Panchatantra - Dance Ballet By Dr. Ananda Shankar & Group

The Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation Limited is organising the annual Taramati Music & Dance Festival, from 7th to 9th December, at the Taramati Baradari Culture Complex, Ibrahimbagh, Gandipet Road. The 3-day festival will feature some of the country's top most artistes performing, such as Dr. Ananda Shankar Jayant, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Sultan Khan, Pt. Birju Maharaj and Jagjit Singh.

Dr. Ananda Shankar Jayant and her troupe of disciples will perform the dance ballet Dancing Tales... Panchatantra, as part of the inaugural ceremony. The ballet brings alive some of the most well-known tales from the Panchatantra. The production showcases the morals, values and humor of the stories in a dance-theater format, where through parable and allegory, the ballet talks about friendship, bravery, quick-wittedness, foolishness, vile and guile, leadership and freedom.

In this lyric-free production laced with humor and wit, the conventional and the contemporary meet and disperse in kaleidoscopic designs combined with a rich movement vocabulary and imagery. In addition to Dr. Ananda Shankar, Pratish, Sibi, Venugopal, Poornima, Shruthi, Lavanya, Deepika, Radhika, Anisha, Chelna and little Jahnavi will take part in the ballet.

A choreographer who needs no introduction, Jayant has directed and presented 6 path-breaking dance ballets including Sri Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum, Buddham Saranam Gachchami, Dancing Tales... Panchatantra, and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. She graduated in Bharatanatyam from the world renowned Kalakshetra, and learnt Kuchipudi from Pasumarti Ramalinga Sastry. She is a top-graded artiste of Doordarshan and an established artiste of the ICCR, featuring in many dance festivals in India and abroad.

Among her innumerable awards, the prestigious Kalaimamani award of the Tamil Nadu government in Nov 2003 for her contributions as a Bharatanatyam dancer, the Nritya Choodamani from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in Dec 2006 and the Padmasri in March 2007 rank foremost. She is the director and architect of the famous dance academy Shankarananda Kalakshetra.

The entry is by tickets of Rs. 1,000 / Rs. 500 / Rs. 250 per head per day. Please contact Praveen at 98485-35654 for ticket bookings and further details.