Special Guest Artists and Gurus

Padma Bhushan Srimati Kumudini Lakhia , of the Lucknow gharana, is one of the foremost Gurus and Kathak Choreographers in India. She is the Founder & Director of Kadamb, a renowned Kathak institution in Ahmedabad, India.

Pandit Tirath Ram Azad is an eminent scholar and performer, Pandit Azad received a 2005 Sangeet Natak Akademi award in Kathak. He was formerly the dance partner of “Kathak Queen” Srimati Sitara Devi and has written extensive books on Kathak in Hindi.

Padma Shree Dr. Sunil Kothari is a leading dance historian, scholar, author and critic of Indian classical dance. He has authored over 12 books on Indian classical dance forms and related subjects. Dr Kothari has held several academic positions; and was a dance critic for forty years for the Times of India newspaper.

Madhuri Devi Singh is a disciple of Nrityacharya Pandit Ram Narayan Mishra of the Lucknow gharana, she is the direct descendent of the baijis (courtesans) of Benares. Though retired from her profession, she is one of the few living Kathak baijis.

Chetna Jalan is the founder and director of Padatik, a leading Kathak institution in Kolkata. She is the disciple of Nrityacharya Pandit Ram Narayan Mishra & Pandit Birju Maharaj.

Sri Jayant Kastuar was trained in the Jaipur Kathak tradition by Pt. Durga Lal, and has participated in various festivals throughout the world. He is the Secretary of Sangeet Natak Akademi, India’s national academy for music, dance and drama.

Pandit Atul Desai is a renowned vocalist and composer and has worked extensively with Kathak dance, specifically with Srimati Kumudini Lakhia and is currently the Music Director at Nritya Kalakendar in Chicago.

Srimati Sadhya Desai is one of Srimati Kumudini Lakhia’s most celebrated disciples and is the Director of Dance at Nritya Kalakendra in Chicago and has been a senior teacher at Kadamb in Ahmedabad, India.

Jason Samuels Smith is the Emmy-award winning Tap star who was featured in the Broadway hit shown Bring in da noise, Bring in da funk.


Performing Artists

Padma Vibhushan Pandit Birju Maharaj is the doyen of the Lucknow gharana of Kathak dance. His father and Guru was the great master of Lucknow gharana, Acchan Maharaj and he was later trained by his uncles Pandit Lacchu Maharaj and Pandit Shambhu Maharaj. Pandit Birju Maharaj has greatly influenced how Kathak dance is performed today. He is the Founder and Director of Kalashram in New Delhi.

Pandit Chitresh Das, of the Lucknow and Jaipur gharanas and disciple of Nrityacharaya Pandit Ram Narayan Mishra, is one of Kathak’s most dynamic dancers. He is the son of Nrityacharya Prahlad Das & Srimati Nilima Das, who founded and directed Nritya Bharati, Calcutta, one of the oldest dance, music and performing arts institutions in India. He is the founder and director of Chhandam, USA and Chhandam Nritya Bharati, Calcutta, India.

Srimati Sunayana Hazarilal is one of Kathak’s great masters as the only surviving performer of the old and rare style of the Pandit Jankiprasad Gharana of Kathak from Banaras .  She learned her art from Pandit Hazarilal, the great and foremost student of Nritya Samrat Ashaque Hussain.  She has performed all over the world in various Music and Dance Festivals and has received numerous awards such as the Abhinayan Kala Saraswati by Bala Subramanya Sabha, the Maharashtra Gaurav Award, and the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award to mention a few.

Srimati Geetanjali Lal was trained by Sushree Roshan Kumari and later under Pandit Gopi Kirshna, Mohanrao Kalyanpurkar and Pandit Devi Lal. She is currently the Director and a Guru at the National Institute of Kathak, Kathak Kendra, New Delhi.

Srimati Saswati Sen is an internationally recognized artist and one of the foremost disciples of the legendary Kathak maestro Pandit Birju Maharaj.

Pandit Krishna Mohan Mishra is the son of the legendary Kathak artist and guru, Pandit Shambhu Maharaj and the cousin of Pandit Birju Maharaj. He is known for his technical virtuosity and is currently a Guru at Kathak Kendra, New Delhi. Vaswati Mishra is one of the main disciples of Pandit Birju Maharaj the wife of Krishna Mohan Mishra. She is the founder of the Kathak Institution Dhwani in New Delhi, India.

Pandit Bachhanlal Mishra, disciple of Nrityacharya Pandit Ram Narayan Mishra, is one of the most learned Kathak Gurus of the modern times.

Shama Bhate is a disciple of Kathak Guru Srimati Rohini Bhate and Pandit Suresh Talwalkar. She is the Founder and Director of Nad Roop, a Kathak and North Indian Classical music institution in Pune, India.

Rajendra Gangani is a well-known Kathak dancer of the new generation. He is the son and disciple of the renowned Jaipur gharana Kathak Guru Kundanlal Gangani. Sri Gangani excels in nritta (pure dance technique) and he is currently the head Guru of Jaipur gharana at Kathak Kendra, New Delhi.

Aditi Mangaldas Disciple of Srimati Kumudini Lakhia & Pandit Birju Maharaj

Santosh Chatterjee Disciple of Nrityacharaya Pandit Ram Narayan Mishra & Pandit Birju Maharaj

Prashant Shah Disciple of Srimati Kumudini Lakhia

Mata Prasad Mishra & Ravi Shanker Mishra Disciples of Srimati Alaknanda Devi

Madhumita Roy Disciple of Pandit Ram Gopal Mishra & Pandit Birju Maharaj

Jaiwanti Pamnani Disciple of Pandit Chitresh Das

Charlotte Moraga Disciple of Pandit Chitresh Das

Shila Mehta Disciple of Nrityacharya Pandit Prohlad Das & Pandit Vijay Shankar

Sandip Mallick Disciple of Srimati Srilekha

Kasturi Mishra Disciple of Pandit Bachhanlal Mishra & Pandit Chitresh Das

Rosella Fanelli Disciple of Pandit Arjun Mishra

Chitresh Das Dance Company: Jaiwanti Pamnani, Charlotte Moraga, Farah Shaikh, Seibi Lee, Joanna Meinl, Rachna Nivas, Anjali Nath

Musicians

String Instrument Artists

Pandit Ramesh Mishra (Sarangi)
Swapnamoy Banerjee (Sarod)
Jayanta Banerjee (Sitar)

Vocalists
Debashis Sarkar
Mala Ganguly

Percussion Artists

Fateh Singh (Pakhawaj)
Gopal Mishra (Tabla)
Kousic Sen (Tabla)
Utpal Ghoshal (Tabla)
Salar Nader (Tabla)

Presenting Scholars and Panelists

Dr. Carol Babiracki is currently Associate Professor of ethnomusicology at Syracuse University. Her publications on the music and dance of Mundas and nacni-s in Jharkhand have appeared in the journal of Asian Music and in numerous books.

Dr. Pallabi Chakravorty teaches Kathak dance and academic courses related to the anthropology of performance in the Dept of Music and Dance at Swarthmore College. She studied Kathak in Calcutta under gurus such as Bandana Sen.

Dr. Joan Erdman is Professor of Anthropology and Cultural Studies in the Department of Liberal Education at Columbia College, Chicago, and Research Associate on the Committee on Southern Asian Studies at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Amie Maciszewski is an ethnomusicologist, sitarist, and music educator. She earned B.Mus. and M.Mus. degrees in sitar performance at Viswa-Bharati University, Santiniketan, and a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of Texas, Austin.

Sarah Morelli is completing her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Harvard University, where her dissertation focuses on Pandit Chitresh Das’ contributions to Kathak dance. In the fall of 2006, she will begin teaching at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music.

Dr. Mekhala Devi Natavar teaches Hindi and courses on expressive culture and identity at Princeton University. She trained and performed Kathak with Jaipur Gharanadar Kathak Madan Maharaj and has authored articles on performance genres in South Asia.

Dr. Stacey Prickett is a Senior Lecturer in Dance at Roehampton University, London. She is also a Senior Researcher for the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Centre on Cross Cultural Music and Dance Performance.

Dr. Purnima Shah, Assistant Professor of the Practice of Dance at Duke University, is editing the volume for South and Southeast Asia for the World Dance Encyclopedia. She trained in Kathak with Padmashri Kumudini Lakhia and has performed internationally.

Dr. Margaret Walker is currently an Assistant Professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She completed her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of Toronto and has studied Kathak with Joanna DeSouza, Deepti Gupta, and Saveeta Sharma.

Artists subject to change