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.