The much awaited classical dance festival, particularly for young dancers, known as Raindrops Festival will be held at Nalanda's Kanak Sabha, Juhu, Mumbai, on Friday 22nd July and Saturday 23rd July at 6.30pm.

Organised by SNA awardee Kathak exponent, Guru Uma Dogra and Sam Ved Society for Performing Arts, this festival is one of its kind, as it's normally organised in the monsoon season, which is supposed to be the slack season, as far as performing arts are concerned, but Sam Ved has always been an exception. Ten dancers hailing from various parts of the country will perform five distinct classical dance styles like Bharata Natyam,Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam, Kathak and Odissi.

Kathak danseuse Uma Dogra is a pioneer in her own right, as far as organising festivals for young dancers are concerned. There are a lot of young talented dancers in the country but the platforms are few and far between, hence they eagerly wait to perform for the Raindrops Festival. What is the most amazing quality of the dynamic Uma is that when a particular performer renders an outstanding performance, Uma is the first in the audience to give the artist a standing ovation, the best tribute an artiste can aspire for. Most of the dancers perform quite well but surprisingly this time, there is not a single male dancer who has been invited to perform.

The dancers performing on the day One will be Ruchi Krishna for Kuchipudi, Dimple Nair for Mohiniattam, Varsha Dasgupta for kathak and Bharata Natyam duet by Harshini T and Meera Shree Dandapani. Ruchi hails from Bhilai and started learning Kuchipudi from Guru Rateesh Babu from the tender age of 6, she has several performances to her credit and is also a scholarship holder from Indian Council for Cultural Relations(ICCR).

Dimple Nair is among the foremost disciples of legendary Mohiniattam exponent and dance educationist Padma Bhushan Dr Kanak Rele, she has several performances to her credit and is the artistic director IAID in Doha, Qatar.

Varsha Dasgupta is New Delhi based and is the disciple of Abhimanyu Lal and Guru Vidha Lal and also Guru Gitanjali Lal, she has performed along with her mentors around the globe and received rave reviews for her immaculate performances.

Meera S.Dandapani is based in Coimbatore and is the disciple of veteran mentor, Guru Mrudala Rai of Shree Natya Niketan in Coimbatore. She has several performances to her credit and will perform a duet along with Harshini T.

The final day of the two days festival will feature Swapnakalpa Dasgupta for Odissi, T.Lakshmi Reddi for Kuchipudi, Trina Roy for kathak and Bharata Natyam duet by Harinie Jeevitha and Bhairavi Venkatesan. Swapnakalpa Dasgupta is an accomplished Odissi exponent and seeked training from the legendary Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra,she is also the programme executive for National Centre for the Performing Arts(NCPA) in Mumbai.

T Lakshmi Reddi is a brilliant Kuchipudi exponent and the disciple of the renowned mentors Padmashri Guru Jayarama Rao and Vanashree Rao. Lakshmi holds the distinction of performing for 17 countries.

Trina Roy is the eldest granddaughter of Pandit Jailalji and the 11th generation of Jaipur gharana, she has seeked guidance of Gurus Sushimita Misra and Kajal Misra and has several performances to her credit.

Harinie and Bhairavi are sparkling dancers and it will be a rare spectacle to watch their duet performance in perfection and fine coordination. Do not miss this festival of young passion and devotion.

Event:

Raindrops Festival

Venue: Nalanda's Kanak Sabha, Juhu,

Date: Friday 22nd July and Saturday 23rd July

Time: 6.30pm.

By Guru Vijay Shanker