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Pancham
 
To mark our 40th anniversary in 2021, we celebrated of our impact on dance in Leicester and the development of Indian classical dance in the UK and internationally. Two projects are being delivered: Pancham and Parampara. We are grateful for support for this work from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England, Curve Theatre and Leicester City Council. 

Pancham in Hindi and Sanskrit means ‘the beautiful 5th’. So in June and July 2021, five online seminars, led by international speakers from the UK, India and Canada, explored themes from the practice of classical Indian dance. They included Mira Kaushik, former Director of Akademi; Hari Krishnan, Canadian Bharatanatyam dancer and research scholar; Roshan Datye, Dr Padma Subramaniam and Dr Swarnaraj Ganesh – all academics working in India. The speakers will illustrate their presentations with images, performance clips from films, and commissioned performances in Kathak and Bharatanatyam.

A series of 2 recordings of our free educational online seminars discussing various topics on Indian classical dance hosted by Nidhi Rupa Joshi. 

Timeless Dance Traditions of Devadasi Past to Future by Dr Swarnamalya Ganesh 

Pancham was funded by Arts Council England and it will also include commissioning an emerging dancer, Meera Patel, to create a piece based on a poem by Tulsidas presenting various aspects of Rama, hero of the epic poem Ramayan to be performed over Diwali 2021. ACE have also supported ‘Tattva-2’, which means ‘truth’ or ‘reality’ in Sanskrit. This now annual showcase will be held in early 2022 in partnership with Curve Theatre. It will reprise pieces from CICD’s past productions, as well as present new work, ‘The Road to Nine Sentiments’ choreographed by young dancers mentored by Kesha Raithatha.