Dancer Anita Ratnam to essay Ramayana in New York

Calcutta News.Net
Wednesday 20th June, 2007 (IANS)

Come Saturday and noted Indian danseuse and choreographer Anita Ratnam will essay the epic of Ramayana at an international story telling festival in New York.

To be held at the legendary Central Park, the daylong fiesta from morning to twilight has been organised by author and master storyteller Diane Wolkstein.

Ratnam will join several other storytellers from around the world, each bringing to the festival a distinct and different tradition and medium like music, speech, dance and mime to enrapture audiences.

Ratnam will represent India in her one-hour rendition. In her dance, she will use the vocabularies of Bharatnatyam and Tamil folklore that she has studied extensively.

'Speaking, singing, talking and dancing, Anita will open her performance with the image and invocation of Ganesa - the God of all good beginnings. Through her movements and verbally in English, she will re-tell the beloved legend of Rama,' a statement issued on her behalf here Wednesday said.

Ratnam has been extended this rare honour as she is recognised as a dynamic danseuse who enhances India's culture in the performing arts, particularly dance, with an eclectic world-view, the statement added.

'As a cultural ambassador of India, she has been a powerful messenger of the blend of traditional and contemporary Indian performing arts forms for which she has received rich accolades.

'A scholar and intellectual interpreter, her keen insight and varied knowledge has meant that she transcends the boundaries of traditional forms. As an articulate advocate for women's rights, this compelling speaker brings a unique interpretation to her presentations,' the statement said.

'She has often pushed the traditional perimeters of Indian dance and theatre through trans-cultural collaborations with sculptors, painters, writers, directors, poets and musicians.'

These include Pratirupa (1996), created with German modern dancer Alexandra Romanova; A Map to the Next World (1997), a cross cultural collaboration with Native American poet Joy Harjo; The Inner World (1998), a choreography/ acting project for Pangea World Theatre in Minneapolis; and the multilingual musical Kannagi (1998) for the Singapore Festival of Arts.

Ratnam also collaborated with Dipankar Mukherjee in Canada and premiered a solo show Vaitharani (2002) and Utpala (2004) on the metaphor of the lotus.

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