Riddham Kathak School, Yelahanka New Town, celebrates its fifth anniversary with Tridhara, a dance recital by Sampada Pillai and Rujuta Sonam, and by Design 14 featuring Anjali Patil from Aroha Fine Arts, Canada.
“Design 14’s performance will be a taal dhammar , which will feature dance with 14 beats. Rujuta and I will present Ardhanareshwara Strotram . I will depict Shiva and Rujuta, Parvati,” says Sampada.
On why she chose to work with Rujuta and Anjali, she says, “I loved Anjali’s presentations and have earlier worked with Rujuta and feel we can collaborate beautifully.”
Sampada Pillai
Each of the three dancers is passionately involved in promoting Kathak. Sampada has co-choreographed for a short film Radha Bhakti Sudha which received the Jury’s Special Mention Award at the New York Short Film Festival 2008.
Besides dancing at various dance festivals across the country, her dance has also been telecast on DD Chandana. Rujuta is involved in dance therapy as a way of healing for the less privileged students learning at schools like Seva Sadan Society at Gamdevi, Mumbai. Anjali, a Canadian Kathak dancer, is an award-winning and internationally-acclaimed artiste. She trained under Padmabhushan Kumudini Lakhia and the late Pandita Rohini Bhate. “Anjali brings a refreshing take on an ancient classical form of Kathak,” adds Sampada.
The event is away of not just celebrating five years of Riddham, but also Kathak, says Sampada, who founded Riddham in 2012. Sampada gives complete credit to her mother for making her a dancer. “She initiated me into the classical form of Kathak when I was six years old.” Sampada is an alumna of Kala Academy, Goa, and is trained byAmala Suri Patkar. She has also completed the Parangat diploma in Kathak at the Kala Academy and moved to Pune to train under the tutelage of the late legendary Kathak dancer Rohini Bhate at the Nrityabharati Kathak Dance Academy.
Sampada who teaches children as young as six, explains that she is trained in a form that is a blend of the Lucknow and Jaipur gharana. “I follow my teacher’s style and am trying to explore my own expression with that boundary.”
To make her classes unique, the dancer says she uses a lot of audio-visual mediums and also reads books about Kathak to her students besides training them in the dance form.
Tridhara will be presented on November 5 at 3.45 pm at Ramana Maharshi Centre for Learning, Sanjaynagar. Call 9900908844 for details.
