A couple of years ago, Sanjeev Bhargava chanced upon a Bharatnatyam performance of Rema Shrikant in Thiruvananthapuram and thought it was a pity we hadn’t seen her in Delhi. Finally, Bhargava, the director of the classical dance festival Ananya, has roped her in for this year’s finale.

When Purana Quila comes alive with the sound of anklets, the swish of silk and the thrill of thillana from October 3 to 7, the focus will not only be on the stalwarts of classical dance, but also on its lesser known exponents. So, the eighth edition of the festival will feature the likes of Vadodara-based Shrikant and Delhi-based Kathak duo Monisa and Moumala Nayak alongside Odissi exponent Madhavi Mudgal, Mohiniyattam dancer Gopika Varma and even contemporary dance maestro Astad Deboo. “Now that we are established as a leading festival in the circuit, we feel obliged to put only the best on stage,” says Bhargava.

The festival will open with a performance of Mudgal and her troupe. The Nayaks will then take the audience through the evolution of Kathak through three different periods. “We will perform dhrupad to denote the temple period, tarana and thumri for the court period and finally a jugalbandi of strings and percussion to denote the contemporary stage,” says Monisa, who has trained under Rajendra Gangani of the Jaipur gharana. Meanwhile, Mumbai-based Deboo, who will perform with eight Pung Cholom drummers from Manipur, will follow the modulations of sound — from a whisper to a thundering climax — in his piece Rhythm Divine. Shrikant says, “I will portray the elements of Hindu myths and scriptures through four choreographed pieces — a Ganapati vandana, a Srushti tandavam (the dance of creation and depiction of Shakti) followed by mazhai or rain, and finally a brisk tillana.”

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