Ranga Mandira is a registered trust for the promotion of research in arts. An academic wing of Ranga Mandira Trust, called Ranga Mandira Academy of World Dance/ Performance and Indic Studies, is being inaugurated on August 2, 6.30 p.m. at Dakshinamurthy Auditorium, P.S. School, Mylapore.
Part time certificate courses on subaltern dance practices, histories, music pedagogies, arts entrepreneurship, Indological studies such as epigraphy and iconography will be offered. The tutors are from across the world. There will also be open day classes and workshops, where the public can walk in. There is also a course that brings together arts and sports. The institute offers all these courses, in partnership with international universities. It has also been recognised as a Ph.D centre under Sastra University.
Dancer Swarnamalya Ganesh, director of Ranga Mandira, says, critic and scholar T.S. Parthasarathy mentored Ranga Mandira. “I met TSP when I was about 14. He was a resource person for me and would explain the meanings of songs. In the process, he instilled in me the love for academic understanding of the history of arts. When my guru K.J. Sarasa wanted me to start a performing arts school, TSP mama added the educational and research aspect to it,” says Swarnamalya.
The inaugural speech is by Dr. Osmund Bopearachchi, historian and numismatist, and Adjunct Professor University of Berkeley, California. (Dr. Bopearachchi was featured in this supplement some months ago. Link: https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/coin-crusader/article7662522.ece)
Following this, Dr. Lakshmi Subramanian will deliver the T.S. Parthasarathy Memorial lecture and the topic is ‘Amateur Musicologist, or the empathetic connoisseur?
Music writings in southern India in the 20th century.’ It is presented by T. S. Parthasarathy Educational Research and Publication Trust and Ranga Mandira Trust.
