WMI Presents 2016 DANCING THE GODS Festival of Indian Classical Dance This Weekend

The World Music Institute's annual Dancing the Gods festival -- which has "a record of attracting some truly godlike dancers" (The New York Times) -- returns for its fifth season, this weekend, April 23-24 at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street). Tickets start at $35 online at www.worldmusicinstitute.org.

This festival unites some of the world's most talented Indian classical dancers with live musicians for two spectacular nights of performances, lecture-demonstrations, and chat & chai artist receptions, bringing the audience closer to the artists.

In 2011, World Music Institute launched the annual Dancing the Gods festival, which has since established itself as an essential platform for Indian classical dance in New York City. Dancing the Gods spotlights veteran masters and emerging ones, and has been met with substantial critical acclaim, including a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) "Outstanding Performer" nomination for Shantala Shivalingappa, and a rave New York Times review for the U.S. premiere of Nrityagram's Samyoga. In addition to the Mainstage events, the Festival offers free activities such as lecture-demonstrations and "Chat & Chai" with the artists.

---

PROGRAM:

Saturday, April 23, 8:00 p.m.

MYTHILI PRAKASH

"JWALA - The Flame"

A performance exploring the multiple resonances of Jwala, the flame

Pre-show Lec-Dem with Festival co-curator Rajika Puri at 7:00 p.m.
Post-performance "Chat & Chai" with the artists

Hailed a child prodigy, Mythili Prakash is one of the leading Bharatanatyam dancers of the younger generation, a star already in India and on the West Coast. She began her career at the age of eight and has performed extensively over the last two decades in prestigious venues and festivals throughout the world.

Mythili brings to this year's Dancing the Gods festival a production exploring the multiple resonances of JWALA, the flame, as a symbol of life and spirit, both physical and metaphysical. The music and live accompaniment is by her brother Aditya Prakash, a rising young Carnatic vocalist who has been gaining recognition for his original compositions and musical scores.

Trained by her mother, Viji Prakash, in Bharata Natyam dance, Mythili is now mentored by India's acclaimed master Malavika Sarukkai. Mythili's use of traditional Bharata Natyam technique and extended repertoire creates new structures that awaken the physicality, musicality, and theatricality of the art form. While highly acclaimed for her technical and virtuosic skill as a performer, Mythili stays deeply rooted in the inherent spirituality of the art form, which is the driving inspiration of both her choreographic explorations and her own practice. Click here to read Mythili Prakash's biography.

Sunday, April 24, 7:00 p.m.

SANJUKTA WAGH

"Rage and Beyond: Irawati's Gandhari"

Performance won two National Theatre Awards at META (India) in 2015

Pre-show Lec-Dem with Festival co-curator Rajika Puri at 6:00 p.m.
Post-performance "Chat & Chai" with the artists

Performer, choreographer, teacher, and curator Sanjukta Wagh has trained extensively under Rajashree Shirke in Kathak dance and Pandit Murli Manohar Shukla in Hindustani music. Her engagement with theater (honed by playwright-director Chetan Datar), her work at the Laban Centre of Dance in London, her love of literature, and her deep unease with comfort zones have led to her interdisciplinary and exploratory mode of work.

This year's Dancing the Gods festival features her most recent dance/theater work, Rage and Beyond: Irawati's Gandhari, which won the 2015 Mahindra Excellence in Theatre (META) awards for Best Actress and Best Sound Design. This highly theatrical work-in which Sanjukta will speak, dance, and sing-is a retelling of the Mahabharata through the eyes of Gandhari, the iconic queen with the blindfold, an incarnation of the Goddess of Intelligence. The script is inspired by one of the first contemporary perspectives of the Mahabharata in the 1960's: the acclaimed Yuganta by Irawati Karve, an anthropologist.

Sanjukta's collaborators for this event include the award-winning sound designer and composer Hitesh Dhutia on live acoustic guitars and the lighting designer Deepa Dharmadhikari. Click here to read more about Sanjukta Wagh.

---

About WMI (www.worldmusicinstitute.org) - Since 1985, World Music Institute has been the leading presenter of world music and dance in the United States. WMI is committed to presenting the finest in traditional and contemporary music and dance from around the world at attainable prices for all, with the goal to promote awareness and engagement of other cultures and to encourage cultural exchange between nations and ethnic groups. WMI collaborates with community organizations and academic institutions to foster greater understanding of the world's cultural traditions and depends on public and private funding to accomplish its mission.

Under new leadership as of 2015-16-its 30th anniversary season-World Music Institute has introduced an ambitious expansion of concert offerings that include contemporary, experimental and avant-garde presentations, as well as the traditional music that WMI has long been known and admired for. In addition, the institution is thrilled to have launched new partnerships with BAM, 92nd Street Y, Storm King Art Center, Le Poisson Rouge, and Drom-while continuing partnerships with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Town Hall, Symphony Space, and the Apollo Theater (the annual Africa Now festival).

Some of the new and already widely-hailed series that World Music Institute created in the 2015-2016 season are the Lusophone Festival, Counterpoint series, Masters of Cuban Music, Masters of African Music, the return of Flamenco dance, and a Global Local initiative that offers opportunities and exposure to emerging NY talent in international music and dance. WMI is committed to continuing its legacy of presenting the world's greatest living masters in Indian classical music as well as in Indian dance, notably with its acclaimed Dancing the Gods series.
To donate or become a member, the public can visit worldmusicinstitute.org.