Priya & Ananda
(Image courtesy: AnandaPriya)
How nature finds its own ways to connect to us and surprise us every time never fails to amuse me. It's that season of monsoon when the rain gods don’t stop blessing us, and if the blessing doubles up with a combination of enjoying nature and art together, it is but a celebration of sweetness and joy. So what if getting out of the house gets messy, so what if we are unable to flaunt those white dresses, so what if we encounter serpentine jams, take a risky bet?...it is all worth it!
City based cultural organisation ‘AnandaPriya’ did exactly that and decided to soak in the monsoon flavours with their much awaited annual festival of dance and titled it ‘Amrutavarshini – An ode to the monsoons”. It rained art, abhinaya, passion, young blood, support et all in addition to the drizzle outside.
“Our motto is to create a good platform for art and artistes to come together” says Priya, one of the founders of AnandaPriya Foundation - a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of RBC Worldwide. Does it ring alarm bells in the art circuit? Well it is high time it did! AnandaPriya Foundation must be commended for this task of bringing the corporate world closer to the arts, and share social responsibility in creating visibility to the classical arts, something that has been much talked about, but rather done! On the flip side, it is time that the art world also gets a hang of what professional platforms are made of and what it takes to create opportunities.
RBC Worldwide, a brand development strategy company, after having established a strong foot hold in the health care sector, has taken on this ambitious, one of its kind, initiative in the arts sector to bring the much deserved grandeur to the classical performing arts.
The journey of this rare collaboration started with the foundation working on building credibility for itself in the formative stage. AnandaPriya brought the biggest names of classical arts to perform for them – Priyadarshini Govind in Bharatanatyam, Sriram Parasuram in a vocal lecture-cum-demonstration and Kumar Mardur in a Hindustani vocal concert. Today, after two years of successful effort, it is a platform that both stalwarts and youngsters yearn to perform for.
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| Kiranmayee | (Image courtesy: AnandaPriya) |
It was at this point that the organization decided to host two young artistes of the state at the PS Telugu University auditorium. Kiranmayee in Bharatanatyam and Hinamsee in Kuchipudi were reflections of the organization’s hawk eye for fine and deserving talent.
Barely two years post her arangetram, Kiranmayee Madupu has had a steady ascent in her career as a solo artiste, having performed at several noteworthy platforms and creating a niche audience for herself. Diligently training under Guru Hemamalini Arni, she comes forth as a polished artiste every time on stage, and this time ruled roost with her Abhinaya throughout the recital.
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| Himansee | (Image courtesy: AnandaPriya) |
Himansee Katragadda was a young dancer with all the traces of a body seeped in training under a good Guru Sudheer Rao based in Warangal. Mr. Rao deserves credit as a craftsman of good dancers, as was seen in Himansee’s well laid out recital and in the two little dancers for their sheer stage presence at this age.
With a backing of self-funding alone and no external sponsors AnandaPriya Foundation is definitely a boon to young classical artistes in an era where platforms and their worth is slowly diminishing. Ananda and Priya themselves dancers see their venture as a gesture of giving back to the art and artistes, something which they always wanted, but were never privileged to get – a good platform to dance their hearts away!
The Kalaparva, itself a self-funded initiative, applauds the effort and wishes the organization the best to bring quality art to the fore!
