Sangita Chatterjee celebrates 15 years of Kalpataru with performances, seminars and workshops

On 6, 7 and 8 February, Kathak dancer and teacher Sangita Chatterjee celebrates the crystal anniversary of her dance organization and institute, Kalpataru Arts, with her festival Manthan 2025. On the 6th will be the seminar series, the performances on the 7th (both days at IHC) and the workshops on the 8th  at Kalpataru Arts.

‘I started Kalpataru in 2009 very informally. It started humbly as an institute at SDA, and gradually, it grew from institute to a proper organization that got registered in 2013, but we do consider its beginning from 2009 and that’s how we complete 15 years in 2024,’ says Sangita. ‘The crystal year celebrations started in 2024 with our Manjari festival. Kalpataru does two major festivals. The Manjari festival is essentially a students’ festival where, of course, we also have some guest artists, but the other festival is Manthan, which is mainly for professional artists. Manjari began in the very beginning, in 2010, because the institute came first, but Manthan started in 2015.

‘I feel very fortunate that I started this journey alone, but now I have a number of students, the parent body and some well-wishers and patrons who are supporting us, because organizing a festival of this standard and scale is not possible for any one person. Many people come together. Main hamesha yahi kehti hoon ki main akela hi chala tha aur log aate gaye, karwaan banta gaya.

‘Manthan started with the vision that it would become a platform where accomplished, legendary artists – like we have had Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Smt. Rama Vaidyanathan, Smt. Sujata Mohapatra, Vidushi Uma Dogra – artists like them perform, as well as artists who are my contemporaries, established mid-career artists like Anwesha Mahanta, Parshwanath Upadhye, Purva Dhanashree, Arupa Lahiry – they all have performed for Manthan. I feel really good that this festival has given a platform to so many co-artists who are my contemporaries and we have also had the honour of featuring legendary artists.

‘Kalpataru the name inspires me a lot – it has a very spiritual significance. It is a tree that fulfils desires. Somehow, 15 years back, I thought of this and because it was a journey I started alone, I had a vision that this organization – apart from the institute, we have other wings as well, organizing festivals is one of them – will bloom and fulfil many artists’ desires.

‘This year, as every year, we have Manthan as a series involving performances and also seminars with scholarly discourse. Last year, we had seminars with Leela Venkatraman ji, Sharon Lowen ji, a few years back with Kamalini Dutt amma, Prerana Shrimali didi. This year, Manthan is celebrating our crystal year. It was supposed to be at the end of 2024 but as we didn’t get the auditorium dates, we had to push it, but it’s still our crystal year celebration. Apart from Manthan, we also keep doing seminars and workshops, which is called the Saksham seminar series and workshops. We have had many such in between but the major one is in Manthan.

‘The seminars are on dance journalism with Dr. Arshiya Sethi, Prof. Ashish Khokhar and Dr. Kaustavi Sarkar, and on the solo dance tradition with Sh. Ashok Jain, Vidushi Rani Khanum and Dr. Maya Kulkarni. Maya ji is also presenting her work, which is a new thing for us in India. She has formed a new style called Shilpanatanam; she will talk about this on the 6th and present her choreography Rati Vilaap on the 7th, which will be performed by Dr. Kaustavi Sarkar. That will be followed by my solo, Vasanta Vilas, and then it culminates with the Odissi ensemble by Madhavi Mudgal ji. On 8th we also have workshops – in the morning by Maya Kulkarni and in the evening by Sandip Mullick on Kathak.’