Five-day fete dedicated to devotional music, dance

Sri Vishnu Mohan Foundation (SVMF), a non-profit research foundation endeavouring to bring transformational teachings of India to the fore, will be inaugurating Astapadi Music and Dance festival on February 22. Renowned dancer Chitra Visweswaran, eminent scholar Dr. Subas Pani, and K. Ayyanar, Regional Director, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) will grace the inauguration of the week-long festival. 

“Astapadi Music and Dance festival is part of our continuous endeavour of revisiting the values of the past for a delightful future. The event is being organised as a mark of reawakening Jayadeva who gave India the rich literary work of devotion impregnated with unparalleled lyrical style, diction of Sanskrit and love for God,” says Hari Prasad Swami, Managing Trustee of SVMF.   

The inaugural evening will enthral the connoisseurs of art with an Odissi performance by Sujata Mohapatra and Namasankeerthanam by Dr. R. Ganesh. The following day will witness Bharathanatyam by Shijith Nambiar and Parvathy Menon. Gopika Varma will be presenting Mohiniattam. Prof. H.S. Shiva Prakash, Theatre and Performance Studies, JNU, New Delhi, will be delivering a dialogue on culture. 

There will also be Kathak and Kuchipudi performances by noted artistes. Aruna Sairam and Pappu Venugopala Rao will deliver an evening of carnatic music to draw the celebrations of the festival to a blissful end on February 26. The cultural extravaganza will be held at Narada Gana Sabha, Alwarpet.