NCPA

This is a CHAURAHA presentation.

This is a rare opportunity to witness a dialogue in dance between Kathak dancer Alaknanda and Romana, a national Baroque dancer from Poland.  A recital featuring this collaboration between exponents of two court dances was presented at the Cracovia Dance Festival , Poland, in 2009.

Alaknanda is an accomplished Kathak practitioner and Founder-Director of the Alaknanda Institute of Performing Arts in Noida. She has trained rigorously in Kathak with Guru Munna Lal Shukla. An empanelled artist of ICCR, she has received the Singar Mani title from the Sur Singar Sansad and the Best Dancer title by the Sahitya Kala Parishad. Her performances have taken her to various festivals in the country, including the Kathak Mahotsav, the Surya Festival, among others. 

Romana Agnel — dancer, choreographer, art historian, founder of Ardente Sole (the only professional Court Ballet in Poland) -- is currently the Managing and Artistic Director of the Cracovia Danza Court Ballet. An alumnus of the Community Ballet School in Krakow, she later trained in Paris and deepened her interest in the Indo-European roots of dance by training in Bharata Natyam in Paris and later in Chennai. As a choreographer and dancer, she collaborates with Krakow theatres, the Warsaw Chamber Opera, the Royal Castle in Warsaw and many other institutions in Poland and abroad. In 2009 she was honoured by the ‘Meritorious for Polish Culture’ distinction by the Minister for Culture and National Heritage.

There will be a discussion with the two collaborators after the performance.