Sruti booklet

PRESENTS

MALAVIKA SARUKKAI APRIL 6- 12, 2014

SRUTI, THE INDIA MUSIC AND DANCE SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA IS PLEASED TO PRESENT INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED BHARATANATYAM DANCER MALAVIKA SARUKKAI IN A WEEK LONG RESIDENCY IN PHILADELPHIA CULMINATING IN A FULL LENGTH PERFORMANCE OF GANGA—NITYA VAAHINI— THE ETERNAL RIVER AT THE ANNENBERG CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS ON APRIL 12, 2014. SRUTIMALAVIKA.ORG | SRUTI.ORG

TABLE OF CONTENTS WELCOME, SUNANDA GANDHAM, PRESIDENT, SRUTI, THE INDIA MUSIC AND DANCE SOCIETY, PHILADELPHIA > PAGE 1 ABOUT MALAVIKA SARUKKAI & SRUTI > PAGE 2 ESSAY, SAVORING THE ART OF MALAVIKA SARUKKAI, BY LISA KRAUS WITH ACCOMPANYING ART BY JORGE COUSINEAU > PAGE 3 – 5 RESIDENCY OVERVIEW > PAGE 6 -11 BHARATANATYAM MASTER CLASSES, MONTGOMERY COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, SUNDAY, APRIL 6, PHILADELPHIA PREMIERE SCREENING OF THE UNSEEN SEQUENCE, DREXEL UNIVERSITY, MONDAY, APRIL 7 LECTURE DEMONSTRATION, PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9 PROFESSIONAL DANCE WORKSHOP, PAINTED BRIDE ART CENTER, THURSDAY, APRIL 10 GANGA: NITYA VAAHINI (THE ETERNAL RIVER), ANNENBERG CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, PERFORMANCE OVERVIEW & CONTEXT > PAGE 12 - 16 ABOUT GANGA: NITYA VAAHINI (THE ETERNAL RIVER) ABOUT THE COLLABORATING ARTISTS

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DEAR DANCE ENTHUSIAST, Sruti presents a week-long residency from April 6-12, 2014 featuring Ms. Malavika Sarukkai, one of the torchbearers of the Indian classical dance form - Bharatanatyam today. With a generous grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (PCAH), we are able to host this unique project involving 17 collaborators, many of them new to Sruti and Indian arts in general. The Sruti boards of 2013 and 2014 have been working diligently on this project since we received the grant in March 2013. Aligning to the mission of Sruti, the objective of the project is to increase the understanding of Indian classical dance among both Indian and mainstream audiences, help foster the continued vitality of Indian dance and create cross-cultural conversations among colleague artists. This project paves the way for many firsts in the history of Sruti, one being enhancing its presenting capacity by hiring professionals in curatorial, consulting, technical and project management positions.

As part of this project, engagement activities take place at the Painted Bride, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Drexel University and Montgomery County Community College, building audience for the Annenberg performance through the activities themselves and through this consortium of venues’ individual marketing strengths, each reaching a different segment of our wider community. We are also very proud to bring Malavika Sarukkai to the Sruti platform for the first time in 27 years. Her presentation: “Ganga Nitya Vaahini” has already received rave reviews around the world and we are very excited to bring her and this presentation not only to Sruti but also to the larger Philadelphia audience.

None of this would be possible without the monumental efforts by the 2013 Resources Committee: Ramana Kanumalla, Viji Swaminathan, Raji Venkatesan and our guest collaborator, Lisa Kraus who were instrumental in conceiving this project and securing the prestigious grant from The Pew for Sruti.

Bharatanatyam has been around for thousands of years as an offering to the Gods and all that is divine. While it mainly tells stories from the great Indian epics, it is a great medium for bringing people closer to spirituality and salvation. In the words of Rukmini Arundale, perhaps the most important revivalist of Bharatanatyam of modern day: “Bharata Natyam … is at the same time the art of the stage, drama, music, poetry, color, and rhythm. Its keynote is the dance which includes all the arts but whose message is not merely to the senses, and through them to a purely external enjoyment, but is to the soul of the dancer and the perceiver. Because of this message, Bharata Natyam is meant primarily for spiritual expression. It cannot be adequately danced by anyone without reverence for technique and for spiritual life.”* Obviously, very few artists are capable of transcending to higher levels of expressions and Malavika Sarukkai is one of them. With her deep knowledge of the principles laid down by the ancient treatise, “Natyasastra” and mastery over inner experience, she constantly succeeds in applying Bharatanatyam to become a medium to lead the spectators to this inner experience effectively.

The Sruti board invites you to this uplifting experience throughout the week during April 6-12, 2014. Come and learn about Bharatanatyam as a classical dance style and Malavika Sarukkai’s approach towards this ancient art form and its spiritual application.

On Behalf of Sruti Board of Directors, Sunanda Gandham President

* Rukmini Devi, “The Spiritual Background of Bharata Natyam.”

Classical and Folk Dances of India. Bombay: Marg Publications, 1963.

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ABOUT MALAVIKA SARUKKAI

ABOUT SRUTI

Intense, extraordinary and luminous are the qualities that distinguish Malavika Sarukkai ‘s dancing. With her artistic mastery and technique she commands a presence on the world stage having participated in several major international dance festivals. She is acclaimed globally for her creative dance choreographies, which transport the viewer to the heart beat of dance, taking dance beyond specific geographies. Her choreographic interpretations have the incandescent beauty of the classical language and the energized articulation of a contemporary mind.

SRUTI - The India Music and Dance Society is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in the Philadelphia region and founded in 1986. Sruti’s principal mission is to promote and present Indian classical music and dance. In addition, SRUTI seeks to educate the Philadelphia community at-large about Indian arts. SRUTI is a volunteer-run organization. Its leadership comprises an elected Board of Directors and several committees.

Malavika Sarukkai’s work is celebrated by critics, connoisseurs and the general public. Articulate, incisive and passionate, Malavika Sarukkai has evolved a unique series of lecture performances taking her art of classical dance successfully to corporate audiences such as Britannia Industries, NASSCOM, Titan Industries, TIE Stree Shakthi, WPO, YPO, Murugappa Group, NHRD Conference, INK Conference, TED India, AIMA Goa, Tata Excellence Business Conference, Chennai. In recognition for her contribution to classical dance, Malavika Sarukkai has received many awards including the Padmashree from the Govt. of India. Her exceptional artistry has been filmed by the BBC, German TV, French Art Channel.

Her first dance DVD entitled – Vaahini – the Sacred and the Worldly presents a range of her repertoire. More recently, a film entitled The Unseen Sequence directed by Sumantra Ghoshal has been made celebrating her distinctive intellectual and creative approach to dance. This searching and personal film continues to receive rave reviews from critics, connoisseurs and public.

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Every year, around 10 or more world class music and dance recitals are presented during the spring and fall seasons by SRUTI in the Greater Philadelphia region. SRUTI also collaborates and partners with other presenting organizations like the Painted Bride Arts Center, Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, The Annenberg Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and Montgomery County Community College.

SRUTI has received generous grants from private foundations and public organizations including the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Dance Advance and Philadelphia Music Project (funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts) and the Sam Fels Foundation in addition to a loyal and appreciative audience.

SAVORING THE ART OF MALAVIKA SARUKKAI

BY LISA KRAUS

Malavika Sarukkai is a shape shifter. In Ganga: Nitya Vaahini (The Eternal River), she doesn’t portray water, she seems to become it. Her rippling arms, her whole body convince us this is so.

She becomes the state of exultation too, and mourning. She becomes the devotee and the god who is supplicated. This is her art—through refined precision, extreme sensitivity, and depth of feeling, she transmits the essential quality of whatever it is she is dancing about.

Part of how she does it is in the nature of Bharatanatyam itself. In the Natyasastra, the 2000 year old root text laying out the principles of this and many other Indian classical art forms, dance is seen as inseparable from drama. The word “natya” means dancing and acting together.

The components Bhava (feeling, mood, expressed through the play of the eyebrows hands and face), Raga (music or melody) and Tala (rhythm, the expression of the feet guided by the rhythmic drum) are its foundations. The dancer often mimes, word for word, a poetic text that the singer performs. Using specific mudras—symbolic shapes formed by the hands—the dancer represents, moment by moment, the thing she is embodying.

Sarukkai says: “I distill what I see, and from that grows a movement. There is this whole internalization and distilling of what we see in the world.” Her approach, after more than four decades of dancing on stages all over the world, has become more abstract—less literal and more suggestive.

In comparison with the great Bharatanatyam forebear, Balasaraswati, she suggests more than shows. Bala emphasized the spiritual aspect of Bharatanatyam to counter the then-sullied reputation of temple dancers. But in our time, Sarukkai fully celebrates the sensual along with the spiritual.

The word “great” can rightly be applied to Sarukkai too. Hari Krishnan, a Bharatanatyam dancer and professor at Wesleyan University has said that Sarukkai is iconic. “In some quarters Bharatanatyam is synonymous with Malavika.”

The Evolution of the Artist and Her Dances When at the age of 16, Sarukkai determined to dedicate her life to the pursuit of her art, her mother, Saroja Kamakshi, could not have been more supportive. Throughout Kamakshi’s lifetime she worked with Sarukkai as a vital creative collaborator.

She was a “rasika” according to Sarukkai—a connoisseur of dance, someone who savored it “in the heart.”

Family conversations would revolve around philosophy and art. Sarukkai’s sister chose a different means of expression—writing and poetry. It’s her text that forms the basis of the “Lament of the Ganga,” Sarukkai’s response to the pollution and degradation of the Ganges in our time.

Sarukkai’s mother, through her job writing for the Times of India, found the first of Sarukkai’s gurus.

Thus Sarukkai trained ultimately in two schools. Through the Thanjavur school she gained grace, precision, subtlety, clean geometries and skill in rhythmic improvisation. Through her study of the Vazhavur school she mastered varied pacing, elaborate movements, and deep sitting and floor positions.

Malavika Sarukkai’s career has flowed on, beginning with pure adherence to tradition throughout her youth, passing into mastery and increasingly bending the form to her own ends in the ripeness of her middle years.

The dance Ganga: Nitya Vaahini (The Eternal River) reflects Sarukkai’s extended personal journey within Bharatanatyam. Having mastered the classical repertoire as a young dancer she moved away from it gradually, stretching boundaries through the making of her own pieces. In Ganga she uses modern poetry, addresses a contemporary and political topic (environmental degradation) and also in places leans toward the abstract where mudras figure less prominently

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and there’s a more impressionistic quality. The piece’s conclusion addresses the point at which the river flows into the ocean, touching on the Indian philosophy of non-duality. This is about merging, the river merging into the ocean. And by implication the merging of all souls with the godhead.

Sarukkai’s process of making dances is solitary to begin with. She’s normally inspired by something she has seen or read which touches her. It may have lain latent for some time. Her tribute to Thimmakka was sparked by reading the story of this village woman who couldn’t have children and went on to plant 247 banyan trees. The seed of Ganga was her visits to Varanasi where the river is a site of religious observance and Devprayag where she was moved to see the Ganges’ beginnings.

Sarukkai works alone in her Chennai studio for the first part of her creative process. She tries this and that. “We just have to dig in and find out,” she says. Her musicians may make her a “scratch recording,” but it’s very rough. “Is it this shade or that shade? What’s the nuance of the shade of emotion one is looking for?”

She regards this as a personal, intimate process, with forays out of the studio to consult with scholars about texts related to her subject. Dialogues about the music begin with the singer.

Gradually the elements take shape, further instrumentation is added, and the first time that everything comes together onstage is the “birth” of the piece. Following that, Sarukkai allows herself to modify and develop the work over time. Ganga has undergone this kind of further evolution over the course of the last decade.

“Over the years I’ve used less text or poetry,” she said. “I’ve done a lot of work with the abstract.

And most of my choreographies have a latent kind of philosophy on which they’re resting. I find that I’m very drawn to the philosophy of India.” For her, choreography underpinned by philosophical thought has a desirable profundity, and pushes her beyond what she might have explored if relying solely on the use of texts or more typical dance formats.

A story about the Ganges in four parts, Ganga: Nitya Vaahini (The Eternal River) contemplates four aspects of the great river.

The first is a birth. Inspired by spending time at the place where the Ganges originates at the junction of the Bhagirathi and Alakananda rivers in the Himalayas, Sarukkai celebrates this place of confluence in a dance, “Gangavataran,” composed mainly of melody and rhythm sequences. She delights in the mingling of the muddy brown and jade green waters and in how from this place of origin the river courses on its path through the vast Indian plains. The sinuous rippling of her arms enable us to feel her as water, with its surging energy. Her gestures invoke the river as whole body made up of individual sparkling droplets.

Next, she takes us to the sumptuous world of “The Courtesan” who, caring for her body and reveling in thoughts of her lover, inhabits a world of song and rich sense pleasures. The courtesan shares the same city—Varanasi—as Lord Siva, who was its founder. Where he is bedecked in ash, she is clothed in rich raiment and jewels. This contrast in the Holy City of the worldly with the sacred is part of the richness of Ganga.

The third section, is the “Lament of the Ganga” for present day pollution, as though the body of the river itself had been violated. The dance shrinks inward, contracting and contorting with distress. It also invokes the revival of the river with Sarukkai’s arms becoming fish, and propelled by the energy of the river reborn.

The fourth, “Mahasangam,” celebrates the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva with Sarukkai becoming both the gods, supplicated to and seen in statuesque poses, and the supplicant, seen in kneeling devotions. Her sense of the water’s ability to purify and make whole come through in dances of complex rhythms and playful jumps. This section concludes with a gathering, circling action in the arms that implies eternity and the continuity between now and the ancient past, a continuity of the ever flowing river and a continuity of danced devotions through time.

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How to Become a Rasika Hari Krishnan, Sarukkai, and Sunanda Gandham, President of Sruti, have all said that to partake most fully of the performance of Ganga, what we need most is openness and receptivity. Knowing much about the dance form of Bharatanatyam, or Indian cosmology, or exactly what the text is saying are not crucial.

It pleases Sarukkai that the word rasika stems from the word rasa, which in Sanskrit can represent food and nourishment, but also a supreme aesthetic experience. A rasika is a passionate connoisseur.

So, we are invited to relax and open. Can we be with Sarukkai as she passes through moods of ecstasy and despair? Can we witness her move from a subdued internal space to one that communicates directly, almost beseeching our response? Can we see how her movement, razor sharp and nearly imperceptible while shifting from one elegant or classic pose to another later becomes the opposite—luscious, sinuous and silken? Can we feel character emanating from the movement of her eyes or her stance?

Enjoying Sarukkai’s dance is like tasting a banquet of flavors. She encourages us to savor and feast on her art: its aroma and delicacy, its confidence and colors. And ultimately, its deeply nourishing character which remains as an after-taste, a resonance.

Ganga is meant to connect us to the full continuum of human experience. Beginning with the origin, the birth of the river, it traverses sorrows and joys, the worldly and the divine, the reality and challenges of properly tending to the environment in our contemporary world, and the ultimate inseparability we all find as single souls merging with the stream of life, just as the river merges and flows into the great ocean.

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BHARATANATYAM MASTER CLASSES BY MALAVIKA SARUKKAI SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 10 AM – 3 PM SCIENCE CENTER AUDITORIUM, MONTGOMERY COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, BLUE BELL PA FREE The acclaimed Bharatanatyam dancer Malavika Sarukkai will offer a sequence of three public master classes to 60 students in the Philadelphia dance community. The classes will be given sequentially with increasing levels of complexity and refinement. These are intended as an opportunity to observe the arc of training from the most basic level to the most advanced. Each class will be followed by a Q&A session to illuminate what has been taught. This event will offer teachers and students from the five-county area a rare opportunity to work with a master who can convey an extremely subtle understanding of performance presence and creativity that accrue with a lifetime of Bharatanatyam practice and artistry.

Photo credit: Stephanie Berger, NY Times

“A special treat will be to get a glimpse into how she thinks, how she is creative and genuine while staying within the realms of tradition.”

Madhavi Ratnagiri (Masterclass Participant) “The response has been so overwhelming! Over 11 dance teachers in the area have enthusiastically and cooperatively participated in this process and collectively nominated, in a timely manner, over 60 of their students!”

Uma Prabhakar, Raji Dinakar & Gayathri Rao (discussing planning the Bharatanatyam Master Classes)

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PHILADELPHIA PREMIERE SCREENING OF THE UNSEEN SEQUENCE MONDAY, APRIL 7, 7 PM URBN ANNEX SCREENING ROOM, ANTOINETTE WESTPHAL COLLEGE OF MEDIA ARTS & DESIGN DREXEL UNIVERSITY, 3501 FILBERT STREET, PHILADELPHIA PA POST-PERFORMANCE DISCUSSION BY MALAVIKA SARUKKAI FREE In Malavika Sarukkai - an artist rooted in tradition but with a uniquely contemporary sensibility - one of India’s most profound classical arts, Bharatanatyam, is being re-interpreted, renewed, invigorated.

The film is not simply about Malavika Sarukkai; it deliberates the valuable connections and departures that the artist makes from a hallowed and, often, unforgiving tradition.

Today, even as she impresses her footprint on the world stage as a celebrated Bharatanatyam dancer, Malavika finds herself making increasingly personal choices about how she wishes to lead that life. The questions she asks are essential and they have no easy answers in the re-iterations of craft. It is this co-existence of consummate artistry with a deeper, spiritual quest that makes her dance so exciting.

This event is co-sponsored by Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, Drexel University.

“Malavika has picked important moments from her current pieces and dissected and deconstructed those moments and re-pieced them together from what moves her in terms of why she did what she did. So it’s a very rich informative tool for any dancer, any choreographer, about how the dancing body moves and how the dancing mind moves.”

Hari Krishnan about The Unseen Sequence

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LECTURE DEMONSTRATION AT THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 6:30 – 7:30 PM PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART, SOUTH ASIA EXHIBIT HALL PART OF PAY WHAT YOU WISH WEDNESDAY NIGHTS Amongst the carved granite pillars in the Indian Temple Hall, Sarukkai’s demonstration will establish connection between Bharatanatyam and the visual arts of South Asia - temple sculpture and architecture, and paintings, particularly of Vishnu, Shiva and Rama.

“The sculptures in our temples and the paintings have these very beautiful women who are so sensual and so celebratory. They are full and affirmative. And yet what I felt was happening in the inheritance of dance as I had learned it, or what I had seen, was that the women were all getting very dependent. So I said ‘Why don’t I start changing it?’ and I started making them more affirmative. Sensual. To celebrate the body, alive, affirmative of themselves and of desire, of love.

It’s not that one is putting anything down. It’s just a slight shift.”

Malavika Sarukkai

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Photo Credit: Brian Slater, Birmingham Dance Festival

PROFESSIONAL DANCE WORKSHOP BY MALAVIKA SARUKKAI, KUN-YANG LIN, GERMAINE INGRAM & VALDA SETTERFIELD THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 10 AM – 4 PM PAINTED BRIDE ART CENTER A CLOSED EXPLORATORY WORKSHOP FOR PARTICIPANTS SELECTED BY APPLICATION 12 professional dancers have been selected through a rigorous application process to participate in a day-long workshop bringing together artists representing different disciplines and traditions to consider areas of mutual interest.

The workshop will be facilitated by Hari Krishnan from Wesleyan University and co-lead by Germaine Ingram to explore the idea of Rhythm and Musicality, Kun-Yang Lin to explore the idea of dance as devotion and dance and meditation and Valda Setterfield to explore the craft of acting in dance.

“Whether as the dancer or the viewer, a work that is truly impactful often affects us in a transcendent way; we leave changed, but cannot verbalize exactly how we have shifted. It is this liminal space, where the body meets the brain and the spirit as one, that I find the most gratifying as a dancer or mover. So, before entering the professional dance workshop with Malavika Sarukkai, I carry with me many questions.”

Becca Weber, Painted Bride Workshop Participant “What’s unique and new about this residency is the exploration of new ways to educate and promote this art to people who are not exposed to the Indian culture or its art forms before. Even better is the opportunity to explore commonalities between Bharatanatyam and other genres.

Collaborating with great artists like Valda Setterfield, Kun-Yang Lin and Germaine Ingram is something SRUTI has never done before.”

Sunanda Gandham, President, Sruti “I was intrigued when, in one interview, Malavika Sarukkai spoke about embodiment of elements; this is uncharted territory for me and excites me as something to explore.”

Sheila Zagar, Painted Bride Workshop Participant

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ABOUT THE CO-LEADERS Germaine Ingram is a jazz tap dancer, composer/choreographer, and vocal improviser. Her work is a constant evolution of styles and traditions learned from legendary Philadelphia hoofer LaVaughn Robinson (1927-2008), her teacher, mentor, and performance partner for more than 25 years. Through choreography, performance, writing, production, oral history documentation, and designing and leading artist learning environments, she explores themes related to history, collective memory, and social justice. She was named a 2010 Pew Fellow in the Arts. Her projects have been funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the PA Council for the Humanities, Independence Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, and Lomax Family Foundation, among others.

She received, among other awards, the Artist of the City Award from the Painted Bride Art Center; a Transformation Award (2008) and Art & Change Awards from Leeway Foundation; Rocky Award (2011) from DanceUSA Philadelphia; the Folk Arts & Cultural Heritage Practice Award (2012) from the Philadelphia Folklore Project; and a Sacatar Institute residency in Bahia, Brazil; . A former civil rights and trial lawyer, law professor, and school district executive officer, she serves on several non-profit boards dedicated to education reform, supporting arts and culture, and arts education.

Kun-Yang Lin, Artistic Director of Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers & Founder of CHI Movement Arts Center, is one of Taiwan's finest choreographers, receiving numerous awards in Taiwan, including the National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Award and the Taiwan Outstanding Artist Award. His early training in calligraphy, painting, figure skating and martial arts played a significant role in his development as an artist. Before moving to the U.S., Lin toured internationally performing the works of numerous European post-modernist & contemporary choreographers. In the U.S., Lin continued his body research with notable American modern dance and improvisation artists. Lin's has been presented throughout the United States and abroad as a choreographer a highly sought teacher.

His choreographic work has been presented by numerous dance companies, universities and high schools. Lin's devotion to artistic excellence inspired him to found the CHI Movement Arts Center, described by Gov. Ed Rendell as "a place where the entire Philadelphia community can experience the art multicultural creative dance expression." Back Stage called Lin "the year's most promising choreographer in NYC."(2002), The New York Times has called him "an extraordinary dancer" and The Philadelphia Inquirer has hailed him as a "theatrical visionary... outstanding choreographer and compelling performer." He received, among other awards, the Artist of the City Award from the Painted Bride Art Center , was given the "Pride of the City" designation by the Mayor of Hsin-Chu, Kun-Yang's hometown and was named one of Philadelphia's "Creative Connectors."

Valda Setterfield, British born dancer/actor & an American citizen has worked with: JoAnne Akalaitis, Woody Allen, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jonah Bokaer, Boris Charmatz, Caryl Churchill, Merce Cunningham, Graciela Daniele, Richard Foreman, Maria Irene Fornes, Carmen de Lavallade, Brian DePalma, Ain Gordon, David Gordon, Ivo van Hove, Don Mischer, Marie Rambert, Yvonne Rainer, Donald Saddler, Michael Sexton, Gus Solomons Jr, Jeanine Tesori, James Waring, Robert Wilson & Mark Wing-Davey @ A.C.T., A.R.T., BAM, Danspace, DTW, The Joyce, Joyce Soho, The Kitchen, Mark Taper Forum, MOMA, NYTW, PS 122, The Public, Soho Rep & Tate, UK. She was a member of Merce Cunningham’s Company for 10 years & founding member of Pick Up Performance Co(S.) She is an Obie recipient. In 1984 she recived her 1st NY Dance & Performance award, her 2nd in 2006 & a 3rd BESSIE in 2010 for work with Paradigm.

In 2013 she improvised, related & performed previous solo materials in 20 DANCES FOR THE XX CENTURY & moderated as guest artist in FLIP BOOK by Boris Charmatz @ MOMA and performed for Jonah Bokaer in OCCUPANT in Washington, DC & Miami. In 2014 she performed in POLITICAL SHENANIGANS, a Brecht/Eisler workshop in Philadelphia.

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“OH SHE’S AN ICONIC DANCER, ABSOLUTELY. IN SOME QUARTERS BHARATANATYAM IS SYNONYMOUS WITH MALAVIKA.” HARI KRISHNAN

“EVERY DECADE OR SO THERE’S A MOMENT IN A DARKENED THEATER OR WATCHING A SCREEN WHEN I SEE THE DANCER BEFORE MY EYES WORKING A PARTICULAR MAGIC.” LISA KRAUS

GANGA: NITYA VAAHINI (THE ETERNAL RIVER) SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 8 PM ANNENBERG CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS’ ZELLERBACH THEATRE MALAVIKA SARUKKAI WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY A LIVE ORCHESTRA About Ganga:Nitya Vaahini (The Eternal River) This ballet, choreographed by Ms. Sarukkai, celebrates the historic River Ganga.

Having created this work over the course of a decade, Malavika combines technical brilliance with an intense depiction of emotions in paying homage to the sacred river and its importance in Indian culture, history, the environment, and spirtuality.

The production journeys from the geographical confluence of the two great rivers, Bhagirathi and Alakananda, at Devprayag, high in the Himalaya mountains and traverses physical terrain and metaphysical spaces. ‘Ganga’ is at once the mythic river emerging from Lord Siva’s matted locks as it is also the river of life coursing through the plains of India. She is the Eternal River – a silent witness to the relentless cycle of birth and death, to the sacred and profane, to purity and pollution.

And now, in our times, she laments about the pollution and its environmental implications while moving finally towards the ocean. As the river surrenders her identity to the ocean she reflects the profound philosophic Indian truth of Advaita (a philosophy that self, Atman, is nothing but Brahman or the supreme. The separate self dissolves in the sea of pure consciousness, infinite and immortal).

The performance will be followed by a moderated Q&A session by Lisa Kraus

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Photo Credit: Deepa Colour Lab

“In considering how best to provide context for Malavika Sarukkai’s work, especially for audiences less familiar with Bharatanatyam, this question was raised: How can we help audiences have a better sense of what the various texts sung during the performance mean? Options like surtitles and printing the full text in the program were considered, but we chose instead the following experiment—a ‘sister art work’ in the form of a short video created by multimedia artist Jorge Cousineau based on the underlying images and texts used in ‘Ganga: Nitya Vaahini (The Eternal River).’ Prior to the performance this video screens in the lobby.

Included here are ‘frames’ from the video.”

Lisa Kraus

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“SHE TALKS ABOUT THE DANCER DEVELOPING HERSELF IN WAY THAT GOES DEEPER THAN PHYSICAL TRAINING: PURSUING AN INNER DEVELOPMENT THAT AN AUDIENCE FEELS IMMEDIATELY WHICH HELPS THEM EXPERIENCE ‘SAVORING,’ A KIND OF RESONANCE THAT CONTINUES AND ECHOES AFTER THE PERFORMANCE.” LISA KRAUS

Photo credit: Brian Slater, Birmingham Dance Festival

ABOUT THE COLLABORATING ARTISTS

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Nandini Sharma Narayanan (Vocals) is one of the disciples of renowned singer Smt. D.K.Pattammal, and is now under the training of Smt. Suguna Purushothaman. She is an A grade artist of All India Radio. She has received the Best Vocal Support Award from The Music Academy and Krishna Gana Sabha. She is the accompanying artist for all the leading classical dancers, Smt. Vaijayanthimala Bali, Smt. Sudharani Raghupathi, Ms. Malavika Sarukkai and Ms.Alarmel Valli.

Srilatha Shamshuddin (Nattuvangam) trained under her renowned father, Guru Sri C. Chandrasekar, who teaches at the music and dance institution Natya Kalalayam in Chennai. She holds a diploma in Bharata Natyam from Chennai’s Kalakshetra Foundation. She has performed widely with well known gurus and their troupes all over the world, and has provided nattuvangam support for various dance productions since 2002.

Srilakshmi Venkataramani (Violin) is one of the prime disciples of renowned violinist Kalaimamani A. Kanyakumari. She is a B high grade artist of All India Radio and public broadcaster Doordarshan. She received the Best Violinist Award in 2000 from the Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, followed by the same award from Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha in 2003. Her creative playing of the violin enhances the concert as it ably reflects all the nuances.

Balaji Azhwar (Mridangam) is an A grade artist of All India Radio and the public service broadcaster Doordarshan. He has accompanied top-ranked musicians and traveled widely. In addition, he has received several awards from various sabhas (organizations). As a top ranking musician he brings to the concert an input which celebrates the technique of the percussion instrument and the splendor of rhythm.

Sai Shravanam Ramani (Tabla) is the recipient of the National Award from the Indian government.

He is fluent in various percussion instruments and piano and is well versed in music arrangement and Western scores. He has performed with renowned musicians from all over the world on recordings and in concerts nationally and internationally. More recently he was the sound recordist from the Indian side for the sound mixing team for the movie the Life of Pi which won the Oscar.

K. Muruguan (Light Technician) has wide and varied experience in his field, having worked with most of the leading artists from India. Having watched Indian classical dance extensively, he brings to his lighting nuance and precision. His competency lies in his ability to bring quality while adapting to diverse conditions.

Lisa Kraus’s (Curator) career has included performing with Trisha Brown, choreographing and performing for her own company and as an independent, teaching at universities and arts centers, presenting the work of other artists as Coordinator of the Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series, and writing reviews, features and essays on dance for internet and print publication. She trained in Graham and Cunningham techniques before attending Bennington College where Judith Dunn and Steve Paxton were her teachers. Dancing with the Trisha Brown Dance Company from 1977-82, she continues to restage Brown’s work at venues including the Paris Opera Ballet and Venice Biennale. She began writing to communicate about this experience and has been published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Dance Magazine, Dance Research Journal, Contact Quarterly, the Dance Insider, the Dance Advance Publications & Research site and her own weblogs. She was a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in Dance Criticism and in 2011 co-founded thINKingDANCE, an online dance journal and dance writers’ training scheme. At Bryn Mawr she has featured artists including the Khmer Arts Ensemble, Pandit Chitresh Das with Jason Samuels Smith and Susan Rethorst as well as stellar music and theater performers. Guest curating this SRUTI project has been a new and welcome venture.

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Hari Krishnan (Advisor) is an internationally respected dancer, choreographer, teacher and dance jjj scholar. He is an award winning dance-maker who combines classical elegance and populist echoes. Krishnan has trained with hereditary dance masters including K.P. Kittappa Pillai & R. Muttukkannammal, specializing in devadasi (courtesan) dance and contemporary abstractions of Bharatanatyam. He is World-Dance-Artist in Residence at the Department of Dance in Wesleyan University (Connecticut). Hari Krishnan is frequently commissioned as a forward thinking, innovative choreographer with an original edge to create works in the US, UK, Canada, Singapore and India. He holds a Master's degree in Dance from York University (Toronto) and is currently completing his PhD in the dance department at Texas Woman’s University. Krishnan's research areas include colonialism, post-colonialism & Indian dance, globalization & the arts of India, Bharatanatyam in Tamil cinema & the history of devadasi dance traditions in Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh, South India. He is a regular contributor to academic conferences on cultural history and dance around the world. Of Krishnan, Stephen Preece, The Record, Kitchener, Waterloo says "Without a doubt, the choreography of Krishnan has an inspired, even genius quality to it." and Michael Crabb of The Toronto Star says "Hari Krishnan the maverick gadfly is aggressively iconoclastic."

Jorge Cousineau (Video Artist) was born in Dresden, Germany, where he studied scenic design and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. During that time he began combining his visual training with dance and music. As a DJ and sound designer he extended his interests to music production and composition, organizing installations and performances and composing scores for dance. In 1996 he was invited to create music for Philadelphia based Group Motion Company during their residency at the Festspielhaus Hellerau. There he met his wife Niki and relocated to the States.

Since then Jorge has created sets, lights, sound and projections for nearly 200 dance and theater productions. Most notably with the Denver Center, Milwaukee Rep, Actors Theatre Louisville, Primary Stages NYC and locally with the Wilma Theater, 1812 Productions, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Theatre Exile, New Paradise Laboratories (which he joined as a member in 2009), Subcircle (a collaboration with his wife Niki) and the Arden Theatre Company (where he has designed 52 shows). Jorge has received fellowships from the Independence Foundation (2004, 2009), the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage (2011) and has received the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Theatre Artist (2004), a Drama Desk nomination, a Lucille Lortel Award, and Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Set Design and Outstanding Sound Design for three productions. In 2011 Jorge was named Theatre Artist of the Year by Philadelphia Weekly.

“SHE’S NOT A CONTEMPORARY DANCER IN A WESTERN SENSE AT ALL BUT SHE’S A CLASSICAL DANCER FOR THE NEW TIME, INFORMED BY HER CONTEMPORARY THINKING AND BY BREAKING DOWN THE BHARATANATYAM ALPHABET TO ITS ESSENTIAL CORE AND BUILDING BLOCKS AND REASSEMBLING IT ACCORDING TO HER BODY AND HER MINDSET.” HARI KRISHNAN

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THANK YOU & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS SRUTI BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2014

Sunanda Gandham, President Santi Kanumalla, President-Elect Venkat Kilambi, Treasurer Madhavi Ratnagiri, Secretary Kishore Pochiraju, Director, Resources & Development Suresh Tyagarajan, Director, Publications & Outreach Nari Narayanan, Director, Marketing & Publicity Uma Sivakumar, Director Sundar Arunapuram, Director

MALAVIKA SARUKKAI RESIDENCY SUB-COMMITTEE & PROJECT TEAM

Sundar Arunapuram Sunanda Gandhamm Ramana Kanumalla Santi Kanumalla Venkat Kilambi Lisa Kraus, Curator Nari Narayanan Kishore Pochiraju Uma Prabhakar Lakshmi Radhakrishnan Balaji Raghothaman Gayathri Rao Madhavi Ratnagiri Dara Schmoyer, Project Director Uma Sivakumar Suresh Tyagarajan Raji Venkatesan

RESOURCES & DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Kishore Pochiraju (Chair) Ramana Kanumalla Venkat Kilambi Srinivas Pentavalli V.V.Raman Raji Venkatesan

MARKETING & PUBLICITY COMMITTEE Nari Narayanan (Chair) Sundar Arunapuram Bheem Bhat Srikant Raghavachari Ranjini Shridhar Uma Sivakumar

PUBLICATIONS & OUTREACH COMMITTEE Suresh Tyagarajan (Chair) Vidya Jayaraman Lakshmi Radhakrishnan Srikant Raghavachari Balaji Raghothaman

SPECIAL THANKS

Malavika Sarukkai Allen Sabinson, Lisa Visco and the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design team at Drexel University Bill Bissel, Josie Smith, Erin Read and the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Carolyn Merritt Dara Schmoyer Elizabeth Milroy, Mekala Krishnan, Darielle Mason, Jenni Drozdek and the Philadelphia Museum of Art Germaine Ingram Hari Krishnan Helen Haynes and Montgomery County Community College Jorge Cousineau Kun-Yang Lin Lisa Kraus Mahalingam and Viji Mani, SanKritiLaya Matt Sharp Megan Wendell & Rose Mineo, Canary Promotion Michael Rose and the Annenberg Center Team (Madison Cario, Dawn Frisby Byers, Madison Cario, Thomas Ames, Rebecca Goering) Nan Melville & Sasha Popov, Nan Melville Photography and Video, New York, NY Ramaa Ramesh Ravi Pillutla Siobhan Groves, Blake Didonato and the Painted Bride Art Center Suburban Studios Graphic Design Tori Lawrence, Graphic Designer Valda Setterfield Viji Swaminathan

This presentation of Malavika Sarukkai and accompanying residency activities has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

2014 EVENT SCHEDULE LALGUDI G.J.R. KRISHNAN AND LALGUDI VIJAYALAKSHMI– VIOLIN CONCERT Saturday, May 3, 2014 • 4:30 PM Agnes Irwin School, Bryn Mawr PA

AMRITHA MURALI CARNATIC VOCAL CONCERT Saturday, May 17, 2014 • 4:30 PM Agnes Irwin School, Bryn Mawr PA

KALAKSHETRA “SITA SWAYAMWARAM” DANCE BALLET Saturday, September 20, 2014 • 8:00 PM This performance is co-presented with the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

PANTULA RAMA CARNATIC VOCAL CONCERT Saturday, October 18, 2014 • 4:30 PM

GAYATHRI VENKATARAGHAVAN CARNATIC VOCAL CONCERT Saturday, November 1, 2014 • 4:30 PM

All events, dates and venues are subject to change.

Check www.sruti.org for latest information.

Details, Season Passes and Event tickets are available from www.sruti.org E-Mail srutiphila@gmail.com for questions or to join mailing list.

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