Festival Details

Bharatanrityam by Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam

Friday-Sunday, 22nd – 24th August

The artistic heirloom that we take pride in has been handed over to us for generations by the stalwarts of dance. These gurus have, through their dance institutions, kept alive the rich culture, sacred texts and knowledge of dance. Through the August Dance Residency, the NCPA seeks to celebrate premier dance institutions that have been the torchbearers of classical Indian dance.

As part of the residency this year, the NCPA has invited renowned Bharatanrityam maestro, Padma Vibhushan Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam and Nrithyodaya, a premiere public institution from Chennai. Along with a performance, the three-day residency will also feature a talk, and masterclass.

Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam is a dancer and a multi-faceted scholar holding a bachelor’s degree in music, a master’s degree in Ethno Musicology and Ph.D on the topic “Karanas in Indian Dance & Sculpture”. She is the first to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Dr. Padma is the President of Nrithyodaya, Chennai, the dance school founded by her father in 1942; Managing Trustee of the Bharata-Ilango Foundation for Asian Culture (BIFAC), which is a Pan-Asian research centre on performing arts; Managing Trustee of Director K. Subrahmanyam Memorial Trust and a Trustee of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi. She is a recipient of several awards including the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award & the Akademi Ratna (Fellow) from the President of India. She is the only Indian classical dancer to receive the prestigious Fukuoka Asian Cultural Award from Japan for “her contribution to development & harmony in Asia”. She is the first performing artiste to have been conferred the Honorary Fellowship by the Asiatic Society of Mumbai founded in 1804, for her academic achievements. She has to her credit several books and research papers in both English and Tamil. In December 2019, she convened the first National Seminar on Natyasastra in Chennai, for Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, in collaboration with Kalakshetra Foundation, and Bharata Ilango Foundation for Asian Culture (BIFAC), Chennai. IGNCA, New Delhi, has made a ten and a half hours documentary, “Karana Ujjivanam – Reconstruction Revisited”, delineating the practical reconstruction of the Marga system of dance, which bound the whole Indian Sub-Continent and Indonesia, through a common grammar, till about six centuries ago. This documentary was released in February 2022, during the Thanjavur festival, which was celebrated by Ministry of Culture through IGNCA, Archaeological Survey of India and South Zone Cultural Centre as part of the “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”.

Box Office now open.