Shaniwarwada Dance & Music Festival enters in its 16th year

·         The fest will be held on March 5th at Shaniwarwada Lawns

·         Theme of this year’s festival – ‘Innovation in Kathak’

Pune, February 27th: Maintaining the legacy of presenting the best cultural dance forms and performances by renowned personalities from the field of dance and music this year Shaniwarwada Dance & Music Festival is entering in its 16th year. Celebrating this successful journey, this year the fest will have the theme as ‘Innovation in Kathak’. Following this theme, there will be performances like as ‘Surtaalingikam’ and ‘Bahukon’. The festival will be organised on March 5th, 6:30pm onwards at Shaniwarwada Lawns. This was announced by Sabina Sanghvi, the chairperson of The Shaniwarwada Dance & Music Festival Committee.
 
Dance Guru Maneesha Sathe along with Shaniwarwada Dance & Music Festival’s organising committee member Gayatri Devi Patwardhan and Neelam Seolekar were also present on this occasion.  
 
Speaking on the occasion, Sabina Sanghvi said, “The 16th edition of this festival is dedicated to the innovations we are witnessing in Kathak. This year all performances whether it is Surtaalingikam, Bahukon, Gat-Gati, Suverna, Shiva Tandav, Abhinaya or the concluding session Tarana, every session promises to mesmerise the audience.
 
Bringing the historical premises of Shaniwarwada alive, the stupendous journey of the fest will begin with ‘Ganesh Vandana’, which will be conceptualised, choreographed and performed by Prerana Deshpande with Nrityadham Group. This will be followed by ‘Surtaalingikam’ – a beautiful and traditional kathak presentation of three main aspects of kathak – sur, taal and aangikam. This will be a group choreography in which music, rhythm and movements are artistically woven in pure classical Kathak dance form. Next performance will be by the troupe of Kadamb Dance who will present ‘Bahukon’ – which will showcase various Kathak dance compositions choreographed by Kumudini Lakhia. Under this performance, ‘Gat-Gati’ will be based on the movements of Kathak known as ‘Nritta’. ‘Suverna’ will showcase continuous weave patterns in dance, decorating the space with movements and rhythms.
 
Turning out the eve to be a magnificent event, the fest will also have, Shiva Tandav, a performance composed and sung by Gundecha Brothers – the eminent Dhrupad singers. Through Abhinaya, the audience will witness a Jugalbandi of musical lyrics and expressive dance forms. All these performances will be presented by artists like Sanjukta Sinha, Rupanshi Kashyap, Mitali Dhruva, Bhakti Dani, Mansi Modi, Mihika Mukherjee and Kritika Ghanekar.
The tickets of the festival will be available for sale from February 24th to March 4th. Tickets will be available at DVD Express – Aundh, Balgandharva Rangmandir and Yashwantrao Chavan Natyagrah and O Hotel – Koregaon Park. Tickets will also be available for sale on the venue from 11.00am on the day of the event. Available in two categories, the ticket will cost Rs. 300 and Rs 200. One can also book the tickets online through Book My Show website.
 
This year the festival will be supported by USK Foundation as the title sponsors. 5F World, Weikfield, More Mischief, Radio One, O Hotel and Pure Gold Fine Chocolate will be Associate Sponsors of the event.