Press release–Celebration of 25 years and 150th Birth Anniversary of Tagore
05/12/2011 Leave a Comment
Press release–Celebration of 25 Years by Nrityakala the Rhythm
Nrityakala The Rhythm NK THE RHYTHM (AKA) presented Dance & Beyond and Mother Earth a dance theatre at The Bhavan Centre 4a Castletown Road London W14 9HE on 12th November 2011. An evening of captivating classical, folk and contemporary dance performed and mesmerized the packed audience. The show was dedicated to 150th Birth anniversary of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore .
Nrityakala The Rhythm was founded in 1986 as a school of Indian dance with the philosophy “learning through dance”. Over the years the organisation became a proponent of Indian culture and heritage in the UK. NK THE RHYTHM’s exciting journey over the last 25 years has seen the organisation evolve from imparting dance lessons and performing and creating shows to working in education, developing workshops and the filming and production of educational and documentary film and releasing of audio CDs based on the works of Tagore in many languages targeted to a worldwide audience. It has also brought Tagore to the centre of UK parliament by taking the works of Tagore to The House of Lords.
Producing dance theatre on poems and stories through translation is the central mission of NK THE RHYTHM. Karna-Kunti, Trivial Loss (Samanya Khoti), Phanki (Deception), Ashapurna has earned global accolades for innovation and presentation. The productions have been praised as unique pieces of theatre which successfully embrace and marry literature with acting bringing relevant issues to the audience’s conscience.
Mother Earth was produced on a poem “Prithibi” by Tagore adapting the original poem to highlight the issue mankind’s detachment from nature and destruction of nature and earth by modern civilisation. The piece is a homage to Mother Earth depicting tolerance and the metamorphosis of earth and nature “in abundance and terror” portrayed by Tagore. The production brought a new style and dimension to Tagore dance, blending classical music such as Schubert and Tchaikovsky, with modern western style of costume together with Indian classical music and Tagore’s songs and poems to portray the central message to the audience with an unusual twist. .
The dancer’s involved in the show were Suchismita Ganguly, Senjuti Das, Protima Chatterjee, Shawmi Das, Adity Roy, Nabanita Das, Sujoya Roy, Sulakshana Biswas, Reshmi Dutta, Bipasha Shreya Raha and Cid Shaha. They deserve special praise for their skilful rendition of various styles which brought the central theme to light – captivating the audience with their outstanding performance, Cid Shaha’s choreography in particular deserves a special mention. Manipuri Dance in gorgeous costume performed through Tagore songs and the Folk dance “Naga” from Northeast frontier of India charmed the audience as a rare repertoire in England “Dance and Beyond” and “Mother Earth” was conceived by Bithika Raha ‘Basu’, she single handedly wrote the script, directed and produced the show.
Pinache Khan conducted the show with grace and vivacity. Shomik Raha compiled, edited and mixed the music producing an end product that lifted the spirits of the audience. Bipasha Shreya the seed and significant pupil of the organization worked in the background to arrange editors for films, visuals, voiceovers and marketing. Sheyashi handled administration efficiently and skillfully, working in partnership with Bipasha Shreya, both being valuable assets to the organization.
Bithika Raha ‘Basu’ the Founder Director extended her heartiest thanks to Lord Dholakia, an active patron since 2004, the audience, well wishers and advertisers for their precious support, the participants and background workers Tithi Ghose, Chaya Biswas, Shomir Khan, Shreyashi Sarma Pati, Dhiraj and Hiru Varsani, , Kavi, Shyam, Archana Saha, Paresh Raha and other participants Jayanta Roy, Tirthankar Roy and Anuradha pal Chowdhury, Ajay Guha, Kingshuk Bose, Shankar for their participation.
The celebration of 150th birth anniversary of RabindranathTagore
NK The Rhythm’s central mission has been to commemorate this anniversary, a whole spectrum of events have been dedicated to Tagore, the calendar of events is given below:
- Karna-Kunti (dance theatre in English) and launching “In Many Moods” CDs at Rabindra Natya Mancha in Mumbai by invitation from the Dance Academy on 13 Feb 2011
- Screening of “A Touch of Tagore” at the Nehru Centre on 20 May, a film created and produced by NK THE RHYTHM. As part of the screening, the show ‘Tagore in Translation’ incl. Tasher Desh was performed as dance theatre in English with accompanying songs in Hindi.
- A Touch of Tagore’ –‘ by invitation of the Hindu Cultural Society and Leela based on “Bhanusingher Padabali”, as part of the a celebration of Tagore’s birth celebration by the society. which took place on 10 Sept 2011
- Interview with Founder Director Bithika Raha ‘Basu’ by Kishan Ralleigh.—-dedicated to 150th birth of Tagore – live on “Mere India on Sky 805” Venus TV on 8 November 2011.
- Dance and Beyond – A celebration of 25 years dedicated to Tagore which took place on12 November 2011 at Bhavan London.
- Karna-Kunti and screening of ‘A Touch of Tagore’ – At Sangam in based in Edgware (London) on 24 Nov 2011.
- Karna-Kunti and screening of ‘A Touch of Tagore’ – to be showcased in birth place of Rabindranath Tagore in Kolkata on 23 January 2012
