Citsabha Collective’s dance festival in Bengaluru is about the pursuit of excellence

Citsabha Collective’s dance festival in Bengaluru is about the pursuit of excellence

Bengaluru-based Citsabha Collective will host a dance festival called Svadhyaya. “Svadhyaya, means self study in Sanskrit,” says Kuchipudi dancer and founder of Citsabha Collective, Srividya Angara Sinha. “When we want to pursue excellence in any field, svadhyaya is a pre-requisite. The attitude for self-study has to be deeply rooted in oneself, if they wish to make inroads into a field of their choice. This being the core thought, we have named the festival Svadhyaya. It is a platform for artists who make this their central thought in the pursuit of excellence.”

Svadhyaya is the second festival organised by Citsabha Collective following the percussion festival in 2019. Svadhyaya will include a jugalbandhi featuring Srividya and Shubha Nagarana, an odissi dancer and the co-founder of Citsabha Collective.

“We will present a choreography called Samaagati. The dance is based on Adi Shankara’s Meenakshi Pancharatna. It showcases the life story of Meenakshi, who is born out of fire and is trained in warfare and war craft. She conquers every realm and no one can match her valour on the battlefield. She eventually becomes so powerful that she plans to conquer Kailasa itself,” says Srividya.

This dance will be followed by a jugalbandi between Bharatanrityam-Kathak, featuring Rohini Prabhath and Medhavini Varakhedi and a solo Bharatanatyam recital by Shruti Gopal, the artistic director, Upadhye School of Dance.

“We also will be felicitating Sowmya and Sanak Athreya who have been working for over a decade in the field of therapy for special children through Carnatic music and their organisation called Svarakshema Foundation. They are deserving artistes and we wanted to thank them for what they have done in this field. They have worked with over 2000 neuro-divergent children with their Integrated Indian Music Therapy Program across centers of special education.”

Srividya is a gold medalist in Master of Performing Arts - Kuchipudi from the University of Hyderabad. She also holds a B Tech degree in computer science and engineering from VNR Vignana Jyoti Institute of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad. Besides this, she is also an A-grade artiste with Doordarshan and an empanelled artiste with SPICMACAY, who is currently learning Kuchipudi from Jaikishore Mosalikanti.  

Svadhyaya , supported by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and NMDC (National Mineral Development Corporation), will be presented on February 25, 4pm at Seva Sadan, Malleswaram. The event is open to all.