Krshala Dance Theatre tucked away in the heart of Koramangala 4th block is over ten years old and is going strong where dancers of all age groups undergo training in the classical dance form of Kathak and various other dance forms. As its creative director and founder, Simran Godhwani says, the students are trained as per the guru-shishyaparampara.
She has learnt her art form from her Guru Murari Sharan Gupta, who is the disciple of the Kathak Doyen Pt. Birju Maharaj and has inspired her to take this art form to aspiring dancers. She says “I am so happy to see my students perform with sincerity, dedication and grace”. So in the heart of contemporary India, it’s a school run by strong Indian ethos and values, where discipline, dedication and discovering oneself through the artform is given utmost priority. Where the capability and dedication shown by the student is the only sure shot way to pave their progress in pursuing this danceform.
SPREADING KATHAK ACROSS THE GLOBE
Simran Godhwani of along with some of her senior dance students in Kathak was invited to represent India in Salt Lake City Dance Festival, USA held at Salt Lake City, Idaho, Rexburg, and Wyoming. It was held in the month of July from 7th to 19.
They presented various intricate footwork compositions, abhinaya pieces, chakkars, thumri etc which were well received by the audience. Simran Godhwani conducted Kathak workshops for students of various ages who were very curious and interested to know in-depth about the Indian Classical Dance form of Kathak. Her students who accompanied her enjoyed the festival as it was a great exposure for them to see importance given to dance at an international level.
BRINGING INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS
Simran Godhwani through Krshala Dance Theatre is also encouraging foreign artists to come down to Bangalore and share their expertise to students in Bangalore. One such recent collaboration was with Italian Contemporary dancer, teacher and choreographer Irma Cardano. She is a renowned Teacher and choreographer associated with the Academy of Dance in Naples and Renato Greco Dance studio in Rome. She also has taken numerous contemporary dance workshops across the globe. She held contemporary dance workshops in Krshala Dance Theatre and through Krshala collaborated with the Stem Dance Kampni in Malleshwaram and 2 leading business schools in Bangalore to conduct contemporary dance workshop in Humphrey and Limon techniques at their premises.
Youngsters, teenagers, professional dancers and first time dancers got a chance to be a part of this workshop. They enjoyed her workshops and the workshop concluded with a soulful performance at the NirgunMandir.
As Simran Godhwani says ‘Its not only enough for children to know our dance culture well, they also need to know and be exposed to other dance forms like ballet, contemporary dance, jazz etc, all dance forms have their own structures, complexities, intensity and nuances; exposure to other forms can help one develop and understand their form even more better”. She feels lucky that her school is in Koramangala and is very thankful to the 4th Block Resident Association for being so supportive of her school and also to Prasanna Trust for helping her in her endeavour to promote Indian culture through her institute.
Krshala Dance Theatre – For the love of Dance
