Shankaraa Foundation organised a grand event to showcase the talent and culture of Karnataka at its premises on Kanakapura Road recently.
This programme was the culmination of the summer workshop, held in association with the Dwaraknath Reddy Institutes for Knowledge Foundation and Association for Voluntary Action and Services.
Shankaraa Foundation worked with 60 gifted children from the slums of the State. This event consisted of different performances by the children that varied from classical to folk forms, and was an exciting conglomeration of dance, music and theatre. It showcased the enthusiastic and undying spirits of these children.
The programme consisted of students performing traditional folk forms, which included pooja kunitha, pattada kunitha, maramma, dollu kunitha and tamte.
A theatrical presentation mixed with dance, ‘The Giving Tree’, choreographed by Rasshme Hegde Gopi, was also staged at the event. This simple, yet moving parable by Shel Silverstein, was adapted in a different style, by mixing dance and music.
The simple message was about nature suffering because of human greed. ‘The Giving Tree’ comprised of children doing various art forms like yakshagana, bharatanatyam and more.
Rasshme Hegde Gopi says, “The concept behind ‘The Giving Tree’ is that children understand the connection with nature, and appreciate nature which nourishes us and shelters us. We also aim to help them understand the need to respect and nurture nature back in return.”
The evening’s performance was followed by an odissi recital by Meera Das and group.
They performed different pieces that left the crowd impressed. Starting with Jagganatha Mangalam, an invocation to Lord Jaganath, the performance moved on to desh pallavi in raga desh; sakhe, a piece about Radha’s conversation with her friend about wanting to meet Krishna again and Dashavatar, a group composition depicting the various avatars of Lord Vishnu.
The performance concluded with Shanti Mantram, a piece about salvation.
Sangeeta Sarita, a Hindustani music recital by Sangeeta Katti and her group followed next, where she performed a lot of classical ragas in film music.
Suvarna, a participant at the workshop, said, “Earlier, folk and classical forms and their names were just words to them. But now, we are able to identify the difference between different forms. Also, it was a learning experience to be able to teach younger children, what we had learnt.”
Ragini another participant, added, “The theatre performance made me realise how selfish we are, and how we should care for nature.”
Arjun S, another participant said, “I had heard of dollu kunitha before, but getting a chance to learn and perform it was a great experience. There was the initial worry about hands hurting but with practice I got used to it.”
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements> Metrolife / DHNS / May 03rd, 2013