LEGENDARY DANCERS STEP AT PECDA

Dance is the most graceful art performed in various countries with different cultures. It has now progressed by taking different styles of dance to reveal the transformation in art and culture. Lately, there have been lot of opportunities for young, budding dancers to exhibit their talents.

Prakriti Foundation, which is well- known for promoting varieties of culture through art forms, is no less in providing opportunities for creative artists to widely express their creativity. This time, as Prakriti Foundation presented its first edition of Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance Awards (PECDA) in Chennai, the City rejoiced the dance season with renowned dancers.

 “In PECDA, the idea, for the mentor, is to gently engage with the dancer/group and nurture areas that need mentoring. It could be anything — dramaturgy, design, costume, lighting, sound, etc,” says Ranvir Shah, the founder of PECDA.

Filled with passion, excitement and hopes, the 11 participants were all ready to occupy the prominent stage at the Museum Theatre, Egmore. These 11 artists, who were shortlisted from 20 entries, include eminent dancers Chitra Arvind, Gilles Chuyen, Preethi Athreya, Padmini Chettur, Swati Mohan, Mehneer Sudan, Sowmya Jaganmurthy, Archana Kumar, Ronita Mukerjee, Divya Naidu and Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy.

There were six performances staged on August 25th, and on August 26th, the rest five performers took over the stage. All the dance performances comprised of different themes featuring unique styles. The dancers conveyed an exceptional fashion of performing their contemporary dances according to their themes with each participant possessing skilful attributes in showcasing their passion.  Just as the saying goes “Every good thing must come to an end,” likewise, after such remarkable recitals, the season came to an end on the 26th  eve, when the six expert jurys pronounced the winner for Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance Award to  Deepak Kurki Shivaswami, a contemporary dancer, performer and a teacher whose creative works have been presented all over India and Europe. This success has paved him way to receive prize of money 5 lakh and also to receive mentoring from Akhram Khan Dance Company. Also, the next Prakriti Foundation’s Park New Festival 2013 held in six cities will feature his dance performance.