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Education

At Annapurna Indian Dance we are passionate about sharing the rich artistic heritage of India, and its inspiring culture and traditions through performances and workshops.

We specialise in bringing alive the well loved stories from the ancient epics and mythology of India, using the vibrant traditional dances with storytelling, music, drumming, puppets and masks along with beautiful costumes. Our workshops help you to explore the rhythms of dance, with its many fascinating hand gestures and stylised facial expressions for communicating ideas and feelings.

Annapurna Indian Dance has a strong and unrivalled record of dance work in Education especially in Yorkshire.

In Education all our projects aim to promote a greater understanding and appreciation of the cultural traditions from India through innovative ways and increase awareness of racial, cultural and social issues.

"I am delighted that Leeds schools have had the opportunity to work with this wonderful company. Annapurna Indian Dance are truly professional and they bring all the vibrancy and magic of Indian culture into school. The company use dance, masks and drumming to tell very powerful traditional stories that engage both children and adults. Teachers have really benefited from the company's training sessions, learning new ideas and simple techniques which they can use in the classroom. The feedback from teachers has always been extremely positive. For anyone who hasn’t worked with this company – I recommend they do."

Sarah Westaway
Arts Manager
ArtForms – Education Leeds

“The quality and exuberance of the performance left us all gasping.......”

Ian Bretherton
Head Teacher
Alne Primary School York

Current Education Project

Dances from the Distant Lands is a unique Education project (funded by West Yorkshire Grants) with the aim to introduce pupils to the joyful spirit of India for raising intercultural awareness and promoting racial harmony through dance.

The project attempts to bring the true flavour of the rich traditional dances and stories of India with demonstrations of its many different popular dance styles ranging from the classical to folk with accessible storytelling and use of puppets.

(Stories to include also that of Indian Festival of Lights –Diwali)

For bookings and more information please contact Laureen Butler on 01422 365103 or 07737 759 783 or email: info@annapurnadance.com

Archive

TWILIGHT RHYTHMS - 2008 Education Project

Annapurna was very fortunate to have invited dancers Vidwan Chandra Shekhar Navda and Anjali Khandige along with storyteller Sumathi Niranjan from India for this unique project which explored the use of classical Bharatha Natyam with Yakshagana folk dance and the use of masks and puppetry for the story of Diwali .

Principal dancer was Devika Narendran Rao, other dancers involved were Santosh Mennon and Priya Sundar.

Anjali Khandige

INSPIRATION INDIA - 2007 Education Project

Inspiration India was one of our most ambitious project and it brought together three major artforms of the country - the dance style of classical Bharatha Natyam and Yakshagana(folk dance from Karnataka state of India) with puppet theatre called Yakshagana Gombeyata which used marionette puppetry . In schools we mainly explored the popular story of the monkey king Hanuman and how he developed confidence within himself to achieve success in life.

The company was very proud to have invited dancer Anjana Rajan and Master Puppeteer Bhaskar Kamath and his assistant Manjunath Maypady from India for this special project . Principal dancer was Devika Narendran Rao.

Anjana Rajan

Bhaskar Kamath also brought many other interesting puppets which he had made himself and were greatly appreciated by all the children in every show. Original music composition for dance and spoken rhythmic syllables were given by Vidwan Chandra Shekhar Navda, (from Mangalore in India) for the project.

Our Master puppeteer, Bhaskar Kamath in action.

(Photos by Larry Walker)

MANGALAM - 2006 Education Project

Mangalam is that feeling of auspiciousness when everything is right in your world –you can achieve anything and are at peace with everyone. The project concept was to highlight the importance of peace and harmony in the world .

Using classical Bharatha Natyam and Yakshagana folk dance, live drumming with storytelling , we developed on one of the powerful stories called Ten Incarnations from the ancient Indian mythology to explore the issue of bullying and the need to curb the greed for power.

Ramya Chitlur &
Navya Rattehalli

Artists included the renowned Yakshagana dancer / teacher, Sanjeev Suvarna and Ramya Chitlur, a highly talented and emerging Bharata Natyam dancer and singer from Bangalore.

Principal dancer and storyteller was Navya Rattehalli . Sanjeev Suvarna also played the hypnotic drum called Chande in the shows. Dancer Devika Rao performed in many shows in this tour

Photos were taken by Chris Lord and Amanda Crowther and flyers designed by Harmeet Senbi.

Sanjeev Suvarna

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