"Brihadeeswara" by Bala Devi Chandrashekar
Company:
Sangam Festival
"Brihadeeswara" - form to formless, through the eyes of an ancient Indian Temple dancer - Devaradiyal". This story is based on the 1000 year old UNESCO heritage site - The Thanjavur big temple in India. This production celebrates the intertwining of the spatial and spiritual vibrations experienced by the temple dancer, as the temple dancer goes about her day to day life in the hallowed architectural wonder of this very unique 1000 year old UNESCO Heritage site based in India.
This production across four acts celebrates the Devaradiyaal's beauty and the architectural mastery of the temple while tracing her day to day life oscillating between the spectacular form of the temple and the enlightened awareness of the Lord's formlessness as the cosmic dancer. The production weaves the connection between the physical, metaphysical, lyrical and spiritual significance of each facet of the magnificent structure.
Bala Devi Chandrashekar is a Bharatanatyam exponent and scholar of international repute. Bala Devi is the senior disciple of Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam - who is regarded as the foremost scholar of Bharatanatyam. Bala is one of the few active performing dancers, who has an in depth understating of the 108 Karanas or ancient temple sculptures and of “ Natya Sastra” the oldest treatise on dance written around 200 BCE. Bala has the unique ability to connect theory and practice and actively lectures in many universities across the world. Bala has served as the artist in residence at Princeton University. Bala has given over 500 performances across 30 countries and is renowned for her ability to connect the complex treatise with simplicity. Bala is one of the few Bharatanatyam dancers worldwide to have been featured at the UNESCO, HO in Paris as a part of the world heritage celebrations.
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