Kiran Subramanyam and Sandhya Kiran.
Credit: Special arrangement
By Anusha Mary Jones
The Nruthya Neerajana Dance Festival, annually hosted by Ananya GML Cultural Academy, will be held on Sunday.
The festival aims to honour individuals who have contributed to the development, learning and sanctity of traditional dance forms in India with the Ananya Puraskar award.
The recipients this year are Bharatanatyam dancers Kiran Subramanyam and Sandhya Kiran, founders of Rasika Arts Foundation. They have dedicated the past 40 years to this field. The festival will also feature a performance by their disciples, with rare compositions such as the ‘Nandi Chol’, a tribute to the divine bull (Shiva’s vahana), ‘Soordas Bhajan’, a depiction of Krishna convincing Yashoda of the missing butter and a dramatic segment of ‘Kalinga Narthana Thillana’.
“My goal was to make Bharatanatyam a fad,” Kiran Subramanyam tells Metrolife. “In the beginning of my journey, society would look down on me for being a male dancer, but now it’s great to see how times have changed,” he says, adding, “Bengaluru has the second highest number of male dancers.”
On December 14, 6 pm at Seva Sadan, Malleswaram. Entry free.