Soul of Ganges

If I haven't been posting on a regular basis, it's because Sudeshna Maulik and I have been working extremely hard in organizing Soul of Ganges. This was the public launch of our kathak and tabla school, Sangeet Kala Kendra. We have been offering weekly classes at the local Bharat Bhavan for some time now, however we had yet to present our first performance under the banner of the school.

Presented in collaboration with the Kabir Cultural Centre, Soul of Ganges featured a performance by the great sitar maestro, Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan, accompanied by the wonderful Subhajyoti Guha on tabla. The evening opened with Sudeshna's kathak dance performance, accompanied by myself on tabla and Raja Bhattacharya performing lehra on sarod.

We opened with a segment in Dhammar Taal (14 beat cycle), followed by madhya and drut Teentaal (16 beat cycle). As the theme was 'Soul of Ganges', Sudeshna demonstrated aspects of flowing water, as well as depictions of Shiva and Parvati.

After an intermission for chai and samosas, Ustad Shahid Parvez took to the stage and blew everyone away with his virtuosity and depth. We are extremely grateful to Ustadji and Subhajyoti for coming to perform for this special occasion in Montreal.

It was great to see that so many of the Indian music and dance lovers in Montreal came out to support our launch. We couldn't be more pleased with the turnout - the Maison de la culture Frontenac was filled to capacity; we unfortunately had to turn people away. We'll have to book a bigger hall for our next event!

I just did a quick online search, and wow! - someone has already posted a blog and videos. Click here to read Bettina Forget's take on the evening. And here is her YouTube videoclip of our performance:

(Now the world can hear me count in Hindi. Oh boy...)

And a clip of Ustadji:

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Special thanks to Arif Ali Khan from the Kabir Cultural Centre for the photos!

Kathak in Marlboro, Vermont

From March 5 through 7, I was in residence at Marlboro College (Marlboro, Vermont), along with cellist Jake Charkey and kathak dancer Sudeshna Maulik. We were invited to teach and perform for the faculties of music and dance by Prof. Stan Charkey.

On March 5, Jake and I gave an Indian music workshop for Prof. Charkey's world music class. The class had previously learned a bit about Carnatic music, so we started by talking about some of the similarities and differences between Carnatic (South Indian) and Hindustani (North Indian) classical music. We then got into a discussion of the tabla and taal, and the cello and raag. Jake demonstrated a few different ragas, and I had the class clapping teentaal and rupaktaal. I performed a short solo in rupak, and demonstrated a few tihais.

Later that day, Jake and I accompanied Sudeshna for her dance workshop. There was quite a large turnout, mostly made up of ballet and contemporary dancers. Sudeshna pushed the students hard and they learned quite a lot in the 90 minutes we had together!

On March 6, Jake and I gave some private lessons to interested students. One of the students had previously been to Benares and studied tabla for a few weeks there.

On March 7, we performed in concert for a very enthusiastic audience. First, Jake performed cello solo, opening with a piece in Raag Durga. Alap and gat in jhaptaal (10 beats). I then performed tabla solo in teentaal, vilambit and madhya. After a short pause, we continued with the kathak dance segment, accompanying Sudeshna through vilambit, madhya, and drut teentaal. As always, Sudeshna danced with great energy, precision, and flair and the audience responded with much applause throughout the performance.

Many thanks to the Charkey family for hosting us during our residency. We stayed at their place in Brattleboro. Brattleboro is a friendly, picturesque town, with a large artist community. I hope to return again in the near future!

Crossroads

This past June 12 and 13, I had the pleasure of participating in the Crossroads project at the Gesu in Montreal. It was a dance performance, combining Kathak and Odissi with live music (though at times, the dancers used pre-recorded music).

Sudeshna Maulik, kathak dancer, began her training in Kolkatta under Pt. Chitresh Das, and then went on to study at Bharatiya Kala Kendra, and at the National Kathak Institute with Pt. Birju Maharaj. Based in Windsor, Ontario, Odissi

dancer Enakshi Sinha studied with Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra and Smt. Sharmila Biswas.

The programme began with Stree Shakti, an evocation of the eternal female creative force, through Kathak and Odissi dance. Enakshi Sinha (Odissi) and Sudeshna Maulik (Kathak) performed their own choreography, with pre-recorded music that they developed in India.

Performing with Jake Charkey, cello. Photo by Ulysse Lemerise-Bouchard.

This was followed by Hands and Feet, which was the traditional Kathak item, which Sudeshna danced solo. Jake Charkey played nagma on cello, and I played tabla. We opened with the very famous Ganesh vandana (bol paran), followed by thaat, amad, and then numerous compositions (tukras, parans, gat nikas, etc.) in vilambit, madhya, and drut. The item ended with a brief sawal-jawab between Sudeshna and myself. You might notice from the photo that I have two dahinas. I played on a low-C in the vilambit and madhya sections for a pakhawaj-like sound, and used a standard C for the drut section.

Myself and Jake Charkey accompanying Sudeshna Maulik's kathak performance. Photo by Ulysse Lemerise-Bouchard.

The next item was Glimpses, an Odissi solo that Enakshi Sinha choreographed and performed, with pre-recorded music. This was then followed by Footprints of Rhythm, an Odissi-Kathak duet, with pre-recorded music and drumset, which I played live. The idea was to combine traditional music of both Odissi and Kathak with another, non-traditional element. So, tabla, pakhawaj, and drumset. Though I am not a big fan of playing along to a pre-recorded track, it was fun to play drumset from a tabla perspective, and to be able to interact with both dancers in their respective idioms.

Jake then performed a short solo; a rendition of a song by Tagore. This created a bridge to the last piece, Tagore Revisited, which is a collection of three choreographies, again combining Kathak and Odissi dance, with pre-recorded music.

Of course, I would prefer to have more live music and less pre-recorded music, but in the dance world, this is very common. Sometimes, choreographies are attached to pre-set structures, and it is often cost-prohibitive to hire enough musicians to accurately reproduce the recorded music. In this case, we would have needed to add a sitarist and vocalist, and perhaps a keyboard player as well.

From left to right: Jake Charkey (cello), Enakshi Sinha (Odissi dance), Sudeshna Maulik (Kathak dance), and myself. Photo by Ulysse Lemerise-Bouchard.

The performances were very well attended, and we all got some great comments from the audience. We are hoping to book future performances of Crossroads in the rest of Canada and perhaps even internationally. Sudeshna and Enakshi are both immensely talented, and it was a true pleasure to accompany them. I am very much looking forward to our future collaborations.