City to witness ‘Sindhu Mahotsav’- a 3-day dance festival

• A 3 day’s dance festival conceptualized and choreographed by renowned dancers Vaibhav Arekar and Sushant Jadhav.
• Organized by ‘Sankhya Dance Company’ in association with ‘Mudra Centre of Performing Arts’

Pune, 25^th February 2016: Founded by renowned Bharatnatyam Dancer Vaibhav Arekar, ‘Sankhya Dance Company’ will be organizing a 3-day dance festival titled as ‘Sindhu Mahotsav’ in association with city based ‘Mudra Centre of Performing Arts’. The festival will take place between March 4^th and 6^th, 2016 at Tilak Smarak Mandir and Modern College Premises located at Ganeshkhind Road. A brain child of acclaimed Bharatnatyam dancer ‘Vaibhav Arekar’ and Sushant Jadhav, this festival will host variety of Indian classical dance performances with a workshop for dance students this year. This was announced by Vaibhav Arekar, director of this festival during a Press Conference organized in the city today.

Poonam Gokhale, founder and director of ‘Mudra Centre of Performing Arts’ and Sushant Jadhav, renowned Kathak dancer, choreographer and also a director of the festival were also present on this occasion.

Speaking on the occasion Vaibhav said, “’Sindhu Mahotsav’ was started three years back in the remembrance of my beloved mother. This is the 5^th successful edition of this festival which is getting superior in every aspect with the each passing year. Many renowned and honored artists like Priyadarshani Govind, Padmabhushan C.V. Chandrashekhar, Uma Dogra, Ratikant Mahopatra, Malavika Sarukkai have performed so far during ‘Sindhu Mahotsav’ and made it memorable.”

Founded by Vaibhav Arekar in 2009 ‘Sankhya Dance Company’ was founded by the quest to find the contemporary within classical. With its directors Vaibhav Arekar and Sushant Jadhav today Sankhya is recognized amongst the foremost dance company with an impressive repertoire of dance works that range from the traditional to classical-contemporary, solo to ensemble work.

Poonam Gokhale founder and director of ‘Mudra Centre of Performing Arts’ said, “Sindhu Mahotsav has been winning hearts of Mumbaikars till now. This festival very beautifully intertwines the classical, contemporary and folk dance styles to offer the best of all for its viewers. We are glad to be associated with them for another year and bring this dance festival for Punekars.”

This year, Day – 1 (Friday, March 4^th) of ‘Sindhu Mahotsav’ will be organized at Tilak Smarak Mandir at 6pm. The inaugural performance will be by a noted Odissi Dancer – Sharmila Biswas. Titled as ‘Apar Kay’ this solo performance will present wonderful foot work of Bharatnatyam. This will be followed by another Kathak Solo performance by renowned Kathak danseuse Maneesha Sathe.

Day – 2 (Saturday, March 5^th) will be held at Modern College Premises located at Ganesh Khind Road at 6.00pm this day will be devoted to folk dance and will include Lavani performance by city’s famous Lavani Dancer Shakuntalabai Nagarkar. Her performance will be followed by Javali Performance by Meenakshi Srinivasan from Chennai. A Javali is an expressive Bharatanatyam number with colloquial lyrics and faster tempos usually featuring the Nayika addressing her beloved, or the divine being, from a human level. This will be followed by Vaishali Trivedi’s Thumri performance.

Day – 3 will be organized at Tilak Smarak Mandir at 6pm. The concluding performance of this festival on Sunday, March 6^th will be by none other than VaibhavArekar. Titled as ‘Nama Mhane – An Awakening’, Vaibhav will be presenting a Bharatnatyam Performance based on the teachings of SantNamdev for the viewers through this stage performance.

A special workshop will also be organized during this Dance Festival. The workshop will take place on 5^thand 6^th March between 9.00am to 4.00pm at Kumar Parisar Club located near Gandhi Bhavan in Kothrud. It will have renowned dancers like Sharmila Biswas, Meenakshi Shrinivasan, Vaishali Trivedi, Kalishwaran Pile, Mahendra Damale and Shital Patil to train the participants. This workshop will cover the various topics like rhythm, painting appreciation, dance movement, choreography, dance talk, dance and architecture. This 2-day workshop is specially meant for dancers who want to enhance their performance skills. Hence the workshop design has sessions that will help the dancers gain an understanding of other allied arts. This will help them to understand the inter relationship of dance and other allied arts.

​​The workshop is free for all the students however prior registration is mandatory for this workshop.

Tickets for Sindhu festival will be available at Tilak Smarak Mandir from March 3^rd or one can contact at 9822831228 for any information regarding the same.