Anubhava Mantapa

Choreographer

Guru Prasanna Kasthuri

There are some things in classical dance and music difficult to interpret for a commoner and to a scholar. One needs knowledge, appreciation, understanding; a good environment and support to make the arts understood and enjoyed. Only a few creative, hard-working, intellectual, community oriented persons can visualize such reality. It is one thing to become an artist and other thing to build a performing art community. Here is where, Guru Prasanna Kasthuri shines high on his life’s contribution. He is a man with vision for a great artistic community for Indian performing arts at his birth country (India) and his current residence (USA). His service to performing arts in India and in USA is worth praising, as it has been both rewarding to Midwest-USA community and also to entire Indian classical dance & music fraternity of USA, India, Canada, and Europe.

Coming from a middle class family from Bengaluru, he has travelled world-wide giving performances in prestigious places such as Tropical Institute of Amsterdam (1991), Soliel D’or in Paris(1991, 93), Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan of London (1993) and Chitralekha Dance Company in Manchester, United Kingdom (90); Pittsburgh Temple, USA (1995); Asian Festival Columbus, Ohio, USA (1995, 2005, 2015); AKKA Sammelana, USA (2008, 2010, 2012); FeTna – World Tamil Conference (2014); Midwest Bengali Sammelan (2002); Oklahoma International Tap Festival (2009); Idea Dance teachers conference (2007); TANA – World Telugu Conference (2008), Kaivaara Kannada Sahitya Sammelana (1993), Nritya Navaratri (1988), Chennai Hamsadhwani festival (2006) and many more.

Prasanna’s vision is to preserve and promote Indian performing arts through performances, arts administration and a strategic management of long term event planning. In his four decades of dance life, he has achieved many milestones. After his arangetram in 1984, Vidwat exams in 1985, he established Shanthala Arts Academy in Bangalore, India in 1985. He conducted classical dance festivals in rural Karnataka – such as Nandi Grama (1994); Vijayapura (1988); Kanakapura (1987) and in Bengaluru (1987). He presented classic pieces such as “Kaavya Kinkini” (1988 - supported by Dr. Mallepuram G Venkatesh); “Shringara Naayakaru” – (1994 - Shataavadaani Ganesh), Subhadra Parinaya (1991-93). He instituted “Shantala Award” – which was conferred on Vidwan B R Seshadri, Prof. US Krishnarao and Chandrabhagadevi, Dr. Maya Rao, Guru Narmada, Guru Adyar Lakshmanan, Prabhat Dwarakanath.

Prasanna moved to USA in 1994, for higher studies, while Guru Pulikeshi took over Shantala Arts Academy. Prasanna taught Bharathanatyam in Arathi School of Indian dances – where he helped productions such as “Shabari Moksha”; and directed “Silappadikkaaram”. He moved to St. Louis, Missouri state, USA in 1996 and created a production called “Jnana” for Hindu temple of St. Louis for its Kumbhabhishekam. He established Soorya Performing Arts in 2002 in St. Louis, MO to promote Indian classical dance, music and theater to a greater Midwest audience of United States of America.

Prasanna headed many great projects sponsored by the prestigious Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and Missouri Arts Council. He created some unique productions such as – “Gokula Nirgamana” – a first Indian Opera ever performed outside India. In this production, artists sang and danced simultaneously, which is a rare achievement in the field of Bharathanatyam. He collaborated with Grammy awardee - Pandit Vishwamohan Bhat to compose his innovative – “Rainbow-II” – a dance production based on famous English and American Poems. He collaborated with late Prof. Robert Reed in Oklahoma and St. Louis for Tap dance and Kathak collaboration. In 2010, he presented, “Zero” – a dance drama on the life of Indian Mathematician Aryabhata. In 2012 he presented – Mruchchakatika – a 2^nd Century Sanskrit drama in dance across USA. In 2015, he presented “Chittaara” (Based on Maasthi Venkatesha Iyengar’s stories) – a dance, drama, musical for Kannada Sahitya Ranga Conference in St. Louis. He has performed extensively across USA (New York, New jersey, Washington DC, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Cincinnati, Detroit and many more places), Canada, and Europe. He has so far created 22 major works, since 1987.

Apart from a devoted performer, Prasanna Kasthuri also organizes Indian performing events to provide platforms to his peers and to upcoming artists. He believes a good community is the one where art and artists flourish. Under his leadership, St. Louis witnessed the very first Indian Drama Festival – “Nataka 2007” and the very first Indian Classical Dance Festival - “St. Louis Indian Dance Festival” in 2008 and later in 2010, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. His organizing ability has provided performing opportunities to more than 1000 artists. He instituted “LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS” conferred to distinguished artists such as Guru Hema Rajagopalan, Guru Mythili Kumar, Guru Kamala Lakshman and Guru Viji Prakash.

Guru Prasanna’s other achievements such as 24-hour non-stop performance (1986), a rank in Vidwat Certificate (an Equivalent to Masters in dance) (1985), and a Masters Degree in Information technology (1996) always shine high in his resume. Apart from these he has trained thousands of students in India, Europe and USA. More than 30 students have performed arangetrams under his guidance.

Prasanna owes his learning to blessings of his Gurus Smt. Maya Rao (Kathak), Smt. Lalitha Srinivasan, Smt. Narmada (Bharathanatyam), Guru Nagamani Srinath (Carnatic Music). Along with these teachers, he salutes the giants of Indian Performing arts such as Pandit Birju Maharajji, Ustad Imrath Khan Saab, Guru Mahalingam Pillai, Guru Adyar Lakshmanan, Guru Chitra Visweswaran, Guru Pandanallur Gopalakrishna, Guru Dhananjayans and others, who blessed him through their workshops and residencies. Prasanna is also a good singer and he composes his own music to his productions. He and his wife, Seema Kasthuri, have ventured into creative music through their new music band – “Blue Chakra Band”. Prasanna is awarded 2016-Artist Support Grant from Regional Arts Commission for further studies in Classical Dances in India. He was recently honored with “Nritya Bharatha” award in “National Festival of Indian Classical Dances” in Bengaluru, India in December 2015, by Natyantharanga.

Life could turn out to be undefinable, although we have definable parameters. We might be thinking to attain a utopian peace and an unrivalled eternal happiness, through these parameters and boundaries. Many times these parameters and guidelines will be insufficient and one starts feeling the need of a teacher or a source of intellect. We seek guidance from those who are enlightened thinkers, those who created amazing works of life, which shows us the path to true happiness. Sharanas, the thinkers, thought and taught many silver lining principles to cross the dark clouds of ignorance. Just like the juice in a fruit, fragrance in a flower, energy in ocean waves; these spiritual guides found the value of spiritual energy in human life. Great sharanas opened path breaking truths through their immortal vachanas, which are relevant to today's modern world. It is said, all these Sharanas or Saints came together to a congregation of intellect called Anubhava Mantapa, the hall of experience and discussed. They churned the experience to bring out the truth. Through these brain sharing activities, they found the everlasting principles for eternal happiness. Following such principles, will give any one the experience of true life; and a life of a true sharana as it was practiced during the days of Anubhava Mantapa in 12th century.

Soorya Dance Company of St. Louis, Missouri, is making a brave attempt to build the bridge between ancient thoughts of Vachanas; to present life situation. With a fickle human mind the basic instincts remains ever challenging.

Vachanas shed the light of knowledge to attain a fulfilled life.

Synopsis

Samsaara
Material world is locking the soul and mind. Body is running behind pleasure. Although most of the world is suffering, the body still needs the pleasure

Bhaktha Sthala
World is full of conflicts. People with closed minds are searching for god in temples, mosques and churches and fighting for land. Rivers are not bound by lands, oceans are not bound by lands, a sharana has no boundary for his worship.

Nisarga
Nature waits for no one. It is gods creation. His omnipresence makes the cycle of life run smoothly. Wise sharana vachanas discover the immense truth of co-existance of nature and man.

Shoonya sampadane
Stop the illusion at the doorstep of life, stop the physical attractions at the door steps of soul, stop the mind athe doorstep of god. Understand the senses for other limbs. Understand the soul, mind, god and rise alert to reach almighty Koodala Sangama. The unknown which science is trying to explore in the galaxies starts with in our minds.

Agnana mattu Maaye
Illusion shadows body. Mind shadows the life. Memory shadows mind. The complete civilization followed the illusion – Maaye will never achieve bliss of grace of almighty. Performing penance in the forest will not get rid of dark shadow of ignorance. Agnana(ignorance) and maaye(illusion) runs the mind behind acquiring material wealth in immoral and unethical ways

Ananda Sharana
A happy Sharana stays away from praise, faces criticism stands firm.
Makes a difference between visible and invisibles. The truthful, pious sharana is an eternal happy person. All the vachanas used in this production are from Basavanna, Allama Prabhu, Ambigara Chowdiaha and many others.

Music Director

Tirumale Srinivasan

The music direction for Anubhava Mantapa is by Tirumale Srinivasan (popularly known as Chami ). Chami is the elder son of Tirumale Sri Rangachar, who is the leading proponent of Kannada style of performing arts. Chami obtained carnatic music training from his mother T Vaidehi. He obtained Master's degree with a Gold medal from Bangalore University in Carnatic Music.

Chami is one of the main sought after music directore for Soorya Dance Company. In the recent history, he has scored music for Anubhava Mantapa, Jnana, Shrungara Nayakaru, Nireeksha, Bahulya.
Tirumale Srinivas is an approved artiste of AIR and has served in Kendriya Vidyalaya for 20 years. He has performed at many eminent organisations like Bangalore Gayana Samaja, Krishna Sangeetha Sabha, Gana Kala Parishat, Percussive Art Centre, ISKCON, Tirumala TTD, and many other places like Chennai, Bombay, Bhopal, Delhi, etc.

Tirumale Srinivas has accompanied on Mridangam with many senior vocalists like Vid. R K Srikantan, Doreswamy Iyengar, Anoor Ramakrishna, A Veerabhadriah, Sri Vidya Bhushana, Jamboo Kannan, T Sisters, etc. An active artiste member of Laya Lahari, a percussion ensemble of Ayyanar College of Music, Bangalore.

Apart from being a well known vocalist and Mridangist, he is also a sought-after music composer. Many eminent singers like S Janaki, S P Balasubramaniam, Rajkumar Bharati, P B Srinivas, Vani Jayaram, B R Chaya, B K Sumitra, Kasturi Shankar and others have rendered their voice to his compositions.

Chami, as he known, has scored music to more than 200 music CDs Cassettees and his compositions to Bharathanatyam are very popular. He initially worked in Central school teaching music for more than 20 years. He took volunteer retirement so he can serve the music field better. He was invited by ICCR as faculty to Mauritius to teach NRIs and Foreign students of the Isalnd. He has taken teams of musicians to different parts of India. He was specially invited to direct music in 2014 AKKA. He has created a melodious group of singers presenting Karnataka's treasure of music such as Devaranaama vachanas. Being a creative person, he has created innumerable compositions.

Choreographer

Synopsis

Music Director