solo and group format. The highlight of the performance was a composition on Shiva, choreographed by Guru Gangadhar Pradhan and the music composed by Guru Banamali Maharana using indigenous percussion from Odisha.
It was to be Guru Gangadhar Pradhan’s last appearance in Delhi and on the stage of this world as later that year in October he left the physical world and passed to higher realms.
Venue
- Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi in July 2010
ODISSI SQUARES & CIRCLES
This performance in Delhi was dedicated to the eternal presence of Guru Gangadhar Pradhan and the genius of a generation of Odissi Gurus who were the creators of this form.
Besides presenting classic compositions, timeless and unparalleled in their beauty, Shagun Butani premiered her new choreography, Squares and Circles. This group work explored the possibilities of movement while being bound by the Chowka and Tribhang, the line and curve within which the language of Odissi is prescribed.
Venue
- India International Centre, New Delhi. April 2013.
ENCIRCLING FORMS- Seen- Unseen
The performance, Encircling Forms…Seen-Unseen, was held as a part of the exhibition, “Alice from Switzerland– A Visionary Artist and Scholar Across Two Continents" inspired by the exhibition ‘Alice from Switzerland Based on the life and works of Swiss artiste Alice Boner. Held at New Delhi, this was hosted jointly by The National Museum, New Delhi and the Alice Boner Institute, Varanasi. The choreographed work consisted of a collage of dance passages using Odissi and Chhau with an accompanying music ensemble consisting of vocals, Indigenous drums, cymbals, and bells.
Projected visuals of her photographs, sculptures and paintings made a tangible connect to an exhibition that illuminated the work of an artiste whose work was profoundly influenced by the sacred principles that underlie the art of ancient India.
Venue
- The National Museum, New Delhi. October 2016.
- The Alice Boner Institute, Varanasi. February 2017.
Dancers perform at the Alice Boner Institute in Varanasi
STRINGING
A collaborative work between Sudhaaya Dance Foundation and Sutra Arti Performative,
Italy. This program was supported by the Instituto Italiano di Cultura, New Delhi. The
artistic endeavour created a collage of works by artists, Paolo Pacciolla, Anna Luisa
Spagna, Shagun Butani and the legendary Guru Banamali Maharana.
Venue : Triveni Kala Sangam,New Delhi, March 2012.
EK- ANANT…The unending ONE
A Festival Of Solos
In a frenzied rush to create group works, not always to satisfy the artistic urge to create,
but rather to cater to the demands of the present times, the solo is being diminished. Curated by Shagun Butani and Priya Venkataraman, this two-day festival brought together eminent thinkers, scholars, and dancers to highlight the importance of the solo format in Indian Dance
Traditions.
This event was a collaboration between Sudhaaya Dance Foundation and the India International Centre, New Delhi. Dancers, Neena Prasad, Bimbawati Devi, Prashant Shah, A Lakshmanaswamy, Shagun Butani and Priya Venkataraman staged stellar performances for an appreciative audience.
Venue
- India International Centre, New Delhi. November 2014.
Senior Dance Critic Smt. Leela Venkataraman, Bharatnatyam exponent Malavika Sarukkai, Former Secretary Sangeet Natak Akademi Smt. Helen Acharya light the inaugural Lamp.
Dancers Shagun Butani, Bimbavati Devi, Priya Venkataraman
present different styles in the Solo format.
DEVI- Goddess on my mind
The Goddess in her different manifestations has always inspired the performing traditions of India.
In a spectacular presentation done at the Aravali Biodiversity Park in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram, seven performing traditions interpreted the Devi – the goddess in her endless forms that pervades the Indian sentiment and has been the inspiration for some of the greatest artistic renditions.
The ceremonial rendition of rhythm in the Pung Cholom, the evocative melody of a bandish, the full-bodied thrust of Bharatnatyam, the lyrical grace of Odissi and the earthy splendour of Purulia Chhau created a seamless flow celebrating the idea of the divine feminine, the source of the created world and the various mythologies that emerge from HER.
Stellar performances by Parshawnath Upadhyaye (Bharatnatyam), Shagun Butani (Odissi),
Dilip Mahato (Purulia Chhau), artistes from the Jawaharlal Manipuri Dance Academy Imphal,
Subhadra Desai (Hindustani Classical Vocal) enthralled a much appreciative audience.
Venue
- Amphitheatre at the Aravali Biodiversity Park, Gurugram. October 2018.
Fluid Stones
Interpreting the Feminine in Sculpture Through Odissi, a tradition in Dance.
Fluid Stones , a performance based on a research project that documented the way a woman has been represented in the sculptural traditions of India. Carved in stone, they became a fluid narrative of a life lived centuries ago. The performance illuminated a shared source of knowledge, underlying our visual and performing art traditions, that explore the limitless possibilities inherent in the human body to be the perfect medium of divine expression.
Venue
- The Allahabad Museum, Prayagraj. February 2020.
- Amphitheatre Sunder Nursery, Delhi. March 2020.
Fluid Stones was performed for the 90th Foundation Day of The Allahabad Museum, Prayagraj
The work of Sudhaaya, illuminates contexts and connections, takes us back to the sourceand makes us alive in the present. Through its work the foundation invites the spectator to go beyond the surface, to delve deep into a language of universal symbols and to truly participate in the rituals of art that India so generously offers.
Contact :
- Write Us
- Contactus@sudhaaya.com
