Dakshina is excited to present the DC premiere of Sheejith Krishna & Dancers.
Friday September 27, 2013
8 pm performance
Shakespeare Theatre, Sidney Harman Hall
610 F St NW Washington, DC 20004
Buy Tickets Here
Pravãha is an original dance-theatre production conceived and choreographed by Sheejith Krishna. Inspired by the rich lyricism of classical poetry on the iconic river Ganga, Kalidasa’s Meghadutam (cloud messenger), and other traditional and modern stories on the many forms of water, the work uses the historic physical, spiritual and cultural significance of water as a lens to explore the complex relationships between human beings and nature.
Pravãha depicts the dance of water through its cycles of existence. The journey of cloud, rain and river become metaphors for the flow of creativity and the dance of the human spirit at one with nature. In tracing the story of water back to the origin of life on the cosmos, Pravãha highlights how human response to nature has evolved over millennia.
Pravãha takes us on a journey of confluence and birth, connection and balance, division and destruction, rebirth and rejuvenation. Emphasizing the interconnectedness of all living things, the dance explores humankind’s greatest challenge today: saving our rivers and lakes—perhaps our most precious natural resources—in order to preserve and protect our fragile ecosystem.
This work has been commissioned by Dakshina for the 2013 Fall Festival of Indian Arts and features an all-male cast of performers including choreographer Sheejith Krishna, Nidheesh Kumar, Sreenath Nair, and Season Unnikrishnan.
Featured Artist Sheejith Krishna Bio:
A rivetting performer with the ability to create entire worlds out of thin air and transport audiences into them, Sheejith has played significant lead roles in almost all of Kalakshetra Repertory’s ensemble productions to critical and popular acclaim. These include Lord Rama, the hero, and, the villain, Ravana, both roles he made his own in Kalakshetra’s monumental six-part Ramayana series. Critics have repeatedly noted his immaculate nritta and sense of laya, and the wide-ranging emotional canvas of his abhinaya. Sheejith has performed in major venues all over India, as well as in North America, Europe, and Asia. He received the prestigious national award, the Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar, from the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2006, and the Yagnaraman Award for Excellence in Dance in 2010.
While at Kalakshetra, Sheejith directed, choreographed, and starred in the trailblazing ensemble production Masquerade, a dance-drama based on Alexandre Dumas’s Man in the Iron Mask. His first large-scale choreographic excursion which premiered in 2007, Masquerade is close to Sheejith’s heart. The dance-drama was his brainchild from start to finish, in all aspects of production from choreography and music to set, costume, and lighting design. It signals a complete departure from Kalakshetra’s existing performance oeuvre, being the first Kalakshetra dance-drama based on a secular, western narrative. However, Masquerade remains true to the Kalakshetra spirit of innovation-in-tradition in its overall aesthetic, and in its path-breaking use of the conventions of classical Bharatanatyam and Carnatic raga-s played on western classical instruments to represent an entirely foreign culture, period, and ethos.
This spirit of inventiveness and enduring classicism marks the rest of Sheejith’s solo and group choreographic works: Marthyan, Kuchela Vruttam, Bhajananjali, Krishna Bharatam (2009), and Parinaamam (2010). He has worked with celebrated artistes such as Bombay Jayashri and O. S. Arun on the music for his dance productions. His most faithful musical collaborator is Carnatic vocalist and fellow Kalakshetra graduate, wife Jyothishmathi.
Sheejith has performed worldwide as a nattuvangam artiste for leading and emerging dancers in the field. He has lectured and performed at prestigious venues such the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, DC) and has shared the richness of classical Indian aesthetics and culture with artists such as Los Angeles-based ballet exponent Debbie Allen. His lecture-demonstrations and workshops on various aspects of Bharatanatyam, nattuvangam, and konnakol are attended by students and experts alike.
– See more at: http://www.dakshina.org/2013/08/13/sheejith-krishna-dancers/#sthash.UNOlHGmP.dpuf
