Bharatanatyam By Arza Varshini: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR BHARATANATYAM BY ARZA VARSHINI

At 12, Arza's perhaps too young to be called youth just yet. But nobody seems to remember she's just a child anyway - they're too busy either analyzing her or competing with her.

Kalasagaram, a cultural association based in Secunderabad, is organizing a Youth Festival of Dance on 9th, 10th & 11th March at the Keyes Girls High School in Secunderabad. Today, the final day, Arza Varshini will perform Bharatanatyam. The supporting orchestra for the recital is Manjula Ramaswamy with the nattuvangam, Voleti Saishivani with the vocals, K Rajagopalacharya on the mridangam, T Subbalakshmi on the violin, R P Raju on the flute, Srikanth with special effects, and Amarendra Reddy with make-up. The choreography and direction is by V S Ramaswamy, and the music direction is by Prema Ramamurthy.

Arza Varshini, who is just 12 years old, is a young bundle of multi-faceted talent, and a disciple of Manjula Ramaswamy and Prema Ramamurthy. She is a creative dancer in Bharatanatyam and folk, a child anchor in ETV2, a child movie star in Telugu movies, and has many other achievements to her credit.

Though very young, she has performed in many places like Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi. She has several awards in her kitty since 2000, such as Best Kid Dancer from Rhythm Dance Institute, Vijayawada, in 2000; Most Creative Kid Dancer from Ramoji Film City in 2001; Ugadi Puraskar at Delhi in 2002; Ugadi Puraskar from Jawahar Bal Bhavan, Hyderabad, in 2004; CCRT Scholarship from Central Government in 2005; 1st prize in the Bharatanatyam competitions conducted by Kalasagaram in 2006; and the Nandi award for Best Child Artiste from the Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2006.

She has been selected for the Balasree Award by the Central Government, which will be presented to her by the President of India in March 2007. She has done the main role in a children's film Gulabeelu, which has been selected for the International Film Festival.

Kalasagaram is a South-Indian cultural association situated in the East Nehru Nagar of East Marredpally, and has been organising Carnatic music concerts for more than 35 years. The concerts are always held in the Keyes High School campus at the open-air theater. The singers are generally from outside Hyderabad, usually amateurs and upcoming artistes, and quite competent. Kalasagaram also occasionally stages South-Indian classical dances and Tamil plays.

Please contact Rajagopalan of Kalasagaram at 2773-1775 for further details.