Nrityagram is India's first modern

Gurukul Education in India is primarily managed by state-run public education system, which fall under the command of the government at three levels: central, state and local. Under various articles of the Indian Constitution and the Right of Childre ...

(residential school) for Indian classical dances and an intentional community in the form of a dance village, set up by

Odissi dance Odissi (), also referred to as Orissi in old literature, is a major ancient Indian classical dance that originated in the Hindu temple, temples of Odisha – an eastern coastal state of India.Protima Gauri in 1990. The residential school offers training in Indian classical dance forms,

Odissi Odissi (), also referred to as Orissi in old literature, is a major ancient Indian classical dance that originated in the temples of Odisha – an eastern coastal state of India.Mohiniattam,

Kathak Kathak ( hi, कथक; ur, کتھک) is one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance. It is the classical dance from of Uttar Pradesh. The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards in ancient northern Ind ...

Bharatnatyam Bharatanatyam () is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the eight widely recognized Indian classical dance forms, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of ...

, Kuchipudi, Kathakali and Manipuri, eight hours a day, six days a week for seven years, following the ancient Guru-shishya tradition. Designed by famous Indian architect

Gerard da Cunha Gerard da Cunha (born 1955) is an Indian architect based in Goa. He is the founder and principal architect of the architecture firm Architecture Autonomous. An alumnus of the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, he is known for utilizing lo ...

, the community is situated near

Hesaraghatta Lake Hesaraghatta Lake is a manmade reservoir located 18 km to the north-west of Bengaluru in Karnataka state, India. It is a fresh water lake created in the year 1894 across the Arkavathy River to meet the drinking water needs of the city. Sir ...

30 km from Bengaluru. Today the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble has performed across India and in many countries abroad.

History

The word Nrityagram, literally translated, means "dance village," and in founder, Protima Gauri's own words, Grounds and gardens of the Nrityagram Dance Community

Grounds and gardens of the Nrityagram Dance Community

Protima left Mumbai in 1989 to start the dance village, the land was given on lease by state government and by 1990 the institution had taken root, inaugurated on 11 May 1990, by the then Prime Minister, V.P. Singh. Being designed by the well- reputed Indian architect

, the building started coming up soon after, following the

vernacular architecture Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. This category encompasses a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, bo ...

of the region. The Nrityagram Dance Ensemble made its New York debut in 1996 and received rave reviews. Lynne Fernandez a Delhi-based theatre actress and light designer, first came to Nrityagram in December 1995 to coordinate Surupa Sen's debut and the Nrityagram ensemble's trip abroad and after Protima suffered a mild heart attack, Lynn became actively involved managing the institution, as Protima gradually withdrew. Eventually Protima formally handed over Nrityagram to Lynne Fernandez on 10 July 1997, who became the Managing Trustee of the institution. Subsequently, in August, Protima Gauri set off on her pilgrimage to

Kailash Mansarovar Lake Manasarovar (Sanskrit: मानसरोवर), also called Mapam Yutso (;) locally, is a high altitude freshwater lake fed by the Kailash Glaciers near Mount Kailash in Burang County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The ...

and it was there that she died in the

Malpa landslide The Malpa landslide was one of the worst landslides in India. On 18 August 1998 at 3.00 a.m., massive landslide wiped away the entire village of Malpa in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand, then in Uttar Pradesh in Kali Valley of Higher Kumao ...

, near

Pithoragarh Pithoragarh ( Kumaoni: ''Pithor'garh'') is a Himalayan city with a Municipal Board in Pithoragarh district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the fourth largest city of Kumaon and the largest in Kumaon hills. It is an education hub of t ...

on the night of 18 August 1997. Since then, Nrityagram has grown in its stature by leaps and bounds and is known today for some of the best ensemble work in. Perfection in dance along with a high level of good technical support, leading to a complete presentation, is its trademark. Even today, gurus and students work in the fields within the Nrityagram, which has 10 acres of land, and grow their own food. Over the years, only Odissi gurukul has been functional due to paucity of funds. Classical Dancers At Nrityagram

Buildings in the Nrityagram Dance Community

Surupa Sen who first came as a student, debuted in 1995, later became artistic director of Nrityagram in 1997, and remains to date. Orissa Dance Academy (ODA) student Bijayini Satpathy who was first student of Nrityagram, is now in charge of the Odissi gurukul. Some of Nrityagram's few but meritorious students include, Pavithra Reddy, who has had her solo debut in 2003 and who will be hopefully seen in some solo pieces on a wider platform very soon. She has spent almost 12 years as a residential student at Nrityagram, and has learnt under the tutelage of Surupa Sen and Bijayini Satpathy. Ayona Bhaduri and Priyambada Patnaik are also students at this gurukul. They both joined Nrityagram in 1998 and have been a part of the ensemble since 2001.

Vasanta Habba Vasanta Habba ( kn, ವಸಂತ ಹಬ್ಬ), which means ''spring festival'' in the Kannada language, is a cultural festival organised by the Nrityagram foundation in the city of Bangalore, India. It is a very popular event and is considered th ...

, a cultural event organised by Nrityagram is known as the classical

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, first started in 1994 by Protima, held on first Saturday of February every year, and soon it became the famous annual night-long festival of arts that had 40,000 visitors when it was last held in 2004. When the

2004 tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Su ...

struck, the subsequent 2005 event was cancelled, and community hasn't been able to regroup since, though it hopes to restart it in 2011. A 30-minute documentary on the dance village, ''Nrityagram: For the Love of Dance,'' directed and produced by Nan Melville was premiered at the annual Dance on Camera Festival, in New York City on 25 January 2010 to which dance critic

Alastair Macaulay Alastair Macaulay is an English writer and dance critic. He was the chief dance critic for '' The New York Times'' from 2007 until he retired in 2018. He was previously chief dance critic at '' The Times'' and Literary Supplement and chief theater ...

of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' responded, .."much of the dance footage, not least during the closing credits, is spellbinding. I wanted the film to be twice as long."

Nrityagram Dance Ensemble

The 1996 New York debut of the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble, with Surupa Sen, Bijayini Satpathy, Anitha Nair, Pavithra Reddy and Jaya Mukherjee was called, "one of the most luminous dance events of the year" by

Jennifer Dunning Jennifer Dunning (born February 4, 1942) is a writer and critic for ''The New York Times'' on the subjects of dance and ballet. She is the author of the 1985 ''But First a School: The First Fifty Years of the School of American Ballet'', the 1996 ...

, the dance critic of the ''

''. After its New York debut, the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble has performed to sold-out shows in Hawai and Bozeman, USA, Middle East, Far East and Europe, and in time created a niche for itself in the world of dance. Today, apart from lead dancer-choreographers, Surupa Sen and Bijayini Satpathy, Pavitra Reddy, Rasmi Raj and Manasi Tripathy are the other permanent dancers of the Ensemble, and are accompanied by musicians like Swain playing the percussion instrument, ''Mardala'', Srinibas Satapathy’s on

Bamboo flute The bamboo flute, especially the bone flute, is one of the oldest musical instruments known. Examples of Paleolithic bone flutes have survived for more than 40,000 years, to be discovered by archaeologists. While the oldest flutes currently kn ...

( Bansuri) and Sanjib Kumar Kunda on the violin. Its first full-length production "Sri - In Search of the Goddess", was premiered in Delhi in 2001 and in the United States in 2002-2003, to critical acclaim. Since then it created several productions including, "Ansh", "Sacred Space" (2005), and "Separation and the Duality of the human spirit" (2008) By 2008, the ensemble had made 12 tours of the US, its 2006 production, ''Vibhakta'' (The Division), by Surupa Sen which was performed together by Surupa Sen, the artistic director, and Bijayini Satpathy was listed in "The Ten Best Dance Performances of 2008" by dance critic

Joan Acocella Joan Acocella (née Ross, born 1945) is an American journalist who is a staff writer for ''The New Yorker''. She has written books on dance, literature, and psychology. Education and career Acocella received her B.A. in English in 1966 from the ...

of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. and prior to it in February 2008, the Ensemble had the world premiere of "''Pratima'': Reflection", at

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Joyce Theater The Joyce Theater (“The Joyce") is a 472-seat dance performance venue located in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. The building opened in 1941 as the Elgin Theater, a movie house, and was gut-renovated and reconfigured in 1981-82 to re ...

.Rachel Straus, (February 2008), Review: Nrityagram Dance Ensemble: ‘Pratima: Reflection’, ''Ballet.co.uk''
, accessed 30 March 2008 It has also performed at

Pittsburgh Dance Council The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (PCT) is a nonprofit arts organization formed in 1984 to promote economic and cultural development in Downtown Pittsburgh. The "Trust" has focused its work on a 14-square block section called the Cultural District, wh ...

(2002). As of 2010, the ensemble members included, Surupa Sen, Bijayini Satpathy, Pavithra Reddy, Rasmi Raj and Manasi Tripathy.

Temple of dedication

A thoughtfully evolved temple (''pictured''), built in 1998, welcomes people to the Nrityagram, near

, it depicts the image of

Kelucharan Mohapatra Kelucharan Mohapatra (8 January 1926 – 7 April 2004) was a legendary Indian classical dancer, guru, and exponent of Odissi dance, who is credited with the revival and popularizing of this classical dance form in the 20th century. He is ...

, guru of founder Protima Bedi in a dancing pose. The caption given for the picture states:

''Temple at Nrityagram. Fashioned from the raw mud of Nrityagram and fired after it was built, the temple is dedicated to space. It is decorated with panels depicting the elements, dance motifs, mudras and designs from costumes and ghungroos. Inside is a granite rock scooped out to hold water and a flame that stays lit.''

Gallery

File:Nrityagram1.jpg File:Nrityagram2.jpg File:Nrityagram3.jpg File:Nrityagram4.jpg File:Nrityagram5.jpg File:Nrityagram6.jpg File:Nrityagram7.jpg File:Classical Dancers Of Nrityagram.jpg

References

* ''Time Pass: The Memoirs of Protima Bedi'', with Pooja Bedi Ebrahim. New Delhi, Penguin, 2000. .
''Nrityagram: For the Love of Dance'', documentary by Nan Melville (Excerpts)

External links

Nrityagram, the official website

Nrityagram, the official facebook fan pageNrityagram, the official facebook group

Archival footage of Bijayini Satpathy and Surupa Sen performing in "Kisalaya Shayana" at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2006.
{{authority control Dance schools in India Odissi Boarding schools in Karnataka High schools and secondary schools in Bangalore Music schools in Bangalore Intentional communities in India Arts organizations established in 1990 Educational institutions established in 1990 1990 establishments in Karnataka 20th-century dance 21st-century dance Tourist attractions in Bangalore