Kathak dance with Dhrupad music witnessed at Bhopal

For the first time, Bhopal classical dance lovers witnessed the beauty of Kathak blended with the serenity of Dhrupad music. Renowned Kathak exponent V Anuradha Singh presented a scintillating performance at Samanvay Bhavan. Marking the second day of International Performing Arts Festival (IPAF) on Friday, Singh left the audience totally enthralled with her performance.

Singh is known for her innovation and a fine blend of Dhrupad with Kathak is beyond imagination. Not only this, but Singh went a bit far and innovated Kathak footsteps with the African Djembe music. Singh started off with Shiva Vandana showcasing different roops of Lord Shiva in Fakta Taal. Laced with the Rudra and Tandav forms of Lord Shiva, Singh presented the composition with almost 150 chakras of Kathak. She presented the composition over the tunes of Dhrupad music in Raga Todi.

Following with this, Singh performed Pure Kathak on the rhythms of Pakhawaj on stage. This left the audience spellbound as they had never watched such an experiment before. “Kathak with Dhrupad has never been performed ever before. So I experimented the two Hindustani classical traditions together for the first time,” informed Anuradha Singh. Her performance was followed with Kathak on African Djembe. She presented Matidut Bedam and Rela of kathak with the sharp tuned of African Djembe. 

The dance was a scintillating one as, Singh performed breathless composition over the African Djembe. All through the six minutes, Singh made the audience glued to their seats as she presented the kathak segments non-stop. Singh synchronised 27 Chakras with the rhythms of violin and synthesiser making the performance even more delightful.

The African Djembe composition was created by Salim Allahwale. He also played Tabla and was accompanied by Manoj Bamule on Violin, Shahid on Synthesizer and Zakir Hussain on Sarangi.

Prior to Singh’s performance, Oddisi dance performance was presented by Vrinda Chaddha. Later Prasanna Joshi along with his troupe performed ghazal musical night before the audience.