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India festival in Moscow

Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: An Indian cultural festival opened here at the Bolshoi Theatre on Monday with a Kerala dance version of Russian composer Tchaikovsky's `Swan Lake.' The ballet staged by Bharti Shivaji's Centre for Mohiniyattam is the first attempt to adapt the classic ballet to the Indian dance tradition while retaining Tchaikovsky's music and theme. Bharti Shivaji said the mood and music of `Swan Lake' had similarities with the Mohiniyattam style.

"It looks like Tchaikovsky composed music specially for Mohiniyattam," the dancer-choreographer said. She felt honoured to present her version of `Swan Lake,' first performed in Delhi in April, on the new stage of Russia's best-known opera and ballet house. "We couldn't have asked for more than [to] perform at the Bolshoi."

Raasrang, inaugurated by Information and Broadcasting Minister S. Jaipal Reddy, is the biggest Indian cultural event in Russia since the break-up of the Soviet Union 14 years ago. "Even as relations between India and Russia have been uniformly good, there is a need to sustain people's interest in each other's country through exchange of cultural festivals," Mr. Reddy said. He announced that a Year of Russia festival will be organised in India in 2008, to be followed by a similar Indian festival in Russia in 2009.

The week-long programme includes performances by santoor maestro Shiv Kumar Sharma and Rahul Sharma, "the Paganini of Indian classical music," violin player L. Subramaniam, flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, and a folk dance ensemble. An exhibition of Indian puppets and musical instruments is on in the Oriental Arts Museum of Moscow. The artists will perform in St. Petersburg, Tver and Kaluga.

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