News & Notes
THE BHAVAN’S WORLD DANCE DAY CELEBRATIONS 2023
The Bhavan, London celebrated the International World Dance Day on Saturday 29 April 2023. It was cause for much celebration for The Bhavan as well as the dancers as we were reviving this event at The Bhavan auditorium after a two-year break due to the pandemic.
The event saw performances by dancers and dance schools from across England who performed to a sold-out auditorium.
The selected themes for this year were ‘Dance in response to the climate change and the natural environment’, and ‘Dance in response to the increasing digitalisation of every aspect of today’s life’.
The day began with an inaugural Bharatanatyam performance by Kavya Muralidharan, who presented an excerpt of her solo choreography Thryambak. The evening session began with a prayer by Bhavan’s Director Nandakumara MBE, and a symbolic lighting of the lamp by him and two of Bhavan’s executive committee members Jayshree Rajkotia and Ruby Bunker.
Katrina Rute and team presented a classical Odissi piece after which we had a keynote address by Ragasudha Vinjamuri, who spoke about the importance of presenting art that reflected the current social conditions, and how the world dance day pieces were important aspects of these thoughts.
This was followed by performances by Amritha Jayakrishnan and team, Satyam school of dance and music, Debanjali Biswas and Manipuri dance ensemble, Samarpana classical arts, Cambridge, Divya Kasturi company young talents, Asmitha Keer and team, Monidipa Seal and team and Abhinav Mishra and Amun Bhachu team.
The general and folk segment began with a Bharatanatyam presentation by The Upahaar School of Dance, followed by a heart-warming semi-classical/Bollywood performance by Edgware dance group of women over 50's.
After this the audience was treated to energetic folk dances by Ragasudha&Sanskruti centre for cultural excellence (Tribal), Garba folk dance group (Garba), London school of Hula and 'Ori (Hawaiian), Ponsita school of dance (Tamil harvest folk), and SarjanNartanAcademy (Rajasthani folk).