Event Details

Odissi by Sujata Mohapatra & troupe and Kathak & Flamenco by Aditi Bhagwat & Bettina Castaño

Sujata Mohapatra has set a benchmark for excellence in Odissi today. Her performances and panache have catapulted the art form to the global stage. Mohapatra had 20 years of tutelage under Kelucharan Mohapatra. She is a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the Pandit Jasraj Award, the Sanjukta Panigrahi Samman, the Mahari Award, the Aditya Birla Vikram Samman and the Raza Foundation Award, among others. She has performed extensively in India and abroad and teaches Odissi.

Aditi Bhagwat is an internationally renowned Kathak and Lavani exponent from Mumbai who has performed at dance and music festivals across the globe. She trains students in both the Indian classical and folk dance forms. She has worked in different disciplines of dance and music, including flamenco, jazz, folk and world music. She received the OneBeat Fellowship from the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs where she collaborated with musicians from various parts of the world. With a strong foothold in Kathak, Bhagwat has explored collaborative ideas in rhythm and movement in combination with flamenco and Lavani.

Bettina Castaño is one of the new-generation flamenco dancers in Seville, Spain. Her seemingly inexhaustible wealth of choreographic ideas and dance repertoire motivates her to create a special type of performance, constantly alternating instrumental performance with dance pieces. Castaño runs her international dance studio in the centre of Seville. She holds dance courses in leading European cities and in New Delhi.

ADITI DANCE COLLECTIVE’S “CROSSROADS”- A KATHAK FLAMENCO LAVANI PROJECT SYNOPSIS: Two powerhouse genres of dance and music, two gifted experimental artistes and musicians come together in ‘Crossroads: Kathak Flamenco Lavani collaboration’. Kathak exponent Aditi Bhagwat and Flamenco artist Bettina Castaño explore the timeless connection between the two dance forms. The stark similarities between the Indian classical dance form Kathak and Flamenco, a form associated with the gypsies from the South of Spain, echo a shared deep rooted history. The origin of Spanish Flamenco can be traced back to the nomadic gypsies of Rajasthan and one of the three predominant schools of Kathak is the Jaipur Gharana to which Aditi belongs. How else can these two dance forms, developed across distant lands, bear such innately striking resemblance in their nuances, intricate footwork, rhythmic patterns, swirls and percussive hand clapping? The visceral feeling of semblance that arises from observing the similarities between the two dance forms have always intrigued versatile Kathak exponent Aditi Bhagwat and Flamenco artiste Bettina Castaño. Extending this collaboration to Lavani and Flamenco capturing the Gypsy elements of the two folk styles, the dancers bring another dimension to the merger. Crossroads has featured at the Art of India festival (Times of India), SHE awards (Telegraph Newspaper, Kolkata), Women of the Week festival (Kerala Arts and Crafts Village), Prithvi Theatre, Royal Opera House, the Indian Fine Arts Society (Bahrain) and Sangeet Natak Akademi’s International Dance Festival in Delhi. A short excerpt of their collaboration has reached 14M views on Instagram.

BETTINA CASTAÑO – flamenco
EMMANUEL SIMON – Percussion
SHRUTI BHAVE – violin
SWAPNIL BHISE – Tabla
CHETAN KINHEKAR – flamenco guitar
ADITI BHAGWAT – Kathak and Lavani

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