Celebrating and familiarizing Manipuri Dance –one of the oldest, lyrical and most graceful Classical dance style of India the show will present a repertoire-- an oral history film (abridged) “In Pursuit of Love and Devotion” followed by dance-theatre “Leela” The oral history film unfolds the beauty, significance, costumes, ornaments, Décor and musical score of a Manipuri Dance, a classical dance style almost obscure in the UK.
Exponents Padmashree Darshana Jhaveri and Guru Kalabati Devi and Prof. Jiten Singh of Shantiniketan bring out the history, style and uniqueness of the dance form. Dance-theatre “Leela” is an adaptation of “Bhanusingher Padabali” by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. The theme is love between Radha and Krishna in the original dance drama that Tagore wrote at a very tender age. The Director takes artistic liberty to present several Radhas in various other Indian classical dance forms as a personification of devotee and one Krishna, the Divine. This deviation is to depict Tagore’s realization of transcendental love between Radha and Krishna in the latter part of his life.
Bithika Raha Basu is the Founder Director of Nrityakala Dance Heritage (1986-2018). She is a Producer, filmmaker (oral history), and actor and trained in Indian Classical Dance-Manipuri and Kathak. Nrityakala Dance Heritage has been working to uphold Indian culture through shows, translation of Tagore’s work in dance, producing CDs and documentary films and presented the works in the House of Lords and House of Commons.