Recreating magic of Kathak

On Thursday, January, 25 at the Ananda College Hall, famous Kathak dancer from India, Geetanjali Lal will recreate the magical atmosphere of the Mughal darbars and the Rajasthani courts of yore, with the brilliance of Kathak footwork, the sensuousness of the thumri and the majesty of dances like the Durga stuti when she dances in celebration of the 58th Republic Day of India.

Geetanjali Lal will be heading a nine-member Kathak dance troupe to Sri Lanka. Geetanjali, who is considered a great exponent of abhinaya, will be performing a thumri in which she will through the use of mind, hand gestures and expressions, evoke the emotions of the thumri, which are songs of love and separation. She will also perform dance items which bring out the nuances of the Jaipur school of Kathak dance.

A very special composition will be the Bho Shambho. In praise of Lord Shiva, this is a specially choreographed Kathak dance set to a Carnatic composition by Dayanand Saraswati. Another highlight will be the Salami, in which male dancer Sunil Lal and the young and beautiful Seema Malhotra will perform the Kathak as danced in Mughal courts, full of breath-taking pirouettes and brilliant footwork in a fast paced dialogue with the tabla.

The grand finale will be an effervescent Holi dance, in which all the performers will sing, dance and play with colours, recreating the spring festival celebrated in March all across northern India. Holi also signifies the victory of good over evil.

Geetanjali has learnt Kathak from a young age from some of the great exponents of Kathak like Roshan Kumari, Mohan Rao Kalyanpurkar and Devi Lal. She is presently a guru at the Kathak Kendra, New Delhi.

She will also be performing on January 27 at the Trinity College Hall in Kandy and on the 29th at the Indian Cultural Centre (ICC), Colombo. Passes for all shows may be collected from the ICC.