Chennai: Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha’s dance festival – ‘Bharat Nrithya Utsav’ was inaugurated at Narada Gana Sabha here Sunday.
The 53-day dance festival will feature 115 dance programmes by budding artistes and will conclude 10 March, a press release said.
Industrialist Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti presided over the inaugural event and Indian Bank Executive Director Shenoy Vishwanath inaugurated the dance festival. He also conferred ‘Natya Kalasarathy’ on bharatanatyam exponent Lakshmi Ramaswamy and Odissi exponent Aruna Mohanty.
Prof Sudharani Raghupathy and Chitra Visweswaran felicitated the awardees. The inaugural event was followed by Lakshmi Ramaswamy’s ‘Govindam Bhaja’.
Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha secretary Krishnamurthy said, “Hundreds of bharatanatyam artistes and experts in other classical dance forms from across the country and abroad are set to enthrall the audience at the dance festival.”
Artistes from the US and Singapore will also take part. Artistes and students of dance from Chennai, Coimbatore, Chidambaram, Salem, Periyakulam, Tirupur, and Madurai, will represent the State. The event will also feature those from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Gurgaon, and Kolkata, the release said.
From 20 January, the festival will shift to R K Swamy Auditorium on Sundareswarar Street, Mylapore. The programmes start at 5.45 pm on all days.
On the valedictory day , the sabha will present certificates and cash awards to 25 best dancers who will be judged by their performances in the festival, the release said.