25 dancers in grand day-long first #SwarnaSaroja at-home celebration in Ganesa Natyalaya

Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan (pic: Anoop Arora)

The countdown is on to September 2024 and the finale of #SwarnaSaroja, the 50th anniversary celebrations of Ganesa Natyalaya and a tribute to the late Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan, its founder. Since she passed away in September 2023, her successor and daughter-in-law, Rama Vaidyanathan, has curated the Natya Kala Conference in December 2023 as the first event celebrating SwarnaSaroja, followed by a recital at IIC’s annual day in Delhi in February 2024. The next event on this calendar takes place on 17 March, Sunday, and is another milestone event because it is the first SwarnaSaroja event being held in its home at the Natyalaya in Delhi.

Rama Vaidyanathan (pic: Anoop Arora)

‘Shivaarghya’, the festival of male dancers by Ganesa Natyalaya, is a grand day-long #SwarnaSaroja event being held on Sunday, 17 March 2024 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Natyalaya, C-16, Qutub Institutional Area, New Delhi. Entry is open to all.

Vishal Krishna Mishra

Each year, the Natyalaya celebrates Shiva in the month of Mahashivratri through a festival dedicated to male dancers titled ‘Shivaarghya’. This year, 25 male dancers from across the country will showcase seven Indian traditional dance forms, curated by Rama Vaidyanathan. The festival this year will begin with an insightful lecture titled ‘Nataraja and the Cosmos’ by scholar Dr. V.R. Devika from Chennai in the morning, followed by the dance performances, which will go on till the night.

Gaurav S.S. Bhatti

Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan started this celebration in 2019 to give opportunities to young male dancers who are talented and have taken up dance full-time. In press material, Rama says, ‘Shivaarghya pays tribute to the first dancer, Lord Nataraja, who symbolizes the genderless dancing body. This year, we have invited artists from Kerala, Chandigarh, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kolkata and Bengaluru.’

Himanshu Srivastava

The dancers participating in the festival are:
Kathak: Vishal Krishna Mishra from Varanasi along with Bhava Gangani and Ashish
Kathak: Akshar Tekchandani and Gaurav Bhatti from Delhi
Bharatanatyam: Anand CS from Kerala
Bharatanatyam: Amrit Sinha and Gyanendra Dutt Bajpai and Syed Samsur Rehman from Lucknow
Bharatanatyam: Nilay Mandal, Santanu Roy and Pankoj Singha Roy from Kolkata
Bharatanatyam: Dr S. Vasudevan, Himanshu Srivastava, Vinay Tiwari, Nilava Sen and Pritam Das from Delhi

Vinay Tiwari

Nilava Sen

Pritam Das

Bharatanatyam: Varun Khanna from Chandigarh 

Dr. Varun Khanna

Bharatanatyam: Shobit Ramesh from Bengaluru

Shobhit Ramesh

Odissi: Krishnendu Saha from Kolkata

Washim Raja

Kuchipudi: Washim Raja from Delhi
Kathakali: Sahil Suresh from Delhi
Pung Cholam: Shyam Singh from Delhi
Chhau: Shubham Acharya from Delhi

Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan founded the Natyalaya in 1974 and since then, it has trained over 1,500 students, of which nearly 100 have taken up Bharatanatyam as a career. About 30 of them have set up their own dance institutions across the globe (half of them being abroad) propagating this art-form and remaining affiliated to Natyalaya. This year, almost all the schools are joining in to celebrate the SwarnaSaroja, both at their school level as well as in the Natyalaya functions.