Grace of male dancers

Abhinetri Arts Academy in association with Department of Language and Culture, Government of Telangana, organised a dance recital ‘Gandharva-A Male Dance Festival’ at Ravindra Bharathi on Saturday.

Artistes Pramod Kumar Reddy, Sanjay Kumar Joshi, Shiva Chandra and Perini Venkat performed Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Kandake and Perini. Reddy performed ‘Todaya Mangalam’ and ‘Ashtapadi’. ‘Mangalam’ is a set of songs welcoming the Gods Lord Rama, Krishna and Srinivasa with auspiciousness. It was also called ‘Aahwana Keerthanam’.

Venkat’s Perini dance, the ancient form of Telangana, is an ode to soldiers before they go for war. Joshi and Chandra enthralled the audience with their Kuchipudi and Kandake recitals.

“Male artists are getting opportunities in classical dance recently. Many people think that the classical dance is only for women.

Generally, women face a lack of opportunities in many fields but in dance, the scene is reversed. This is a first ‘Male Dance Festival’ in Hyderabad. We will support all cultural forms in city,” said B Venkatesham, Secretary to Government of Telangana.

“Male dance festival started in Madhya Pradesh, Chennai and Bengaluru. Every year the number of dancers is decreasing in this category. I hope these types of festivals will produce more dancers in future,” he said.

Reddy, who performed Bharatanatyam, said, “Previously male dance festivals are organised in Chennai and Bangaluru with the names ‘Narthaka’ and ‘Nayaka’. We are doing here with the name ‘Gandharva’ in Hyderabad. Our aim is to survive the male dancers for the upcoming generations.”

After the event, renowned male dancers VS Ramamurthy, Kala Krishna, Bhagavatula Seturam, Kumaraswamy and Mohammad Rafi were felicitated.