Director Hema Rajagopalan (right) with Artistic Associate Krithika Rajagopalan
The performance is slated for Saturday, October 8 at 7:30 pm at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago.
This was announced by Director Hema Rajagopalan during a press meet at Tifin India Resturant on Devon Avenue. Artistic Associate Krithika Rajagopalan briefed the newsmen with plans for the new production, the largest evening-length work that Natya has ever created.
The Flowering Tree will be a narrated dance theater work about a poor but beautiful young girl blessed with the magical ability to transform herself into a magnificent flowering tree. A prince, so entranced by the girl’s beauty, quickly marries her, but when her magical ability is discovered it is soon taken advantage of.
A show perfectly suited for families as well as fans of contemporary Indian dance, The Flowering Tree imparts the lesson of respecting nature’s gifts, told through the expressive power of original choreography in the classical style of Bharata Natyam.
The production will feature 20 dancers and an original score composed by renowned world musician Rajkumar Bharati, fusing Indian music with Jazz and Japanese and African drumming. Choreography by Hema Rajagopalan and stage direction by Dipankar Mukherji, Artistic Director of the Pangea World Theater in Minneapolis, will round out this international production.
Krithika Rajagopalan said there would be a global presentation of this performance besides presentations in different cities in USA. She said the theme of the dance drama is a unique one and touches upon the age old concept of respect to the Prithvi (Earth) Mata who has been so bountiful and kind to mankind.
Natya Dance Theatre was founded in 1975 by renowned dancer, choreographer and dance educator Hema Rajagopalan to serve as an agent of cultural preservation, presentation and exchange. Natya seeks to sustain and develop the traditional art forms of India through the teaching and performance of Bharata Natyam for audiences of all backgrounds.
KK Rajda
