Anila Sinha Foundation (ASF)

ASF a not-for-profit organization was established in 1998 in memory of Mrs. Anila Sinha, a highly accomplished scholar, educator, performer and ambassador of Indian Performing Arts. The mission of the Foundation is to present, foster and promote the performing arts of Northern India, mainly the Kathak tradition. In pursuit of its mission, ASF has established an academy of Kathak dance with four centers in Chicago land area, where approximately 60 students learn this art form.

Kathak –

Kathak the leading classical dance of North India, derives its name form ‘Katha’ the art of story telling. Historically, during the Hindu period, this dance form was nurtured in temples for the glory of God. When the Moghul came this dance form passed through a period of renaissance and for some time became a source of entertainment for the Moghul courts. Through the fusion of Indo-Moghul culture, Kathak emerged into a new dance form with the body movement, hand gestures and facial expression depicting Hindu philosophy and geometric and intricate rhythmic pattern and footwork of Persian arts.

This program will demonstrate both aspects of Kathak Dance.

Item 1. – First item will be an invocation to Goddess Durga.

Item 2. Tarana – This is a glorious product of Indo-Persian culture and artistic fusion. The song sung in Tarana does not have a literal meaning. However, the dance is characterized by brilliant technique and Spectacular footwork. This item will demonstrate the technical aspect of Kathak.

Item 3. – Dhamar – A technical dance aspect of Kathak in fourteen beats time cycle ‘Tal Dhamar’.  Technical dance contains various footwork patterns in different speed of rhythm, dance compositions with beautiful hand movements and pirouettes etc.

Item 4. – Sargam - Sargam is a way of assigning syllables to names of the notes in a raga or a musical scale. The sargam syllables are: Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa Dha, Ni, and Sa' in the octave. It is a beautiful dance composed on these musical notes with graceful movements, footwork and spins.

Item 5 – Holi - The colorful festival of Holi is celebrated on Phalgun PurnimaLord Krishna has often been portrayed as a naughty prankster in his childhood and a lover-boy in his youth. His beloved Radha and the cowherd girls 'Gopis' in general loved him even more for his pranks and eve teasing. The Holi of Braj is famous all over India for its intimate connection with the divine deities and their love plays. This song describes Girdhari, as young Krishna is called, playing hori with the gopies 'Red colour is flying in all directions and the mud has turned slushy with saffron coloured water. Friend, dance to the beat as Krishna is playing hori' - so the song goes.)

Kiran Chouhan – Instructor & Choreographer

Ms Kiran Chouhan is an extraordinary dancer in the Luclnow Gharana of Kathak Dance. She is a graduate of Kathak Kendra, New Delhi under the tutelage of Smt. Reba Vidyarthy and Legendary Guru Pandit Birju Maharaj. She has spent over fifteen years performing and teaching with Pt. Birju Maharaj throughout the globe including India, Europe, Russia, Africa, U.K, China and U.S.A. Kiran is an experienced soloist and has presented her own choreography including dance-dramas in U.S., China, Indonesia and Africa. Her skills as teacher and choreographer parallel her excellence as a performer. Currently she is a teacher and choreographer at the Anila Sinha Foundation in Chicago.

Artists – Gurmeet, Paridhi, Roshni, Natasha,